BoostApps

Hovr and Gamejump are two sites that have thousands of free, ad supported games and apps, some of which are very good. A lot of times I see an app or game on one of those sites that looks interesting that I'd like to try on my Boost phone. But when I attempt to download it the site expects me to download using my phone's browser and only provides a link to the JAD file.  The problem with that is that you can't download anything using the browsers on Boost iDEN and Nextel phones.  You have to download to your PC and then use a loader program to send the app to your phone. And you need both the JAD and JAR files to install.

Actually, it's usually very easy to get the JAR file  if you have the JAD file.  Here's how.

• Download the JAD and then save it on your computer. The following example is based on downloading  Freecell from Hovr but the process is the same for any game or app on Hovr and most other sites that don't provide a direct link to the JAR file.
• With Gamejump you have to use the mobile site at  wap.gamejump.com or m.gjmp.tw to download  The desktop Gamejump.com site has good descriptions and screenshots but no download links at all.
• Open the JAD file with a text editor.  JADs are just plain text files. On Windows you can use NoteTab Lite, which is free and full-featured  or you can use Wordpad which comes with Windows. I don't recomend using Notepad because it runs the lines in the JAD together making them hard to read.
• In the editor look for the text "MIDlet-Jar-URL:".  Immediately following that text is the URL of the JAR file.  In the screenshot above it's http://hovr.com/game_jads/20020070822240003/FreeCell-128x128_out.jar which I've highlighted.

• Select the URL, copy it and paste it into your browser's address bar and press [Enter] and the JAR file will download.  Save it in the same folder as the JAD file.
• iDEN file loaders require that the JAD and JAR files have the same name  (except for the JAD and JAR extensions)  and that the name be no longer than 15 characters including the extension so you will probably have to rename them. I renamed mine to Freecell.jar and Freecell.jad.
• Once you have the JAD and JAR file, click here for instructions on installing  them on your Boost iDEN or Nextel phone.