Since you brought up downloading .apk files I am hoping you can help me....
I just got my irulu 4.2 jellybean tablet and this is my first time dealing with anything other than desktop and non smart phone. I am very good with computers but this is a brave new world for me. Got wifi to work using my Comcast router so thought I was good to go. Installed one app from google play wishlist and got all excited but after that apps won't install probably because of signal strength and it was driving me nuts and drained the tablet battery. I thought LETS MAKE THIS SIMPLE so lets install the tablet as a drive on the pc and drag and drop the apps. Seems simple enough but NOT.
Windows has a list of devices to install and I selected Android but it could not find a driver and of course I have no software to load for the Irulu.
So to try another SIMPLE method I thought why not load the tablet sd card into my HP printer and drag the apps to it and put card in tablet and download them. I dragged the app from my wish list to the sd card but all it does it drag the shortcut and not the app. Can't find apps as downloadable to such as sd card anywhere in google play. I wish there was a download button in google play in addition to install ...thats all I would need. I know you can't install/use an Android app on a pc but all I want to do is load it onto an sd card or tablet (as a drive).
Am I really asking too much to have the tablet show as a drive on the pc and/or why can't I just move these apps from computer> sd card> tablet . I have googled myself silly but nothing I have found has resolved the problem. I thought for sure google play store help would tell me but NOT.
I love to drag and drop and have no problems moving files back and forth for music cds/cameras so I sure hope someone here can help me and thanks in advance. I really don't care at this point which method to use if it would work. I just want a way to get the apps onto the tablet without the wifi method....grrrr and argh
Terri
Welcome to Android Central, and sorry to hear that you're so frustrated! The important thing to keep in mind that Android is very different from Windows, so try not to keep the same Windows mindset when working with Android.
Installing apps on Android devices is best done from a well-established and well-regarded app store like Google Play or Amazon Appstore. There are others out there as well, like GetJar and AppBrain, which are generally ok, but the more obscure you get, the more risk there is of malware. So try to stick with the big players. One of the major disadvantages of devices made by lesser known makers like yours is that they may not be compatible with Google Play; however, they typically can still work with Amazon Appstore. If you want to install the latter, go to
Install Amazon Appstore, and follow the instructions. Make sure you have "Unknown Sources" checked in the Settings/Security menu.
Installing apps from these app stores should be an automated procedure--i.e., you should just be able to select the app you want and click "Install" (or "Purchase" and then "Install"), and the system will do the rest. As you know, it is also possible to download and install apps as .apk installer files, but the reason there aren't many available is that most legitimate app developers go through the app store ecosystem. If you find an .apk file of an app on the web, there's always a chance that it's fake, or worse yet, loaded with malware (especially if it claims to be a free download of a popular app that costs money).
If you're looking for an easy way to transfer files back and forth between your PC and your tablet, try
AirDroid.