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Official statement from Research In Motion regarding the leaked Android App Player for the BlackBerry PlayBook

by Bla1ze on 21 Jul 2011 08:08 PM
53
 

Although the Android App Player for the BlackBerry PlayBook has been downloaded a multitude of times already, we just received an official statement from Research In Motion regarding the leak, it's stability and when we can expect an official version to be released.

"An older version of the Android App Player beta software for the BlackBerry PlayBook was inadvertently posted and has since been removed. We recommend that users refrain from downloading and installing this software since it is outdated and non-functional in many respects. The official beta release of the Android App Player for the BlackBerry PlayBook is on track for release later this summer."

We do of course agree with RIM here -- the Android App Player is buggy at this point and it's not exactly for the faint of heart. The leak, shouldn't be loaded on on your PlayBook without the understanding of the fact you could seriously mess things up. That said; hopefully RIM will see how much interest this peaked among BlackBerry PlayBook users and drop the Android App Player for us all very soon.

Filed Under: News & Rumors; Tags: BlackBerry Playbook, RIM
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53 Comments

Posted by jaiello1986 Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

"Later this summer" cant come soon enough!

 
 
Posted by bigtime2 Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

Everything that RIM promises is later this summer.

 
 
Posted by 312 Friday, Jul 22, 2011 308 days ago

They say it so much they should trademark it and make it their official slogan.

"Research: In motion, later this summer."

 
 
Posted by Siiid Friday, Jul 22, 2011 308 days ago

that really made me laugh

 
 
Posted by Mess Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

did anyone else notice in the statement by RIM they said "The official BETA release of the Android App Player" will be released later this summer. does that mean they will release a Beta android player? and not the final build?

 
 
Posted by djghettoredneck Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

agreed. Still loving it.

 
 
Posted by jfs101 Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

This is one leak that I would stay away from like the black plague...

 
 
Posted by Rubens Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

+1 x 1,000,000 + infinity * 999 ^2 + a googol (only fitting!)

And the same vote to installing the "official" release when it comes out!

 
 
Posted by haimez Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

"Later this summer" again, huh?

 
 
Posted by DXBLouie Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

"later this summer".. yeah screw that.. and until then, i'm sticking to my "outdated and non-functional in many respects" leaked android player, thank you very much!

 
 
Posted by buritoslicer Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

figures, I doubt it will stop the people from using it... lol

 
 
Posted by SlickBassPlaya Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

I can't get the Android keyboard working. Everything is check-marked for it to work. I guess that that is one of the non-functional features on the Player?

 
 
Posted by The_Adventist Friday, Jul 22, 2011 308 days ago

You have to reboot the PlayBook to get the keyboard up.

Posted using the Android browser on the PlayBook.

 
 
Posted by NightSlayer Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

RIM doesn't expect anyone to stop using it.

This is just to pre-empt the clearly organized Apple trolls who will, of course, begin immediately posting message that start with "I'm not an Apple fan, but....."

 
 
Posted by Ebscer Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

late summer beta? I thought it was supposed to be summer release...

 
 
Posted by BlackScorpion3 Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

Late summer is still summer, isn't it?

 
 
Posted by skyboxer Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

But beta isn't release

 
 
Posted by eKafara Friday, Jul 22, 2011 308 days ago

What they are meaning is that its supposed to be a full release in summer not a beta release. (I think :) )

 
 
Posted by Just Me Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

Anyone else think this was a well executed PR stunt? Leaking an early version of a Android app player is just to whip up some excitement about the BB platform again. The vapourware is starting to solidify.

 
 
Posted by 2001bmw330xi Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

couldn't agree more. seems intentional - either to keep buzz going (esp with new govt playbook approval) and/or to have a bunch of people test it and report the problems on here for them to fix! After all - official statements telling the crackberry community to NOT do something almost always results in increased frequency of that action!

 
 
Posted by jamesbyjr Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

2001bmw330xi, I agree with you 100%... It is just like putting candy in front of a child and telling it not to eat the candy... I want the Android. I am tempted to download this version.... RIM stop teasing us... shoot!!! Whenever we get the Android player and some major apps, it is going to seem as if we have a brand new tablet... Then RIM should have a rerelease of the of the Playbook...

 
 
Posted by conheo11 Friday, Jul 22, 2011 308 days ago

They have official statements for the Android Player leak and not other significant problems posted in the forums. Sheshhhhh! So selective.

 
 
Posted by AmericanJoe76 Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

I'm not an Apple fan, but it's "piqued" and not "peaked".

 
 
Posted by EveryApp Mobile Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

........Lame

 
 
Posted by newportironman Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

I had a flawless install and have done 2 restarts. I can't get the Android keyboard to come up either even though all the setting seem correct to me. Is there a trick. A very tiny house (home) looking icon shows up next to the field I want to enter text into.

 
 
Posted by newportironman Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

never mind. I turned off some Japanese language options that keep coming back in the keyboard settings area, then set keyboard to "simple" then tried again. I don't think I actually changed anything as they all went back to default but it "jogged" the Android keyboard into working...

 
 
Posted by MADBRADNYC Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

At least with this inadvertent leak I can see there is actually work being done that maybe we can't always see outright.

Keep on, Keepin' on!

 
 
Posted by Jimcmf Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

Wow. This is HUGE. I can wait another month or so.

It looks to me like there is going to be a HUGE lineup of news coming from RIM starting later next month.

Why did the US government give the ok for the FBI to use the PlayBook when Canada is SLOW to respond and do the same thing?

WAKE UP Mr. Canadian government. Don't you care about the security of Canadian citizens? Do you want us all to die on the account of you allowing non secure tablets or what?
Where is the compassion?
Is this how you treat your people?
Do you not know what security is?
These PlayBooks should be the ONLY tablet ( and that goes for BlackBerrys Phones as well) permitted to be used by any government official. If a government employee is using anything else, THEY MUST BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY.!

 
 
Posted by lyricidal Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

The leak rocks! Great to see that it works with quite a few apps off the bat
not the best obviously, but a good start for sure
I will definitely be keeping it til official comes 'round

 
 
Posted by fgarat Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

the build date of this android player is 2011.07.19, so it does not seems an "older version" :(

 
 
Posted by gord888 Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

It may have been a feature build that hasn't yet been merged into the main trunk.

i.e. the build that was leaked may have been branched off ages go to develop/test a specific feature, and doesn't yet contain all the features that the final product will have.

 
 
Posted by alegs Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

I guess technically 2 days can be considered "older" but you are right RIM makes it sound like it is weeks/months old.

 
 
Posted by MADBRADNYC Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

Please read Gord888's post directly before yours...

Someone could have easily made the most minute of changes 2 days ago and changed the production date. It done all the time. It is probably months old. Programming this type of applications takes many months to properly accomplish.

 
 
Posted by asherwiin Friday, Jul 22, 2011 308 days ago

could be a recent compike of an old code set...

 
 
Posted by Jet300 Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

LOL ... How fitting that an Android emulator gets the Crackberry community all up in a frenzy. Makes sense though. Nothing interesting has come from Waterloo in over a year. Tablet market share results just came out and the Playbook came in 4TH behind iOS, Android, and WINDOWS 7. Market share for the QNX wonder is a whopping 3.3%. SMH at you RIM. What a travesty. Very sad. I used to love my Blackberry. :(

I bought a used iPad at a steal from a co-worker when he bought is shiny new Playbook. I even helped him bridge it to his Torch when AT&T would not. Three weeks later I go into work and he has a shiny new iPad 2 on his desk. The reason .... "I missed the iPad. Its screen was nicer and there were so many apps. Its gonna take Blackberry forever to catch up." Sad that RIM needs Android to have any shot at all.

 
 
Posted by def1014 Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

I always thought the android apps would run in seamless mode, much like windows xp mode apps in win 7. If it wont be using the PB keyboard, can they at least make modifications to the android one to fool us into thinking we are? Don't get me wrong, anything is better than nothing at this point. It just seems like it would make for a better user experience.

 
 
Posted by skyboxer Friday, Jul 22, 2011 308 days ago

What about the many android keyboard available? Will SwiftKey work?

 
 
Posted by EchoTango Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

Yeah this looks really fishy to me as well. Who would leak a major piece of functionality by mistake, it just doesn't make any sense. The quality of the utility is really poor and is clearly "alpha" code.

I certainly hope RIM is more professional than this and is not doing this type of activity out of desperation.

 
 
Posted by Luan Ngo Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

Wouldn't RIM need to pay royalties for embedding the Android player in the Playbook? I'd be fairly concerned about the legal ramifications right now...

 
 
Posted by qrescue Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

Is free. That's why so many phone manufactures use it.

 
 
Posted by HofstraJet Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

If they were going to leak a beta, why leak something that clearly doesn't work? I don't see this as intentional.

 
 
Posted by jonty12 Thursday, Jul 21, 2011 308 days ago

... It just needs A LOT of polish. I'm currently running Pandora, Kindle, OfficePro, and gmail (not at the same time obviously), and they all work fine.

RIM needs to make the interface consistent and allow apps to launch from the PB environment, rather than from within the Android Player. Gestures need to be consistent too.

 
 
Posted by BBOttawa Friday, Jul 22, 2011 308 days ago

Android is open source so anyone can use it, it's the Google App Store and Google apps like maps and docs to go that cost money to phone manufacturers. So no legal issue.

 
 
Posted by mcbart Friday, Jul 22, 2011 308 days ago

is very long this summer...

 
 
Posted by rikkim Friday, Jul 22, 2011 308 days ago

What´s going next.......................................................... iOS player accidentaly?

 
 
Posted by Maiev Friday, Jul 22, 2011 308 days ago

This is your PIM app

After 60 "business" days :D inside the android player LOLZ :D!

 
 
Posted by leozamora11 Friday, Jul 22, 2011 308 days ago

Leoncio Zamora

hey i accidently download the link without reading and it said couldnt open file by download i hope this doesnt mess things up for me in the future it said couldnt open app file what should i do i download the file from megaupload android app from n4bb

 
 
Posted by TallPaul86 Friday, Jul 22, 2011 308 days ago

Well as soon as i seen the link for this, i took the plunge and downloaded it...

It's FAR from ready (the gesture where you swipe the bottom bezel from right to left has to be near perfect otherwise it doesn't do it) however it does show promise - i sideloaded the Skype app using ADB however after trying to log in, it popped up with an error message saying it needs to re-install again so it's a good indication that this thing actually exists...

So this MAJOR update every PlayBook owner has been pining for since Day 60 after it was released in the States (I'm from the UK btw) has moved from ''Technological Myth'' to ''Yeah, it's in the works and here's the current state of it''

What we need now is ''Oh hai guys, here it is all shiny, new and fully working'' just hope that the ''later this summer'' isn't really ''Later this summer 2012'' (touch wood)

I've deliberately held off getting another tablet (iPad 2, HP TouchPad with 50GB free Box.net account, Motorola Xoom etc) just to see how the Android Player and native email/PIM works out

 
 
Posted by fdlopez2 Friday, Jul 22, 2011 308 days ago

"Later this summer"...

You mean in August? Summer is almost over, man...

And what's with this "beta" business? What happened to "Very soon after launch."?

*shrug*

 
 
Posted by Matt J Friday, Jul 22, 2011 308 days ago

Look on the bright side, you will have a PlayBook *and* an Android Tablet later this summer.

 
 
Posted by mavricxx Friday, Jul 22, 2011 307 days ago

RIM should bring out the BETA to the public for whomever wants to try and test it. This would GUARANTEE that they get it right with the publics feedback. Another thing, I am highly disappointed that they are releasing the "BETA" till "late summer". You'd think a powerful and important corporation would hire extra personnel in order to get the actual product out by summer rather than "BETA".

 
 
Posted by mavricxx Friday, Jul 22, 2011 307 days ago

RIM should bring out the BETA to the public for whomever wants to try and test it. This would GUARANTEE that they get it right with the publics feedback. Another thing, I am highly disappointed that they are releasing the "BETA" till "late summer". You'd think a powerful and important corporation would hire extra personnel in order to get the actual product out by summer rather than "BETA".

 
 
Posted by Jimcmf Sunday, Jul 24, 2011 305 days ago

I tend to agree with you that the BlackBerry phones are the best smartphones on the market.

Their PlayBook is the only tablet that the US federal government will use because it is reliable and secure. It's AWESOME. I have one, and just love it.