Blackberry has been feverishly working on a massive upgrade to their Android emulator which takes it from 2.3 to Jellybean. This will allow major apps like Candy Crush Saga and Viber to finally work on the entire line of Blackberry Smartphones. There is currently a leaked OS that is fairly polished, which is an indication that Blackberry will release it in the next month.
The Blackberry Z10, Q10, A10, Q5 and Playbook all have a built-in Android emulator which allows users to load in their own Android apps. This helps offset the lack of quality content in the Blackberry App Store and put power in the users hands to convert and install their own apps. Most apps are currently not being written for really old versions of Android, so this Jellybean update to the emulator is huge news and a boon to worldwide customers.
If you want to install the Jellybean update right now, you can visit this tutorial that outlines the entire process. Installing Android apps is not as cut and dry as just loading in an APK file to your device, instead you have to convert the APK to a BAR file. We have an automatic converter that does this for you, you can check it out HERE. You can also watch a few video tutorials, if you are at all unfamiliar with loading in your own apps.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.