Thanks for the info that "sideloading" wouldn't even do it now. Too bad that Chumby app won't work. The way Playbook prices have tanked the past few days, they might be cheaper than the "new" Infocasts on Amazon soon. Guess I should start watching WOOT! again for a 64 GB one to replace my 16 GB!

Well, the Sony thing wasn't much of a port - it's the same app with a different package code.  The only reason it's different at all is that we wanted the ability to fork that app if Sony wanted to - at the moment, it's created by an automated build script based on the Chumby Lite codebase.

We did have a Playbook and started a port - however, it wasn't going to be a cakewalk.  While the Playbook's primary development system is Adobe AIR (based on Flash), it is a mobile version that only supports AS3 (AVM2).  Unlike the desktop version, it didn't have an AVM1, so it could not load and run the current widgets, which are all pretty much AS1 and AS2, which therefore require AVM1.

That left using some sort of WebView hosting a Flash Player plugin - however that turned out to be an issue as well, since at the time they didn't support the plugin.

So, we backed off, and waited for the announced Android runtime, to run some variant of Chumby Lite.  We closed before that became a reality.

@Duane- thanks for this bit of Chumby history. I guess timing is everything. Now the Playbook App Store is welcoming Andriod apps with opened arms, but sometimes with lousy results. And they just updated the Playbook OS which "broke" some of the apps anyway. @unwiredben- good luck. Great thing HP let webOS go public. And it never occurred to me that I could keep my basic channel in a Virtual Chumby on a web page regardless of the OS or device. May not be perfect, but it's something. Thanks to you both.

It's not specifically looking for Flash 10 - it's looking for the Android package "com.adobe.flashplayer", which is how you would detect the presence of Flash on Android.  Since Flash appears to be installed in some other way on the Playbook, this apparently fails.

One thing you might try is to create a small .apk with that package code and install it - that should be enough to pass this check.

If that doesn't work, please let me know.

The next thing that might trip you up is whether the Flash Player is supported in the Android WebView on the Playbook.

FYI folks, I gave up on this little project. It seems the Playbook is pretty secure in that I can't get an apk file in there without getting special BB versions of Putty, etc. Just as well. Turns out the Playbook has an "unresolved issue" in that the screen goes dark after 5 minutes of inactivity, unless watching a video. There's supposed to be a selection to keep the screen on, but it's not working. BB folks are a loyal bunch, content to wait for the next OS update. Also, I've noted a couple of Android apps converted for Playbook don't quite run right. So, I'm going to enjoy the tablet for what it is, a good tablet, but not a Chumby. I really wanted the tablet for a web radio and simple browsing. I think I'm just going to pick an extra Chumby-based device online- much simpler that way!