Android, Windows

How to Install Android Apps on Acer Aspire One D255

I recently purchased an Acer Aspire One D255 Windows 7 Netbook which is a nice Dual Core machine.

The reasons for my purchase were the Dual Core Intel Atom processor and the fast DDR3 ram to keep things speedy. The main selling point was the dual operating system that is preloaded on the Netbook.

The ability to boot to Android 2.1 or to Windows 7 is a great feature especially for a Web Designer like myself who is starting to look at Mobile Web Development.

After my initial purchase I had an attempt to install applications on the Android platform. Due to the settings in place on the install and the netbook not being recognized as a Android Mobile Device, there is no access to the Google Android Marketplace. I did a little research and found lots of other users with this issue, but no solutions on the forums that they were posted on.

The solution that I have found to this issue is to find and install a third party Application Installer and install applications directly from .apk files found online. The alternative is to install a third party marketplace app such as SlideMe.

How to Install SlideMe:

  1. Go to: http://slideme.org and click the download link.
  2. Save the SlideMe .apk file to your computers hard drive.
  3. The next stage is to copy the file to the Android Downloads folder, on my Acer Netbook this is located in My Computer -> D:Downloads.
  4. Once the file is copied over, reboot the Netbook and into Android OS 2.1.
  5. Open the Android menu and click the settings application. Now select ‘Applications’ option on the menu and then select the tick box for ‘Unknown Sources’.
  6. Press the escape key twice to escape back to the menu screen. Now select the File Manager application.
  7. Click the ‘Downloads’ folder where the .apk file has been copied to.
  8. Click the SlideMe application file to start the installation process. The option to install will be displayed at the bottom of the screen, click this to start.
  9. Once the installation is complete, either click open or escape to the menu and select the SlideMe applications.

The SlideMe application is now installed and can be used to download and install applications. Please be aware that not all applications will be available as this is a third party Android Marketplace. Also be aware that some applications are not fully compatible with Android 2.1 OS or with the installation on the Acer Netbook.

The alternative method s to simply download the .apk application files, copy them to your Android folder and install them using an installer package or the default installer. This process is described in the guide above. You can download lots of applications from sites such as: http://www.freewarelovers.com/android. Please be aware that links are supplied as reference and used at your own risk.


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