13 replies to this topic

[rodrigoperu]

hello guys, I've jumped over to the Android bandwagon after trying to stick with winmo and refusing to go wit iphone.  I've had a tmobile mytouch 4g for the last couple of months and finally decided to take a crash course all of last night about rooting, I got it permrooted with s-off, what a difference in the phone responsiveness.  My question now is about market apps.  There are quite a few that I want to get (free or to pay for) that the market keeps telling me I can't because my phone is not compatible.

I don't know if it matters but on the market my device is listed as an HTC Glacier (I know that's its manufacturer name) and has always been that way, even before I rooted it (temp root before, perm as of last night).

I was looking for info about this and I read that editing the build.prop file seemed to work for other people (editing the ro.product.model and ro.product.manufacturer entries did nothing) later I found that you also should edit the ro.build.fingerprint entry, but still no go with certain apps, and my phone is still listed as an HTC Glacier.  The changes have stuck, as I said my phone is perm rooted and I've triple-checked that I typed over the new info exactly as provided.  (I was trying to spoof a Nexus S device sig)

With all that being said, I tried reading more about it and decided to try Market Enabler, which I now realize is just to allow people to access a different geographical market, not for what I'm trying to do.

Is there anything that can be done?  I don't get a report of why certain apps are "not compatible" with some devices, I have an idea of why and truly I don't care for the details of it, I know it's possible compatibility/stability/blah blah blah issues, but if I buy a phone I damn well have a right to install in it whatever I want, and if it's not stable enough I'll uninstall it.  Don't get me wrong, I understand the benefits of this extra security, but those who can bypass it should be able to, we deal with the consequences either way.  I'm no expert in Android, but I know an unstable app is not going to brick the phone any less than rooting it could have if I don't do it right.

anyway, I was rambling off a little, bottom line, short of loading a custom ROM, is there any way that I can make the market believe I have a different device so I can view ALL the apps available in the market?

Thanks in advance, and to the admins if this post is in the wrong place I apologize and please move it wherever it belongs.

[plegdroid]

think it's down to the amount of available cache space why some apps will download and others won't:)

[rodrigoperu]

That's an interesting take on the issue.  But it's not about space (I think) it's just the market saying that some phones are not compatible (at least yet) with some apps.  From what I've read the developers submit their apps for revision by google, then they get approved for whatever device/firmware version they are submitted for, so all others get left out until the app is updated to *officially* support them, which is why for the longest time I couldn't get netflix on my mytouch 4g but others did with rooted phones and getting the netflix apk from somewhere else.

  And that's my question, because a lot of the info I found was about people with devices like the nook color, and they spoofed a nexus s signature and were able to see and download apps that the market didn't give them access to before.  

On my phone, if an app is not "compatible" I won't even see it when I search for it.  If I log on to the market on my computer, I can see all the apps, but if I choose one that hasn't been "approved" to work with my phone, it simply tells me that my phone is not compatible with it and won't let me even try to install it.

as an aside, I logged back into the market and now it recognizes my phone as a Nexus S, however it still won't let me install some apps, so the spoofing did work, however I guess I didn't spoof the right device...

[rodrigoperu]

screen shot  not compatible.jpg   327.89K   13 downloads

[plegdroid]

that's why iam thinking it a space issue, you can tell market you've got a specific phone, but when you try to download an app for it and it still won't, may be because that may have a bigger cache available for it,  than the one your trying to download it to, it may be cache partition incompatible, rather than phone specific incompatible, if that makes sence. the partision size may be bigger on the actual phone your telling market you've got, so it shows thinking you've got that phone, but the limitation of your actual phone won't allow it.

Edited by plegdroid, 20 November 2011 - 03:09 PM.

[rodrigoperu]

I see what you're saying, but wouldn't that be so if at least I could attempt the download?  Or does the market measure cache remotely/in the background?  If that's the case then it should report it as such, not as a device compatibility.  Which also begs the question about why some users that have reviewed some of the apps that I can't download have been able to install them on the same model I have and/or the same models I'm trying to spoof, it just doesn't make sense to me.  

In my phone I can't even select the app when I go to the market, so the market seems to reject my phone no matter what it thinks it is. I've changed the phone signature again, now to a samsung galaxy s 2, and it's the same result.  That goes along with your cache size theory.

But isn't it the case that some or most apps, AFAIK, even if compatible with say, 2.2.1, can still be incompatible with *some* devices?  I always go back to the Netflix example because it took a LONG while after it was available for other phones with 2.2.1 to work on my then-stock mytouch4g, and I know I wasn't alone, it was an issue of compatibility with that and some other specific devices, even though all of them were running the same OS version, which again makes as much sense to me as having a peeing section in a swimming pool.

This is so far the most irritating thing about android, app compatiblity fragmentation by device is ridiculous, in fact guaranteed compatibility based solely on OS version is almost non-existant.  It's ludicrous that two devices running the exact same OS, down to the same version # can't run the same exact app due to god knows what, I know there are low-end and high-end devices and apps will run better or worse depending on that, but as far as I'm concerned that is a performance issue, it shouldn't be a compatibility one.  At this point, I wish google would let consumers know whether the OS version or the hardware pick should be the deciding factors when one goes to shop for a phone, I mean, what's more frustrating than getting the latest in software and hardware (with the latest and greatest price tag) only to find out that for reasons unknown an app simply won't work?  Might as well go with apple or winmo7, at least that way I'd know that the apps will be compatible with my device no matter what.

I have to say that I'm disappointed, android OS itself isn't that impressive and it looks and feels just like a tweaked copy of iOS, which in and by itself is not a bad thing (I personally like the android look and feel a lot better and this being my first touchscreen phone I have to say I'd find it hard to go back to a touch-less device, if there are any left) but I'm looking at this from a utilitarian point of view: my previous phone, a humble samsung jack running winmo 6.1 pro was capable of acomplishing the same tasks as the mytouch4g, although it wasn't as easy on the eye or as finger-friendly. I ditched it because of app incompatibility across DIFFERENT winmo OS versions and total incompatiblity with then-upcoming winmo7, but if an app was designed for an SPECIFIC OS version, it worked, no matter who made the phone.

[rodrigoperu]

argh no replies... oh well, after hunting for days for it I got the apk for one of the apps that I'm trying to install on my phone but it doesn't recognize the data connection, whether wifi or mobile.  I suppose that's one of the reasons why the app is not "compatible" with my phone, but it's nudging me towards getting a damn jesus phone instead.  Sorry to not see any other replies, I know this is an issue that affects many (from what I've seen on various forums)

[plegdroid]

hiya this may shed some light http://android.modac...-your-device"  

[rodrigoperu]

plegdroid, on 28 November 2011 - 12:47 PM, said:

hiya this may shed some light http://android.modac...-your-device"  

thanks for the info, I had come accross it before as well.  I'm accepting defeat on this one unfortunately, and I'm closer and closer to caving in and getting an iphone next year.  Shame, I dislike apple with a passion, but this is nonsense on google's side that - for me - is worse than the hand-holding that apple likes to flog on their customers, and being that winmo's app selection is even weaker I'm left with little choice, shame indeed.

[plegdroid]

rodrigoperu, on 01 December 2011 - 05:37 AM, said:

thanks for the info, I had come accross it before as well.  I'm accepting defeat on this one unfortunately, and I'm closer and closer to caving in and getting an iphone next year.  Shame, I dislike apple with a passion, but this is nonsense on google's side that - for me - is worse than the hand-holding that apple likes to flog on their customers, and being that winmo's app selection is even weaker I'm left with little choice, shame indeed.

morning mate, if I come across anything I'll post a linky

[_androgenous]

rodrigoperu, on 01 December 2011 - 05:37 AM, said:

thanks for the info, I had come accross it before as well.  I'm accepting defeat on this one unfortunately, and I'm closer and closer to caving in and getting an iphone next year.  Shame, I dislike apple with a passion, but this is nonsense on google's side that - for me - is worse than the hand-holding that apple likes to flog on their customers, and being that winmo's app selection is even weaker I'm left with little choice, shame indeed.

just wondering if you're looking at this from the wrong angle? (ducks at all the 'droids thrown his way)!

I have a 1 year old SE x10, live in the middle of Worcestershire (UK for those who don't know) and can't use BBC iPlayer because the app says I'm not in the area served by this app!

Apart from the very obvious Android version issue, there are country restrictions on the downloading and even visibility of apps.  Perhaps this is the issue?

I mentioned the iPlayer issue I have as a specific example -- on my Transformer (Tablet not Robot!) iPlayer ran on the stock ROM no problem, I have since rooted and installed a custom ROM and 'gained' this issue, even though the ROM (Revolver) is based on UK source.

Anyway, there are several Market Enabler apps out there which allow you to specify which country/carrier you are with, effectively spoofing/lying the to Market about where you are...

Perhaps this might help

[rodrigoperu]

_androgenous, on 01 December 2011 - 09:18 AM, said:

just wondering if you're looking at this from the wrong angle? (ducks at all the 'droids thrown his way)!

I have a 1 year old SE x10, live in the middle of Worcestershire (UK for those who don't know) and can't use BBC iPlayer because the app says I'm not in the area served by this app!

Apart from the very obvious Android version issue, there are country restrictions on the downloading and even visibility of apps.  Perhaps this is the issue?

I mentioned the iPlayer issue I have as a specific example -- on my Transformer (Tablet not Robot!) iPlayer ran on the stock ROM no problem, I have since rooted and installed a custom ROM and 'gained' this issue, even though the ROM (Revolver) is based on UK source.

Anyway, there are several Market Enabler apps out there which allow you to specify which country/carrier you are with, effectively spoofing/lying the to Market about where you are...

Perhaps this might help

hey, thanks for trying to help.  I live in the States and I have a States-spec model (the tmobile mytouch 4g, from tmobile USA) so the market region restrictions are not the cause, although I did try the market enabler thing just for fun. I spoofed androids from AT&T, Verizon and a couple of European carriers for good measure.  The thing boils down to whatever google and the developers deem "compatible" with certain phones.  As I had mentioned before the Netflix app was available in the market for the longest time for Android versions older than what this phone came STOCK with, and worked fine on OLDER PHONES with fewer resources than this one, yet, for whatever reason THIS PARTICULAR MODEL, the mytouch4g / HTC Glacier was NOT on the list of "compatible" handsets, so it didn't work.  That was an issue even before I got this phone, and people found that once the Netflix apk was made available OUTSIDE the android market one could install it and the app worked.  There were some minor glitches, which were resolved by doing some phone hacking and were resolved for everybody else once the app was updated and this model was finally included on the list of compatible devices, which proves that whatever is going on has to do with something on the code that regardless of the phone's capabilities or OS version will make it "incompatible" until the devs, google or both decide to make the necessary changes, WHICH IS TOTAL BULLSHIT!  I can't think of a better analogy right now other than being unable to run Office on my laptop just because I have a Toshiba machine and, for example, let's say you have an older Sony, with lower hardware specs, SAME EXACT VERSION OF WINDOWS, but SOMEHOW, because I have a Toshiba; I can't run Office on it because my device is not "compatible", but you can without a problem.  How in hell would that make ANY sense?

[plegdroid]

have we considered the hardware incompatebility angle, could some app be arm6, arm7 dependent?

[rodrigoperu]

plegdroid, on 02 December 2011 - 07:23 AM, said:

have we considered the hardware incompatebility angle, could some app be arm6, arm7 dependent?

I guess that's the answer, I honestly can't think of anything else at this point.  If that's the case then the requirements list for the apps (as listed on the market) should reflect ALL REQUIREMENTS, it's missleading to say that an app is "compatible with 2.1 and newer" when many times the OS version doesn't really matter because it's the innards what really makes a device compatible or not.  >end of rant<