Nice. Now I'm even more sold on the A10.
Back to running Android apps though, how do you go about finding them and eventually putting them on to your phone? At least how would it be done on 10.2? How do I know its not a 4.3 app? Can you do it straight on the phone? Does it need to be done through Desktop Manager or whatever its called now? I'm a super noob with this stuff. Super noob.
I'm going to try and make this as idiot-proof as possible, so I apologize in advance for the wall of text.
There are several ways of "finding" the apps. The best way in my opinion, but one that isn't possible for everyone, is pulling them straight from Google Play using a utility such as APK Downloader. This requires that you have an Android Device ID however, so unless you have an Android device of your own lying around, I don't believe you'll be able to do this. You
might be able to borrow a friend's Device ID, but I don't know if that'll work with regards to the same ID being used by two different Google accounts. You can also source the apps from one of several third-party app repositories for Android, but you'll need to make sure they're a reputable site to avoid malicious apps.
If you get it through either of these methods, you'll end up with an .APK file that needs to be converted to a .BAR to run on BlackBerry 10. This can be done on apk2bar.org (hugely popular online converter), or you can do it locally on your computer if you download the Android SDK and an "android-pack" created by xsacha on the CB Forums - this package was created for the purpose of the debug token workaround, and contains a simple .bat file to convert .APK files to .BAR files (which requires the Android SDK to be present). With 10.2, you won't need all of the debug token stuff judging by the leaks, but the converter part of the package will still be useful.
As for Android 4.3, I don't believe there are any apps that will be "4.3 and over" only, as the jump from 4.2.2 to 4.3 was pretty minor (though it did introduce some useful APIs for developers, so it would be nice to see on BB10 in the future). Having said that, you can look the apps up on Google Play to check the Android version they require, but chances are the 4.2.2 runtime will be able to run almost everything. Some 4.3-only features might be disabled (Netflix can only stream 1080p on 4.3, for instance), but most things should work. There might be some compatibility issues with certain apps, but that's par for the course when the app was never really designed to run on the device.
You may not have to fuss about any of this however, as there are a number of sites (or forums of course) with links to .BAR files that have been already converted from .APK for you, where people may have even posted feedback about how the app works. Again, you'll need to find a site you can trust ideally, but this does definitely save you time if you're looking for a popular app that's already been converted numerous times by others.
Sideloading itself is generally done through one of two utilities - DDPB, the USB cable method, or the BB10/PlayBook App Manager extension for Google Chrome, which allows you to do it wirelessly so long as the device is connected to the same WiFi network as the computer. For this, the device will need to be put into Development Mode. Then, you'll need to input the IP into the sideloading application (Development IP Address for DDPB, WiFi IP for the Chrome extension) as well as the device password - BB10 requires you to set a password with Dev Mode is enabled. After that, it's pretty straight forward - the application will connect to the device, then it's a case of drag-and-drop (or browsing for the .BAR file) and it'll begin the sideloading process.
As for doing everything straight on the phone, very recently a new service called BarInstall appeared that should be able to do it from the browser. There are several catches however:
-You need to pay $2.99 a month for their "premium" service if you want to actually sideload over the air, otherwise you only get the ability to convert .APK files to .BAR from there. You'll also be limited to 256MB of cloud storage for the app files until you go premium, which has up to 8GB of storage.
-It's currently in Beta.
-In order to get the .APK files, it still requires a Google account with an Android Device ID. However, it does allow you to upload your own .APK or .BAR files from other sources.
-Currently, it doesn't work on the 10.1 Maintenance Release or on the 10.2 leaks.
The BlackBerry 10 desktop utility, BlackBerry Link, isn't involved in any of this. Frankly, that's for the better - the new desktop utility is quite bad if I'm brutally honest (sluggish, awkward interface), but I rarely use it. I've got most of my important data in the cloud now, so I don't usually conduct local backups.