Sideloading
Sideloading describes the process of transferring files between two local devices, in particular between a personal computer and a mobile device such as a mobile phone, smartphone, PDA, tablet, portable media player or e-reader.
Sideloading typically refers to media file transfer to a
When referring to
When referring to iOS apps, "sideloading" means installing an app in IPA format onto an Apple device, usually through the use of a computer program such as Cydia Impactor[2] or Xcode. On modern versions of iOS, the sources of the apps must be trusted by both Apple and the user in "profiles and device management" in settings, except when using jailbreak methods of sideloading apps. Sideloading is only allowed by Apple for internal testing and development of apps using the official SDKs.[3]
Historical
The term "sideload" was
The advent of portable
Today, sideloading is widespread and virtually every mobile device is capable of sideloading in one or more ways.
Advantages
Sideloading has several advantages when compared with other ways of delivering content to mobile devices:
- There are no wireless data charges. Sideloading delivery does not involve a wireless carrier.
- Content can be optimized for each mobile device. As there are no mobile network restrictions, content can be tailored for each device. This is more important for video playback, where the lowest common denominator is often a limiting factor on wireless networks.
- There are no geographic limitations on the delivery of content for sideloading as are implicit in the limited coverage of wireless networks.
- There are no restrictions on what content can be sideloaded. Users may sideload video, e-books, or software which is restricted or banned in their country, including material expressing unpopular or illegal opinions and pornography.
- The content is not streamed, and can be permanently stored in the mobile device. It can be listened to or watched at the user’s convenience.
- Sideloading is an excellent mechanism for proximity marketing.
- Content that is removed from an online store, e.g., for belatedly discovered licensing violations, can still be loaded to a mobile device.
Disadvantages
Sideloading also has disadvantages:
- Streaming media is sometimes preferred to downloading due to limited storage. Content providers limit content available to download and sideload due to their loss of control over it.
- There are huge variations in performance capability for mobile devices that can make use of sideloading, from simple mobile phones with limited video playback, to high-end portable media players. Unless the audio/video file is encoded with the target device in mind, playback may not be possible.
- Some Verizon Wireless) require that handset manufacturers limit the sideload capabilities of devices on their networks as a form of vendor lock-in. This usually results in the loss of USB and Bluetooth as sideload options (though memory card transfer is still available).[7]
Methods
USB sideloading
Sideloading over a
Until this time, mobile phone manufacturers had tended to adopt proprietary USB transfer solutions requiring the use of bundled or third party cables and software.Unless additional software is installed on the device, the PC, or both, transfers can usually only be initiated by the PC. Once connected, the device will appear in the PC's file explorer window as either a media player or an external hard drive. Files and folders on the device may be copied to the PC, and the PC may copy files and folders to the device.
Transfer performance of USB sideloading varies greatly, depending on the USB version supported, and further still by the actual engineering implementation of the USB controller. USB is available in Low-Speed (1.2 Mbit/s, 150 KB/s), Full-Speed (12 Mbit/s, 1.5 MB/s), and Hi-Speed levels, with High-Speed USB transferring up to 480 Mbit/s (60 MB/s). However, the majority of mobile phones as of the time of writing of this article are Full-Speed USB. Of the mobile products supporting USB 2.0 Hi-Speed, the actual sideloading performance usually ranges from 1 to 5 MB/s. However, the popular
Bluetooth sideloading
Bluetooth’s
Memory card sideloading
Sideloading via a memory card requires that the user have access to a memory card writer. Audio and video files can be written directly to the memory card and then inserted into the mobile device. This is potentially the quickest way of sideloading several files at once, as long as the user knows where to put the media files.[10]
See also
References
- ^ Chris Chavez (2013-07-20). "How to sideload Android applications when they didn't come from the Google Play Store". phandroid.com.
- ^ "Cydia Impactor". Retrieved 2019-07-28.
- ^ "Xcode and Apple SDKs Agreement" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-06-07. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
- ^ Andy Wang (1999-10-07). "MP3.com, I-drive to Offer Online Storage Option". Retrieved 2019-07-28.
- ^ "Jargon Watch". Wired. 2000-03-01.
- ^ SIDELOAD
- ^ Jonathan A. Zdziarski. "The Motorola v710: Verizon's New Crippled Phone". Retrieved 2019-07-28.
- ^ "OMTP Local Connectivity: Data Connectivity". Archived from the original on 2009-09-28.
- ^ Gregory A. Quirk (2007-11-26). "Under the Hood: Blackberry wins handset data-rate bakeoff". EE Times. Retrieved 2019-07-28.
- ^ "Cydia Impactor Download: Download cydia impactor for iphone". Cydia Impactor.