Galaxy Tab: The Missing Manual

Where to Get Apps

Your Galaxy Tab offers you not just one, not just two, not just three, but four different ways to download and install apps:

• Android Market on your Galaxy Tab. Here’s the primary way that most people get apps. Tap the Market button right on your Home screen. From here you can search for apps, read about them, and buy them.

  

• Android Market on the Web. You can head to the Web on your computer, and search for and download Android apps to your Tab. Yes, that’s right—you can use your PC or Mac, not the Tab itself. When you do it this way, you can also have that same app downloaded to any other Android devices you have, and manage apps for all of your Android devices from a central location. Get there by going to https://market.android.com.

• The Web. You can download and install apps from websites. Visit the site on your Tab, and download from there.

  Tip

  In a few cases, you can download an app to your PC or Mac, and it’s installed on your Tab when you connect it to your computer. Generally, this happens if you’ve downloaded an app that works with your PC or Mac, as well as with Android.

• Using a bar code scanner. Of all the amazing tricks your Tab can do, this is one of the coolest. A free app gives the Tab the power to scan bar codes and QR codes. (QR codes are a special kind of bar code used by smartphones, cameras, and other devices.) After you’ve installed this app, you can use your Tab to scan a QR code to download other apps.

When you’re browsing the Web with your PC or Mac and come across a bar code for downloading, just point your Tab’s camera at it, click a button, and the magic begins. The Tab grabs and installs the software from the website. For more on bar code scanning, see Downloading and Using a Bar Code Scanner.

Note

The QR in “QR code” stands for quick response. QR codes were designed to be scanned at high speeds. They were initially created by a subsidiary of Toyota as a way to track the auto manufacturing process, but are now used for many other purposes, especially in Japan.