When he covered the official release of the Netflix app earlier today, Cameron said, "If your device didn’t make the cut, though, I wouldn’t sweat it too hard – you know how resourceful the Android community can be." Well, the app hasn't even been out for a day yet, and already there's a way to get it running on non-supported devices. The only caveat is that you must be rooted. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to work on the Thunderbolt.
So how's it done? Well, the instructions are actually fairly straightforward, and come courtesy of tipster/redditor natemckn:
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Root is required. Make a Nandroid backup! (I accidentally deleted by build.prop file and bootlooped my phone)
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Download ES File Explorer (Or any other root file editor)
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In ES File Explorer, go into Setting > Root Settings and enable both check boxes
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Navigate to /system/ and copy/paste build.prop to /sdcard/ (just in case)
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Open & edit /system/build.prop
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Change the following lines to make your phone think it is a HTC G2:
- ro.product.model=HTC Vision
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ro.product.brand=tmobile -
ro.product.name=vision -
ro.product.device=vision -
ro.product.board=vision - ro.product.manufacturer=HTC
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Reboot the phone
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Install the netflix apk (if you haven't already)
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Enjoy
Also, it appears that this is hit-or-miss at the moment. Works for some, partially (but not really) for others.
As always, you shouldn't take the dive if you don't know what your doing. If it bricks your phone or eats your cat, it's not our fault, Nate's fault, or anyone else's fault.
Aside from Nate's Optimus V, we have no confirmation of this working on other devices as of yet (although it should work for most). If you give this a shot, let us know if it does/doesn't work for you, and don't forget to include your device and ROM!
[Thanks for the tip, Nate! See also: Reddit thread]