(I'm not sure if this is the right place for this. I couldn't find any better. The following text concerns the way Windows 8 checks the device ID and decides if a certain app can be installed or not. So if you don't care about this, or think it is misplaced, stop reading now.) Ok. So the very frustrating situation goes as follows; WHY? Samsung Note device (phablets and tablets) use special note taking apps called S-Note which has integrated S-Pen (stylus) support. Since Samsung is very closed up in this areas, there is no other app that can open and edit those notes. It saves only SNB filetype which is unusable in anything but S-Note. Now there is an Android and Windows 8 version (for Ativ Windows 8 tablets). Both seem to be locked only for Samsung devices. I'm interested in installing Windows 8 version. It's on the market but it wouldn't install. HOW? Samsung obviously, being cheap as they are, locked the app. So it can't be downloaded for non Samsung Ativ devices. However, someone did upload the install files on microsoft forums. I can't post links, but it can be easily googled, and I can provide them too, along with the instruction on how to install it, which I did. WHAT? Now, I installed the app, and it shows up in Metro app list, and also within Program Files/Windows Apps folder. So it's installed properly. However, when I run it, I get the same stupid "locked up" message: "This app can't open. Check the Windows Store for more info about S note. Go to the Store". If I go to the Store, it's says the app is not available for my device once again. Any ideas on how to surpass this? It's installed, so it's probably checking some ID to identify when launching. Can someone please help me understanding and solving this? Thanks, Cheers
Idea: Since the app actually installed, maybe it is complaining about something different than you think. Perhaps it just wants to see a Samsung device that can produce these note files. So maybe you just need to attach the Note hardware and let Windows load a deice driver for it or else install some Samsung utility Disc that comes with the Note
Yeah. That's what I was thinking about. It searches for some kind of ID, or OEM# which would tell the app that this is a Samsung Ativ tablet. Unfortunately I don't have a Samsung Ativ Windows 8 tablet, just a regular Wndows 8 laptop and the Galaxy Note2 Android phablet which has the S-Note installed, and that doesn't help. I need to understand how it finds out that my WIndows 8 laptop is not a Samsung Ativ tablet, and I need to find out how to trick the the app/store into thinking that I do have Ativ. Or I need someone to crack the app...
Is there a way to download paid apps from store?I mean is there something like black market for android apk-s
You have an interesting problem It boggles the mind that Samsung would not want Galaxy Note users to be able to work with S-Notes on Windows considering that there are a few magnitudes more Note devices than Samsung Windows tablets... If I was Samsung, I would come up with all sorts of S-stuff formats that could be synced with a family or personal PC... It is possible that a well put together presentation to Samsung and many mobile review sites could increase awareness of the issue and produce a rapid change of mind since it's probably just a single line of code to change in their app... In many ways Steve Jobs has had a huge retarding effect on technology and poking fun at pen interfaces on mobile devices is an example. We can always hope that the new 8" Surface tablet coming in 2014 will have a pen option, otherwise the Surface Pro 2 with a LTE option (also coming in 2014) would give portable professional note taking It would be interesting to try a LTE Surface Pro 2 with Skype and bluetooth headset to possibly eliminate the need for a mobile phone have the holy grail of s single powerful device that can do just about anything (guess it would need the camera assembly from a Lumia 1020 as well)
Also saw your request on XDA which was a reasonable place to ask the question. You should consider asking it again in one of the Samsung focused forums since it will be the actual Note owners who will be motivated to look into it... In this post, forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2133221&page=3 the user flakyfrost posted a Python script to extract the useful bits - code.google.com/p/snb2txt/ Did you try that?
Also on some website with a ship as a logo there is a user that posts modern virtual machine images of Android along with supporting drivers etc which should give a better emulation than Bluestacks but I haven't gotten around to testing it... I suppose even the Android app checks to see if it is running on a Samsung but maybe there are more resources to patch things in that environment? Um some Mod - please delete this post if it violates some rule to mention this option...
Yes. I think they didn't really think this through. Opening up S-Note for other platforms would increase the Note series sales. Unfortunately, I'm trying to do that for almost a year now. Without any success. Samsung has that extremely rigid, and uncaring customer service. They are asian-like polite, but never really listen. They are just nodding you goodbye. In fact, they are completely rigid and insensitive to customer input. If you elaborate, and describe precisely, they will just thank you and wave goodbye. Actually, only now I have started to use a bit of alternative and more intensive communication via sites like XDA, mydigitallife and others...I hope this could also put some pressure on Samsung. Maybe that will force them to open up. And if someone would be able to crack it, I think that would be a game changer. So they maybe realize it's better to open up by themselves. Yep. He forgot about the thousands of years of pen evolution. We started with fingers. But upgraded it, long time ago. There just are things that you can't do with fingers. The already existing Surface Pro has a pen digitizer and pen included. I never used it, so I don't know how well the pen is integrated. Yes. It does what he intended. You can extract attached files, and text from SNB files, but that doesn't really solve anything. It's just too complicated to use every day to exchange the S-Notes between devices. Especially for us who already use multiple S-Note notebooks and notes with a lot of pages and data in cloud. I tried installing the apk on other Android devices too. It doesn't work. Also locked. But I'll look for this emulator...
My flight of fancy on a future Surface 2 Pro with LTE is: By using Skype over LTE one could in theory not need a cell phone. And the device when docked with a 2560 x 14440 27" monitor would be a desktop workstation And with a keyboard cover, it becomes a laptop And all by itself a 10 point touch display and a Wacom digitizer pen, a perfect note taker... No need to sync any data, it never moves! i.e. The One Ring To Rule Them All
I catch you drift. Makes sense. But very expensive for a tablet. And still can't replace my workstations. I'll always need more RAM, GPU and CPU power than a tablet can offer. Anywayz, before we get there, I'd rather take the simple steps, and solve this Win8 S-Note issue...
Maybe that Python script could be adapted to re-assemble a SNB file permitting editing BTW what would be the scenarios for editing on a PC? a) Samsung tablet with S-Pen of course b) Surface tablet or other Wacom type Windows 8 tablet c) Ancient Windows XP Tablet PC d) desktop PC with Wacom Bamboo type pen e) desktop PC with mouse
I don't have anymore ideas other than the basic concept that even in the year 2013, there is something deeply disturbing about how little our devices both PC and mobile are used as the kind of personal "mind enhancers" predicted by futurists in the 1930's... Google and Apple and Facebook have turned the future into a quest for how you can re-tweet the most useless information in the most stylish manner while viewing ads for products you don't need and lining up in front of stores to get the same not-mind-enhancing device in a new color every fall.... If you could reply to the previous post on the different ways in which a PC based tablet device could be used with S-Note devices, It might spark some idea from readers of this thread. Patching the Samsung App is probably not easy since high security was a design premise for the Windows Store and every app is signed. There was some sort of "fix" developed for side load apps but that seems unlikely to be helpful. One possible approach is to really think about all the various usage scenarios and describe some proposed software that has appeal to a decent number of people sufficient to launch an open source project to make an app which reads and writes S-Notes as one of its functions...
Patching the Samsung app was not necessary. Just some license tweaking. And now it works just fine on any Windows 8/8.1, just as it should've out-of-the-box. I still can't post links, so it would be impossible to explain how to make it work here. Just google "S-Note Windows 8 App xda", and the first result should be the thread. Last post (#49) is solution description.