Friday, January 14, 2011

How to install new apps on your Pandigital Novel - “the Moderate Guides”

Found updating the official firmware too easy? Well, now your fun can really begin! The Moderate Guides from the Slatedroid forums explains how to install new Android apps on your Pandigital Novel.

MODERATE GUIDES
Easiest is this, but i ended up using Google experience and used pandahome as launcher (homescreen)
Installing Volume Key hack, Alternate Launcher (Homescreen) credit goes to nate, meth,
Links:
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Hack-the-Novel1.zip - ADB, VolKey Mods & apk files
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/How-to-Hack-the-Novel2.rtf - Complete guide
Android Files - Folder Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage - Box with apks you can install
I suggest using a WinXP box. Thats my "Dev" box. It's stable and much less complicated than later OS's (to include OSX)
Without any PD Novel drivers on you Windows Box, unzip all the files (with directory intact) to a folder in your local drive (I used C:\Novel)
Without an SD card installed, plug your Novel to your Windows Box (via usb cable, any other means i.e sticking your Novel in the floppy drive might destroy you stuff)
It should ask you to install drivers, there is an option to browse a folder in you local drive. Point it to the folder you unzipped the files to.
If all goes well and it installed correctly, proceed on. If not, you need to uninstall the previous drivers to allow ADB (Android Dev Drivers, Shell, Etc) to run. Who's still having problems with ADB (connecting to the device)?) This is to troubleshoot getting the ADB to work.
Now that you have the Novel connected, navigate to the folder you created earlier (for the sake of noobness, we will refer to it as ADB folder)
Lets do the VolKey Mod so you have a physical Back Button and Menu Button. Double click the file called Install Volume Buttons Hack. Warnings are gonna show, just let it run. If you didnt see success, then go back to start.
Do the same for Install Panda Home.
You may restart your Novel by clicking Reboot the Novel file OR install some apk (or android applications).
The best way I've done this is to right click the file named Install Panda Home, and select copy. Paste it in the same directory where everything is located at. You should have a file name "Copy of Install Panda Home". Select it, press F2 to rename it to Install Apps and right click and select edit. It will ask you if you want to run it blah blah blah. Just click run so you can edit it.
It should say something like:
adb install pandahome_v1.90.apk
pause
Now you can edit it to install other apps
the format is simple. ADB install [filename that ends with .apk]
Here's one i did to install Kindle & Aldiko

Code: [Select]


adb install com.amazon.kindle.apk
adb install aldiko.apk
pause

just keep replacing/adding new lines to install more. or you can do the market hack (advance section)
I got apps from both:
Android Files - Folder Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage - Shared Box of apks
Pandigital Ultimate Apps - Downloads - SlateDroid - SlateDroid's "Ultimate" zip of apps
Installing Google Experience credit to clockworx
Original thread: Google Experience Alpha (nearly everything but Market :( )
Link to files: goog_exp_alpha_1.zip
(Copied verbatim)
Unzip the zip file into the directory with your adb.exe. (You must have adb working to apply this). This means there should be a "install_google_experience_v1.bat" file in the same directory as adb.exe, as well as a "gev1" subdirectory below it.
With your tablet on, connect your tablet via USB. Once it is connected, run the bat file. The software will install followed by a reboot. After the reboot, I suggest unplugging the USB (to avoid an annoying message later), and waiting for it to "calm down" before you try to use it, as the tablet will have to rebuild a whole bunch of cache files. Just leave it alone for 10 minutes after the reboot before trying to use it.
When you come back, the lock screen will be up (I think the lock screen is due to installing the google stuff, though I'm not 100% sure). Press Menu/Vol Up to unlock. (If you didn't unplugg the USB after the reboot, press "Back"/Vol Down to get past the USB message. Be warned I've seen the "notification audio" for USB connected cause acore to crash when it happens so early in the boot process, causing a very annoying error loop where you basically just have to power down and reboot. So just remove the USB cable when booting.)
1) Choose "Home" as your Home Screen (and you probably want to click the checkbox to set it as default, unless you plan on trying a bunch of other ones. There's text there telling you where you can change it later if you change your mind)
2) From the home screen, press "Menu"/Vol Up to bring up the menu, and go to Settings.
3) Go to "Wireless & Networks", click the checkbox to turn on Wifi, give it a second or two (or ten), and then click "Wifi Settings". After a few seconds, a list of networks should show automatically. Set up your network.
4) If you want to have "Location Awareness" via Wifi, keep going here. Otherwise, skip to step 7.
5) Once your Wifi is set up, click Back/Vol Down until you are back to the main Setting screen. Go into "Location and Security", and check "Use Wireless networks". (You can uncheck GPS, I have no idea if it makes a difference....probably not)
6) Go back to Settings, and go to "Privacy". Ensure that "Use My Location" is checked. Go back to Settings.
7) From the Settings Screen, go to "Accounts and Sync". Click "Add Account" and choose Google (unless you're a rockstar and testing Corporate for me). Continue to through the wizard to set up your account by entering your info.
8) Once you sign in, it will take you back to the main "Account" screen. You can tweak the Sync settings there if you want to, or just leave them as "Automatic".
9) Go play! Your contacts and calendar should be populated from Google, and your Gmail should be working. If you open Maps, it should find your location if you enabled it. I would also suggest the "News and Weather" App and Widget, as they both look great on this device format.
How to install .apk on a mac creds goes to sharpfork2 and mrchet
Protip: You don't need drivers for mac
1. instal the sdk for mac
2. launch terminal
3. if you are not sure how to launch adb from the terminal, drag the app on the terminal window and it will show the path
4. use that path + any adb commands you want
5. if you want the path to your apk on the mac to instal it, drag it on the window
That's essentially it. It's easier to install on the mac since there are no driver woes. Just download the sdk, uncompress and connect the PDN via USB. You can then cd to the sdk tools directory and run this from the command prompt in terminal:
./adb install (nameofapk).apk
example:
./adb install YouTube.apk
This assumes you put the apk in the same tools directory. If you are storing your apks somewhere else then use:
./adb install pathWhereApkFilesare/(nameofapk).apk
example:
./adb instasll home/joeblow/android/apks/YouTube.apk
You can also add the tools directory to your path. Then you could run adb from anywhere and not have to prepend ./
android mac SDK here:
Android SDK | Android Developers

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