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Old 01-14-2011, 09:53 PM   #8
zartemis
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Posts: 283
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Device: Kindle3, Kindle2, Nook, NookColor
Quote:
Originally Posted by ffred View Post
Anyone here using Appbrain? (www.appbrain.com). It has the apps I want on its site, and complete instructions for downloading, but I just can't seem to make it work. I've been at it for four hours. Almost all the apps have barcode symbols, but there's directions for sideloading them.
ffred
Appbrain doesn't actually install apps itself, it's a front-end to the official market app on your NookColor.

The way to make it work is to first use the regular android Market and install the appbrain app on your NookColor. Then you launch the app on your device and authorize it to use your Google sign in account (this is safe, they use OAUTH, which means that appbrain never gets your Google password). Then you can log in via the web at appbrain.com and sign in with your google account on your PC, select apps in the web interface and click 'install'. This doesn't actually install them (unless you use the web installer that SCION mentioned). What it does do is add it to your appbrain sync list. Then you go back to your Nook, launch the appbrain app, choose "manage and sync" and "sync with AppBrain". It will have a handy list of apps you tagged online and from there you can tap them, go to the market and install them through the market.

It sounds round-a-bout, but it's actually very convenient. If you are surfing on your PC you can just tag apps that look interesting. They also let you keep and make lists of apps -- say you want to send a list of all your apps to your friends, (I once used it when I filed a bug report with a developer and he wanted to know what else I ran on my device -- to find a conflicting program -- and we found one, BTW) or maybe you want to keep a list online of your very favorite apps, or apps you may want to try in the future but don't want to worry about now -- all of that is super easy via appbrain.com. And they maintain lists of popular apps and you can easily filter by category and paid/free. I find its search function to be much better than the market app's search function. All-in-all, it's very handy.

I don't personally use the web-installer add-on, I like to control when things are downloaded to my device and make final install decisions one by one (as an example -- what if there was an update to a program between when you tagged it for download and when your device connected to the internet and this update was a bad one. You wouldn't know and it would be auto-installed. If you have to do it manually, you can and should do a quick doublecheck of comments before installing to make sure everything still seems kosher).
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