Android Market on Emulator

      219 Comments on Android Market on Emulator

Wow, This is cool. Finally, I am able to run the Android Market on the emulator. And also, see all the paid apps and copy-protected app, right here on my emulator.

What do you need?

Well, the basic SDK. 1.5, 1.6 or 1.1

And then, go to the HTC website where you can find the images/recovery images. Download the version (system image only) which you want to run.

http://developer.htc.com/google-io-device.html#s3
(Download the System Image zip)

Extract the files of this zip. There’s a system.img file which you will need in the next steps.

Create an AVD (1.1, 1.5 or 1.6) depending on your requirements.

Copy this system.img file into the avd directory. For example, if you created an avd named “MyPhone”, go to .avdMyPhone and paste this system.img file here.

Now start the emulator. Voila, You are ready to go. After you sign in with a google account, your phone is ready to use. You now have access to all the market apps right from your emulator.

Note: If you are not able to run it successfully, and if you are getting Network communication error, please download the AVD that I have created from this link.

Link for 1.5 image
www.4shared.com/file/147420185/da5381e1/avd.html

Link for 1.6 image
http://www.4shared.com/file/165624746/fc72c3ed/system.html

219 thoughts on “Android Market on Emulator”

  1. Rich

    Doesn't work as described above. I downloaded the 1.6 zip file, copied the extracted system.img file into my avd/[emulator name].avd/ folder, and now the emulator doesn't start. It hangs on the first android splash screen (the word android in small font with flashing underscore cursor). If I remove the file again, it starts just fine.

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  3. Beanie

    I also had problems on the first start. Closed the emulator, restarted it with -wipe user data option.

    Now I have 1.5 and 1.6 HTC images running on the emulator. And, the funny thing is, when I logged into google on the phone, I got a mail from google saying that, congrats on purchasing Android phone . πŸ™‚

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  4. kristalaz

    Im managed to start 1.5, but it wannt that i slide the keyboard??… this is not important, i wanted to start 1.6, but i get:
    emulator: ERROR: system image file too large for device's hardware configuration (78MB > 72MB)
    Where can i change that device conf?
    Im a mac user πŸ™‚

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  7. Beanie

    To slide the keyboard, just change the orientation of the emulator. And to slide it back, again change the orientation to the default portrait mode.

    As for the APN settings, I didn't have to do anything. It started working, as soon as I signed into my google account.

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  14. Darwin

    Forgot to mention my setup, where it doesn't work:

    I'm using the SDK Setup tool included with the latest package from http://developer.android.com/.

    I'm creating a normal Android 1.6 VHD through the same tool with default settings, the only thing I have to change in order to boot the new system image is the data partition size from 72MB to 96MB.

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  15. Beanie

    May be this would help.

    I created all of my AVDs from the eclipse plugin. And then, I copied the system.img file to that directory without deleting any other files. Didn't change any configs also.

    If anyone has successfully done this, please let us know if you have done something different.

    Note: I had a 1.5 installation, and then I upgraded it to 1.6, and finally 2.0 all with the eclipse plugin. Perhaps, there is the catch, but I am not sure.

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  18. Shtuff

    I've been from sdk 1.5 to 1.6 to 2.0.
    A default 1.6 AVD that I create from the eclipse interface works fine and I get a connection to the internet. When I create a new 1.6 AVD (partition @ 96mb) and copy the image file over I get the market app, but no connection to the internet. When I 'Search for Networks/Search Automatically' I get the error message 'Your SIM card does not allow for a connection to this network' (I'm in the UK).

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  19. Beanie

    Hold on guys. I am preparing the rar file that you can download. I will be uploading the file and will share the link.

    I don't understand why it doesn't work for you guys. Each time I create a new AVD, I am able to see the market app, and I have internet connection.

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  21. Darwin

    Zomg!? Tnx Beanie!

    I got it to boot!

    If you like me are a Windows user and utilize the SDK Setup to boot your AVD:s, please remember to change the path in the file
    C:UsersUSERNAME.androidavdAndEmu.ini to a correct one.

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  23. Darwin

    The network communication is working just fine! Got a bit to excited there and forgot to put that in my last post…

    I have a theory now: You hare linking to the ION image, yet you are yourself using the ADP1 sytem.img. I think that this is why it wont work for the lot of us, have to try one time with teh ADP1 system.img to confirm it.

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  27. Bruce H

    Beanie, I think the reason people are having trouble is because the system.img file in your RAR is a different size than anything I can find on the HTC dev website. When I just copy your system.img to a 1.5 AVD, it works fine, but using the one downloaded from HTC, there's no 3G network. Your system.img file is 72,424,668, but the on in the signed-google-ion-img-150275.zip is 68,139,455. Maybe they've swapped them out since you downloaded them. Also, I noticed that when I boot your system.img, it says something like "Welcome to the Google Dev Phone 1" or something like that. The other says "Welcome to the Google Ion Device". Can you verify where you downloaded your images from and what the filenames were?

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  30. Beanie

    By the way, I still have a 1.6 system image which works with the emulator. If you need it, I will upload that as well.

    The 1.6 image from HTC doesn't work now. "No network connection" πŸ™

    The 1.5 now doesn't even boot. I get the message, 'System will crash' and it keeps on trying.

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  31. Paul

    The trick seems to be to use the system.img from an ADP1 image – grab the appropriate one from here rather than the Ion link above. I started with a 1.6 Ion image, got no connectivity, then replaced system.img with the one from the ADP1 1.6 image, and bingo connected!

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  37. Sean

    I can download apps fine on the emulator doing everything listed here. Some of the most popular apps won't download, like Pandora, but ive been able to successfully download 99% of the other apps i've tried. And they run/play perfect.

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  49. Max

    thanx Beanie for all that!

    I still get an error on the 1.5, I can launch the application ok, connection ok throught the browser but when i try to login into he market I have the error "can't established a reliable data connection to the server".

    Do you have any clue where is it coming from?

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  51. Beanie

    Hi Klen,

    Even I haven't been able to make the camera work. This is probably because, the Camera app is searching for HTC hardware, which it doesn't find. So, I think you cannot make it work.

    @Max – I am not sure why you are getting that error. I will check and let you know if I can find something.

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  52. Klen

    I figured it out.

    Create an avd with camera support and do the thing to get marketplace to your emulator. After your marketplace is installed, remove the system.img from your avd and restart the avd. Your camera should be working now. (btw. I am using avd version 1.6)

    Klen

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  58. Frank McCown

    I got it working on 1.6, but the Android Market can't seem to download any apps… it shows the download starting and then hangs. I wonder if there are certain ports it's trying to access that are being blocked by our school firewall.

    I finally resorted to downloading the .apk file for the apps I wanted to try out and used "adb install thefile.apk" to install them on the emulator.

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  59. notox

    I had no connexion the first time. I thaught that was over lol.

    Then I had the idea of clicking on "Emergency Call". I waited 10 sec and went back.

    After this operation i had Wifi + GSM logo on the screen !!

    Now everything works

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  60. KN

    I had the no connection problem as well.
    What solves it for me is the 1G SD.
    My first attempt was with 128mb and it did not work.
    Once I created 1G it worked from the first time.
    I used the system.img from the HTC site.
    Hope the helps

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  75. TomΓ‘Ε‘

    Hi, this instruction is working 4 me, I can download applications to my android profile, but I have two questions:
    1. I can see all the applications on the market with using android emulator?
    2. Where are the downloaded applications saved? Can I find them somehow and use them in real mobile with android? /I tried to open the SD card image, but without success/

    Any ideas?

    Thank you

    Tom

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  77. Anonymous

    Has HTC removed the market from the image file since last November? I followed the instructions (built a 1.6 AVD, copied the system image file, started the emulator with wipe user data option) and the emulator came up, but I don't see the market app installed. Went to Menu>Settings>Applications>Manage Applications in the emulator, but did not see Market installed.

    In my ~/.android/avd directory, I have both my new version 1.6 AVD side by side with my version 2.1 AVD,
    but I thought they were supposed to be able to coexist
    in there w/no problems.

    As an aside, here is a post about a G1 emulator with Android Market access:

    http://www.androiddevelopment.org/2009/01/29/how-to-access-the-android-market-without-a-real-phone/

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  79. Kumar Bibek

    @Anonymous : Just copying the system.img file into your AVD directory should be fine. You don't have to do anything else.

    @usracer47 : You need to create an AVD first with eclipse, and then put this system.img file into the AVD directory.

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  80. Anonymous

    Hi this is anonymous from earlier today (March 13) … my problem was that I coped the system.img to my ~/.android/avd directory when I should have copied it to my ~/.android/avd/ directory. I now
    have the Android Market up in my emulator. Thanks for
    posting this.

    And by the way, has anyone gotten any clarification
    whether this is ok with Google? I don't know why
    it wouldn't be and my only purpose is to survey
    the marketplace before committing time and money
    to app development and buying a physical dev phone.

    But it would be nice to know of an explicit ok
    from Google, if any exists. I didn't have the
    patience to read through all the legalese but
    one of the first few paragraphs says they can
    shut down your Google account for violating the
    terms or for any reason they decide to.

    I would think they should be ok with potential
    devs using the emulator for the purposes I
    mentioned.

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  81. Anonymous

    Hi.

    I've installed the emulator in Windows, downloaded the avd and uncompressed it in the right location. I've updated the ini, but now trying to run the emulator gives:

    emulator: ERROR: could not find required kernel image (kernel-qemu).
    emulator: Maybe defining ANDROID_SDK_ROOT to point to a valid SDK installation path might help ?

    Can anyone help?

    Thanks

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  82. Chiu

    Hi, does it work for 2.1 too?

    I tried the system.img of 2.1 stock ROM EPE76, downloaded from MoDaCo, wipe the data, but it hangs at the "android_" screen.

    I appreciate any help.

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  87. Song

    Hi, I have got it work well now. But there are some problems. First, after I installed some software, I found my "Android SDK and AVD Manager" doesn't work well. When I double clicked the "SDK Setup", it showed a command window and went away fast. I think that is because some software changed the system variables' value, but I can't figure it out so I just reinstall the XP system.
    Second, how can I use Fiddler or some other tools to get the traffic between the emulator and google. I mean when I go into the market, google will return some information, how can I get these information by Fiddler?
    Thanks!

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  89. simran

    Hi ,
    I am able to boot the emulator 1.6 using the HTC ADP image.I am behind a firewall. But the problem is even though I set a proper http proxy and port no in the network settings I still am not able to connect to the google servers to access the android market. It throws a N/w connection error and in the logcat I get:
    I/CheckinService( 53): Sending checkin request (51037 bytes)…
    W/CheckinService( 53): Checkin failed: java.net.UnknownHostException: Host is
    unresolved: android.clients.google.com:443
    D/GpsLocationProvider( 53): NetworkThread out of wake loop
    Checkin failed: java.net.UnknownHostException: Host is unresolved: android.clients.google.com:443

    PLEASE HELP ANYONE WHO FACED THE ERRORS.
    I AM USING 1.6avd ON THE LATEST ANDROID EMULATOR

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  91. simran

    Hi ,
    Thanks for the response
    I tried restarting the emulatordoes not help πŸ™
    And as suggested in one of the posts above I have created the AVD with 1 GB sdcard.
    Also my APN settings (http proxy)seem to be proper as with a normal 1.6 emulator(without system.img) I am able to use the browser and connect to different websites.
    I am not able to figure what could be the issue

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  92. simran

    Btw on the emulator display I get the following error:
    "Cant establish a reliable data connection to the sever
    This could be a temporary problem or your SIM card may not be provisioned for data services.
    If it continues call Customer Care"

    Any inputs would be of gr8 help
    Thanks

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  96. Anonymous

    I followed the steps and ran the emulator, but it is failing at the Google login step. It does not find a network connection. My internet conenction is through ethernet connected to a 3G router. But seems to me that shouldn't matter…

    Any advice on how I can make this work?

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  99. Willy

    Hi Beanie,
    how do you upgrade to 1.6?
    the avd you posted is firmware 1.5, and when I tried to use Settings -> System Update, it says:
    Your current system is currently up to date

    Thanks

    >May be this would help.

    >I created all of my AVDs from the eclipse >plugin. And then, I copied the system.img file >to that directory without deleting any other >files. Didn't change any configs also.

    >If anyone has successfully done this, please >let us know if you have done something >different.

    >Note: I had a 1.5 installation, and then I >upgraded it to 1.6, and finally 2.0 all with .the eclipse plugin. Perhaps, there is the >catch, but I am not sure.

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  100. mc_seem

    It worked for me on HTC Dream firmware 1.6 running in emulator, and with my custom Eclair 2.1 build as well. But it's purely random: sometimes it works with Android or TelKilla APN settings, sometimes it doesn't. If I didn't work for you right away, try wiping the userdata and boot up again / install Vending.apk sometime during the emulator reboot. Now I have two working emulator images with Android market: one with 1.6 and another one with 2.1.

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  102. Anonymous

    If anyone on Linux (or mac) is having trouble with opening the AVD's that Beanie posted, edit the config file to point to /home/your-username/.android/avd/nameofavd.avd in the path= part, he's using Windows to do this πŸ˜‰

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  110. seanbperiod

    I keep getting an error when trying to sign in with my google account:

    The application Setup Wizard (process com.android.setupwizard) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again.

    What do I need to do?

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  117. Trent

    when i download the 1.6 image at the top of this page, it downloads as a zipped file and when i try to extract it, winzip and 7zip say that there is an error in the file

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  118. Trent

    on the HTC site listed above, it explains that "Currently, only an Android 1.5 system image package is available." Does any one know where i can get this image or when it will be available?

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  123. eternal noob

    Hi I couldn't get 1.5 or 1.6 to work. Both hang on the start up screen of the emulator.
    I'm running the Android plugin within Eclipse Helios 3.6 under Win XP.
    All the other Android functions work OK eg create and run emulator for 1.5, 1.6, 2.1, build and run sample Android apps on emulator etc.
    Any ideas?

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  126. SuGuS!

    When I tried downloading the Image from HTC I didn't have internet access. When I tried the image file provided for the 1.6 in this page, it worked perfectly. It seems HTC has changed something since this was first posted.

    Thanks a lot!

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  133. Anonymous

    I'm having the same problem as Ricky, the AVD is working, i do have network access, but when i start android marked I just get "Server error occurred, retry or cancel".. any fixes for that one?

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  137. Anonymous

    I'd tried the 2.2 tricks and it works only with 2.2 platform, 1.5, 1.6 and 2.1 all doesn't work. However, some applications are not found in the market.

    The 1.5 image here failed with similar Server errors but resume normal when I retry 2 days later.

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  138. Richard

    I have spent a lot of time trying to get this to work and have tried various system images available on the net. I'm either getting the server error or marketplace just crashes. Either way it's for the For the same i.e.. reason the marketplace app is unable to read the Terms of service URL. Logcat reports the following:
    W/vending ( 292): com.android.vending.TosChecker$TosDialogAccessor$TosDialog.onStart(): Could not read ToS URL from GServices.
    What I don't understand is why others have had success and no matter what I do I cannot get past the TOS screen. Very frustrating! I want to develop some Android apps and I'd like to look at some of what's currently available before I begin. I can't afford and Android phone right now.

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  139. Richard

    Would you believe it, no sooner had I sent my previous post when I received a message in my Gmail account congratulating me on purchasing an Android phone. I went back to the emulator and Lo and Behold it's working. Weird considering I've been trying for two days and I didn't change a thing.

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  146. Paula

    I also got everything set-up but ended up with the error "can't establish a reliable data connection to the server" whenever I clicked on the marketplace. Then today I went to a starbucks and just for the heck of it I tried it again and it works here. Go figure, I guess it needed some coffee πŸ˜‰ Or maybe it's having problems with the secure wifi at home? Nah, couldn't be. Must be the coffee.

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  147. Keka_Umans

    in the build.prop change
    #ro.config.nocheckin=yes to =#
    that should stop the TOS issue
    just pull it off the emulator, fix it, and push it back on…im trying to get this stupid 2.2 to grab my contacts but it wont sync

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  152. mblack24

    For those of you who have gotten 2.2 working on the emulator with the Market, is it possible to install the Flash Player to enable Flash in the emulator? If the Flash player isn't available in the Market, would it be possible to utilize a 2.2 image for the EVO?

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  159. Anonymous

    I'm definetely no developer, I'm a newbie so hopefully some of you pros can use this as a starting point. I have a feeling it has something to do with the Vending.apk file I used from MoDaco. After reading the comments on Davids page it seems that that file is not getting the live updates.
    Anyone have anythougts on this?

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  160. Anonymous

    For some reason I cannot get the GPS to work using the 1.5 image. I tried activating the GPS in the settings of the phone, then telnet the coordinates or use the DDMS of Eclipse. The GPS icon never shows up and Google Maps does not find my location. Any idea? Has anyone got it working? Thanks in advance.

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  162. Anonymous

    thank buddy its work in my emulator but i try intals pmessenger and pingchat but it ready account inside..
    how to make pm and ping pure my account thank..

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  165. Anonymous

    This link resolves everything: http://developer.htc.com/adp.html

    He posted the wrong link in his tutorial.

    The file you want is: signed-dream_devphone_userdebug-img-14721.zip

    NOT: signed-google_ion-img-14721.zip

    The difference? One is for the "Google I/O Device" and the other is for the "Android Dev Phone". The Google I/O Device image does not have an internet connection.

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  166. Agnes & Rui Possolo

    Hello
    I have set up and avd 1.6; then copied the system.img, everything seems fine, but I dont see the market icon!?
    I alsio tried the system.img into & 2.2 avd, and was blocked signing into google because it wants me to slide keyboard open to continue and I dont see how..
    Agnes

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  167. Agnes & Rui Possolo

    Hi
    I finally see market is there (the graal… 3 weeks I am trying) but.. am blocked to sign in Google with the "slide keyboard" instruction. is ee up there you say "change the orientation of the emulator." but I dont know how to do that. Am on the PC virtual device…?
    Thanks a lot for help
    Agnes

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  170. Agnes & Rui Possolo

    oups… dont tell me…. I got all this working on 1.6 with the HTC 1.6 system image from here http://developer.htc.com/google-io-device.html#s3
    … market is here, I get apps.
    But when I try download i get the same stupid "starting download" forever as on my chinese device (that used to work with limited market access, and does not anymore after a factory reset and flash). Is it possible something got screwed and is attached to my Google account? Does anyone have the sampe problem with this bautiful workaround that is proposed here?
    Help… I am getting desperate, spending hours and nowhere!

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  173. James

    When it asks you to slide the keyboard open, just rotate. Shortcut for this is NumPad 7 and 9.

    My market was working ok, but it downloaded some updates and now it's not working anymore πŸ™

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  174. Dawn M

    I finally got this working, thanks to all the user comments. I am using Mac OS 10.5.8. The main problem i had was the network comm error. Here's what worked:
    1. Created an AVD v1.6 in Eclipse
    2. Downloaded system image file called
    signed-dream_devphone_userdebug-img-14721.zip
    from http://developer.htc.com/adp.html
    3. Unzipped download.
    4. Used Mac terminal window to copy system.img file from download to the avd's directory:
    /Users//.android/avd//
    5. Started up the AVD in Eclipse, so far so good.
    6. Was prompted to slide the keyboard open. To do this, I rotated the screen by pressing the
    + + keys simultaneously. This is the key sequence for a Mac.
    7. I was prompted to sign in to my gmail account. After attempting this, I got the network comm error. The solution was to shut down the AVD and restart it, this time touching the "emergency call" button. This gave me the connection. I then redid all the google login stuff and it worked!
    8. Went back to home screen to see the Android Market icon. Yay!
    9. Tested it by downloading Angry Birds.

    Thanks to everyone who posted their problems and solutions here and thanks to Kumar for the how-to. You are all awesome!

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  176. Dawn M

    Oops, it looks like stuff is missing wherever i used pointy bracket chars in my previous post, so some of the info is not there… Here it is:
    The path to the AVD's dir doesn't appear correctly. It should look like
    /Users/myusername/.android/avd/myemmulatorname/
    Also, the Mac keys to rotate screen should be shown as
    fn + control + F12.

    hi Kumar! To answer your Q about Angry Birds, the movements are a little choppy. For real play, i use my Samsung Galaxy Tab. It's just cool, though, that the emulator can be set up to access the market. Like some other users mentioned in their posts, after i used the market once and then exited, i couldn't get it to work anymore. A few days later it magically started working again. Weird!

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  178. MoreYummy

    is there a way to save the current states of the android system after i close the AVD and windows?

    so after i come back and load the AVD again, it will see what i previous see before shut down.

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  180. teapac_hh

    I got the whole thing working… EXCEPT…
    When I download apps on my tablet (Entourage PE), I can still see the .apk files in the Download folder.
    But this emulator has no download folder. The apps install, but that's useless because what I need is the .apk files, so I can copy them to an Android tablet that DOESN'T have "Market". (although Entourage eDGe is now up to Froyo, the Market still doesn't work)

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  181. Anonymous

    @teapac_hh

    So if you have did all things including setting up and account for the market, you can download apps on your pc at market.android.com

    all you need is sign in the account you've created on the app market on your emulator…

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  184. Alan Forsyth

    Just a quick note to say thanks to Kumar & commenters and particularly Dawn M. I have Android 1.6 with Market working on my 3 year old MacBook Pro (Snow Leopard). I did need to use the fn + control + F12 to rotate the screen, but no problems with connection after that. One hint – install something like Advanced Task Killer (Free) from the Market in order to shut down all the apps you install!

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  185. Kaushik

    The application Setup Wizard (process com.android.setupwizard) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again.

    How to fix this?

    Using the latest SDK and the 1.5 image

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  195. Anonymous

    Hi, when I download 1.6 on my mac it says disk can't be mounted. How can I fix this? Also, my Android Virtual Device Manager is not creating the path files for me to put the 1.6 disk image in. It shows me where to find it but when I go to find it, it's not there. Can you help with this?

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  197. Sandeep

    awesome it works fine….
    Can anyone please help me for PAGE CURL EFFECT..
    I want to add layout to page curl effect so that i can add any components that i want.
    Please reply with any example. thanks. Sandeep.

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  206. Rajaram

    Hi just now i read your post and i did everything.. I can see the 3g logo at the top and the google maps are working fine.. But when i enter into android market it shows no matching content in android market… Can anyone please help me to solve this problem..

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  207. Rajaram

    Hi just now i read your post and i did everything.. I can see the 3g logo at the top and the google maps are working fine.. But when i enter into android market it shows no matching content in android market… Can anyone please help me to solve this problem..

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