sideload
Latest
Windows Phone 7 gets user-friendly hack for bypassing the Marketplace, loading your own apps
Now that you've got your Windows Phone 7 device splayed open for USB mass storage use, why not make it friendly to non-Marketplace apps, too? Microsoft's been insistent so far about keeping sideloaded apps out of the equation unless you're a developer, but a new tool called ChevronWP7 -- compatible with Windows XP SP2 and up -- will "unlock" your little beast so that you can install whatever you like without going through the store. Presumably, this'll come in handy for installing stuff Microsoft would never dream of approving -- and it's a whole lot less hacky than an iPhone jailbreak from the looks of it. Have fun and stay safe out there, folks. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
New 'licensing service' replacing existing copy protection method in Android Market
Copy protection has always been a concern in the Android Market, primarily because applications can be sideloaded onto phones without a root or other modification from the end user. In a brief announcement made today, Eric Chu has made clear that a new method for protecting the work of paid app creators will be implemented long-term, with the plan being to "replace the current Android Market copy-protection mechanism over the next few months." This new "licensing service" is available now for those that want in, providing developers with a secure mechanism that can ping a Market License Server upon launch in order to see if a particular app was indeed purchased legitimately. It's hard to say how exactly this will affect usability (specifically in offline scenarios), but it's certainly an interesting twist to the whole situation. Expect to hear lots of growling on both sides as more and more apps opt to take advantage. [Thanks, Jonathan]
Confirmed: HTC Sync lets tethered AT&T Aria sideload apps
Looks like more than HTC's description was erroneous yesterday afternoon -- we've just confirmed that the HTC Sync desktop client for the AT&T Aria allows users to install third-party apps on non-rooted devices, just as promised. We ran some quick tests, and while it doesn't actually enable anything on the handset end, it most certainly does allow those of you with Windows PCs (or VMware) to sideload APKs like Swype over USB with a simple drag-and-drop maneuver. Given how quickly the company sought to correct our original post on the subject, we'd expect HTC will be issuing a rather different version of the software soon, so hit up that source link, pound in your serial number, grab the EXE, and get while the getting's good. [Thanks, Dylan]
SNES Mario Kart power slides onto (non-jailbroken) iPad? (Update)
You're looking at Super Mario Kart, running on the Apple iPad, courtesy of emulation guru ZodTTD. When do you get to play it, faithful reader? Hard to tell. If, say, the iPad had already been jailbroken, all you'd need to do is wait for a suitably safe jailbreak method, download RockApp or Cydia, grab the snes4iphone emulator you see running above, and fire up the ROM. However, the intriguing thing about the above video is not that it's running an SNES game -- but that ZodTTD claims he compiled a special version of his snes4iphone emulator "specifically for non-jailbroken iDevices." Since Zod is almost certainly an official developer, it's possible he output the emulator as an .ipa file and is testing it on a fresh iPad using Apple developer tools, but if we're lucky, it could instead mean that someone has finally found a way to sideload apps onto a stock Apple device. Either way, peep multitouch karts sliding and shells flying on video, right after the break. Update: ZodTTD tells us that while he does have access to the jailbreak, he did have to flex developer muscle (and official dev tools) to make snes4iphone work on a non-jailbroken iPad. He says: The build of snes4iphone running on my iPad as seen in the video was actually based on an AppStore app I submitted called "snesty". Apple quickly rejected it right after pulling the NES emulator. I combined snesty with some snes4iphone features such as using the private API called CoreSurface. I used Apple developer tools and self signed it. Zod says that after Apple officially releases iPhone OS 4.0 and the existing jailbreak is distributed freely, he plans to create new versions of his emulators that run at the iPad's 1024 x 768 native resolution and support touchscreen controls, hardware keyboards and even external controllers should they come.
Music on the phone: not many do it
Even with all the music download services floating between Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and others, wireless subs just aren't downloading music very much. Only about two percent of US customers download music to their handsets over the air according to Jupiter Research. Not an OTA fan? Chew on this: only five percent of music-capable handsets get music sideloaded from nearby PCs as well. 28 million US customers will have music-capable handsets at the end of this year, while a minimal percentage will actually use that capability. Will it get better with the iPhone being sold in volume this year? We'll see.[Via mocoNews]
