The Tizen based Samsung Z1 has now gone on sale in India, and now has also began its rollout in Bangladesh, but there is one major problem that faces overseas linux enthusiasts / early Tizen adopters that have purchased the Z1, namely being you can only access the Tizen Store using the Samsung Z1 from the country that this product is currently being sold in.
Foreign developers / users want to explore Tizen, to have a real linux based Smartphone at their finger tips and know what all the fuss is about. Some “Companies” however might not however want foreigners snooping around a Tizen Store as some apps might not be localised for other regions or might not have relevant content, but to devs and tech savvy people I think we can accept that understanding and moreover want to be part of a new Tizen ecosystem.
Tizen Store Access Rules
So to access the store you would probably just need a proxy server and you would be in, right? Wrong. There are some Interesting dynamics used in the Samsung Z1 Smartphone logic to allow access to the Tizen Store.
- Users are automatically directed to Tizen Store for their country, based on the Mobile Country Code (MCC) of their SIM card, or GeoIP if NO SIM Card is inserted.
- Once Access has been granted to the Tizen Store based on the SIM card, you can still access the Tizen Store even if the SIM Card is ejected and you are using WiFi.
- Once Access has been granted to the Tizen Store based on the GeoIP, you can still access the Tizen Store even if your IP address changes to a different country, but NO SIM Card has been inserted.
Tizen Store Hack
There are a couple of ways you can by-pass the Tizen Store access rules:
- Access the store by having a SIM card inserted from a supported country (currently India / Bangladesh) and you can be in a different country using WiFi. I have been told this works but I have not tested currently and this article will be updated when tested.
- You can use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to connect to a local India/ Bangladesh VPN server and therefore giving yourself a local IP address, making the Tizen Store servers think you are local.
I have tried various VPN services and hardware combinations which did not work for me, but using a Mac Book and the VPN Service called Hide My Ass, it WORKED !!!! I will show how you can use my setup but there will be other combinations that should work.
Using the Hide My Ass VPN Service on a Mac
In order to use this particular setup you need a Mac machine that has WiFi as well as an Ethernet port so you can route the traffic using Hide My Ass (HMA).
Setup the VPN
Create a VPN Service
Use your mac as a WiFi hotspot
Did you successfully access the Tizen Store? Let us know in the comments. If you have any suggestions on other related posts or improvements, then please use our contact us page.