Mobile Application Markets

RonaldF · #1

I see that the church releases its apps through Android Market, iTunes and other markets. Why do they not have their own market for their apps or make them available on LDS.org?

JamesAnderson · #2

Most of this is because that is how the operating system providers, Apple and Google, have set things up, this also holds true to some extent for Blackberry and others.

I've seen an Amazon setup for Android apps, but this appears also to be a partnership. There are 'alternate' app stores, but this involves 'jailbreak' matters, which often when done void the device's warranty.

RonaldF · #3

JamesAnderson wrote:Most of this is because that is how the operating system providers, Apple and Google, have set things up, this also holds true to some extent for Blackberry and others.

I've seen an Amazon setup for Android apps, but this appears also to be a partnership. There are 'alternate' app stores, but this involves 'jailbreak' matters, which often when done void the device's warranty.

Interesting. So much for open source.

aebrown · #4

ronaldf wrote:Interesting. So much for open source.

The Church does not follow an open source model for its development. And in my opinion, that's a good choice.

RonaldF · #5

aebrown wrote:The Church does not follow an open source model for its development. And in my opinion, that's a good choice.

I wasn't referring to apps with my open source comment. I'm not very knowledgeable on Android but I understand that it is based on Linux and therefore should be open source. My irritation comes from being forced to "shop" at a particular market based on the device that I am using even though the devices are all Android. That irritation increases when I want a particular app and it is not available from that device's market. Each device has it's own version of Android ( some very locked down) and also can't run all Android apps. Just a personal thing. I'm just grateful that I was able to get GL and Reveal reader to run on my Pandigital Novel and my Herotab. Their primary purpose are ebooks so I need to adjust my mindset to that.

Fantastic work that the church developers are doing.

russellhltn · #6

I had a hard time understanding what you were looking for. When people say "market" the first thing I think of is the on-device app for getting more apps.

I think what you're asking for is something like this.

As for the market in general, you could try this page. Note that you may have to change something in your settings to allow loading from a web page.

RonaldF · #7

RussellHltn wrote:I had a hard time understanding what you were looking for. When people say "market" the first thing I think of is the on-device app for getting more apps.

I think what you're asking for is something like this.

As for the market in general, you could try this page. Note that you may have to change something in your settings to allow loading from a web page.

Yes, thank you. This Android stuff is all new to me. Side loading is how I got GL to work on the Novel. I didn't realize the on-board market is different from the on-line market. I think that I will still have some problems with certain apps not being able to run under different versions of Android. The on-board market must filter for compatibility for the device.

engineereeyore · #8

ronaldf wrote:Interesting. So much for open source.

The app stores and open source really have little to do with one another. Yes, Android is mostly open source. However, just because an application runs on an open source operating system does not force the application to be open source. It simply restricts what native libraries can be used by the application. If the application uses it's own C libraries, it is under no obligation to release its source code, even if it runs on an open source OS.

You are welcome to change to an un-official Android market, but this is such a huge security risk that it's not even funny. There are ways to pull the application off a phone and recompile it for a different platform, but it's certainly not an easy, straight-forward process for someone who is not familiar with compiling linux code.

Again, this is not a violation of open source licensing in any way. App developers are only required to release elements of their application that use open source libraries. Any proprietary code that does not make use of such libraries does not fall under the requirements of the GPL.

RonaldF · #9

engineereeyore wrote:The app stores and open source really have little to do with one another. Yes, Android is mostly open source. However, just because an application runs on an open source operating system does not force the application to be open source. It simply restricts what native libraries can be used by the application. If the application uses it's own C libraries, it is under no obligation to release its source code, even if it runs on an open source OS.

You are welcome to change to an un-official Android market, but this is such a huge security risk that it's not even funny. There are ways to pull the application off a phone and recompile it for a different platform, but it's certainly not an easy, straight-forward process for someone who is not familiar with compiling linux code.

Again, this is not a violation of open source licensing in any way. App developers are only required to release elements of their application that use open source libraries. Any proprietary code that does not make use of such libraries does not fall under the requirements of the GPL.

I guess I didn't express myself correctly. My concern was not about the apps being open source. It is more towards the overall Android OS - Tablet/phone market and the apps availability. Let me see if I can express it better. If I am running windows on my computer, and I want a particular program, I can go to a store and buy it. If that store does not have it, I can just go to another store. It will still run on my computer. My experience so far with my tablets is that I have to "shop" at that devices market. If that market doesn't have the app, I have to see if I can find the .apk file somewhere else and "side load" it. Even though it was written for Android, it still may not run on my tablet with its adaptation of Android. I realize that Android is evolving rapidly and that alone will cause problems with app compatibility. I often find an app for one tablet and would like to have it on the other but it is not available. It just causes me some frustration but I can live with it.

Again, I am grateful that I was able to get Gospel Library and Reveal Reader running on my tablets. They provide me with more than enough reference material. Thank you to the developers.

russellhltn · #10

Looking for something else, I found this: mobile.lds.org. Nicer then hunting though the Wiki.