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yalanand
HP made a big mistake by closing its tablets business to early. They should have ...
yalanand
@p_g, dont rule out win+nokia mobile. I have heard pretty good reviews about the ...
Android 4.0 ported to HP TouchPad
Sylvie Barak
12/9/2011 11:05 PM EST
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Developers attempting to port the latest version of Android to Hewlett Packard’s discontinued TouchPad tablet appear to have made a breakthrough, with one team member posting a photo of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich running on his personal device.
After HP announced the discontinuation of the tablet this summer, the firm sold off its remaining stock in a fire sale which saw prices reduced to $99, prompting many a tinkerer to buy a tablet with the hopes of converting it into a cheap Android device.
Results have been buggy and mixed, but thus far, hackers have managed to get CyanogenMod 7 Alphas one through three up and running on the TouchPad, despite several ongoing issues with audio and Wi-Fi.
The latest version, which attempts to port Android 4.0 to the tablet, is not yet as stable as previous Alpha builds, but is already generating excitement and interest on tech forums.
A patch for making touch input work on the tablet has already been proffered by the community, with the next priorities for the build including Wi-Fi and Android Market support.
While developers scramble to fix the bugs in the TouchPad Android builds, however, today’s announcement by HP that it would be open sourcing its WebOS software has led to a surprise reverse phenomenon of developers now hoping to port the operating system to Android devices.
Despite its innovative UI and multitasking capabilities, WebOS had previously failed to capture the attention of the mobile industry, making up just 2% of U.S. smartphone market share. Putting it out into the open, however, seems to already be generating interest and giving traction to the software.
HP has not yet said when the WebOS code will be made available, but hackers over on XDA forums are already making plans for projects to port it to numerous devices, including the upcoming Galaxy Nexus.
“Now that the source code is set to be released, the real fun can begin,” said a post on XDA. “Imagine an HTC HD2 capable of running 6 mobile OSes. With full access to the WebOS source code, developers can now make this happen,” the post said.
Some are even starting to conceptualize a completely tailor made OS, with complete, source-built modification like CyanogenMod. With WebOS now open, it would appear the possibilities are endless.
After HP announced the discontinuation of the tablet this summer, the firm sold off its remaining stock in a fire sale which saw prices reduced to $99, prompting many a tinkerer to buy a tablet with the hopes of converting it into a cheap Android device.
Results have been buggy and mixed, but thus far, hackers have managed to get CyanogenMod 7 Alphas one through three up and running on the TouchPad, despite several ongoing issues with audio and Wi-Fi.
The latest version, which attempts to port Android 4.0 to the tablet, is not yet as stable as previous Alpha builds, but is already generating excitement and interest on tech forums.
A patch for making touch input work on the tablet has already been proffered by the community, with the next priorities for the build including Wi-Fi and Android Market support.
While developers scramble to fix the bugs in the TouchPad Android builds, however, today’s announcement by HP that it would be open sourcing its WebOS software has led to a surprise reverse phenomenon of developers now hoping to port the operating system to Android devices.
Despite its innovative UI and multitasking capabilities, WebOS had previously failed to capture the attention of the mobile industry, making up just 2% of U.S. smartphone market share. Putting it out into the open, however, seems to already be generating interest and giving traction to the software.
HP has not yet said when the WebOS code will be made available, but hackers over on XDA forums are already making plans for projects to port it to numerous devices, including the upcoming Galaxy Nexus.
“Now that the source code is set to be released, the real fun can begin,” said a post on XDA. “Imagine an HTC HD2 capable of running 6 mobile OSes. With full access to the WebOS source code, developers can now make this happen,” the post said.
Some are even starting to conceptualize a completely tailor made OS, with complete, source-built modification like CyanogenMod. With WebOS now open, it would appear the possibilities are endless.
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goafrit
12/10/2011 8:10 PM EST
Watch out, WebOS could evolve to compete with Apple iOS and Android if it is given an element of support.
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eewiz
12/12/2011 1:30 AM EST
ya but the problem is who is going to give this support. HP has spun-off webos into a separate company as an open source OS. I dont see why OEMs should care for webos, when they already have a free OS with Google's support.
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SylvieBarak
12/12/2011 1:53 PM EST
As a counter weight to Google? There are plenty of firms wary of Google's dominance in the smartphone space. I should think Samsung, Lenovo, Intel and others will be watching this carefully.
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p_g
12/12/2011 11:35 AM EST
For non-iPhone user there is no choice but Android. So literally there is no competition for open OS. With WebOS Android may get little fire.
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yalanand
1/11/2012 6:23 AM EST
@p_g, dont rule out win+nokia mobile. I have heard pretty good reviews about the phone. Who knows this mobile might surprise us by capturing big market share.
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selinz
12/12/2011 6:20 PM EST
Sending WebOS to open source is a good move. HP always can choose to go back to this but in the mean time, they can focus their programmers on more pressing (and market useful) activities.
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rhusain
12/14/2011 3:19 PM EST
android is going like windows in the 80's and 90's. Pretty soon there will be 80% cloned android tablets and 20% apple. The rest is all has beens. Including windows on tablets
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Simon7382
1/4/2012 6:54 PM EST
I would not write off Windows 8 that easily. Microsoft had shown time and again that they can come from behind and win. This has been the case for Windows, Word, Excel, Explorer, just about any of their successes.
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ReneCardenas
12/31/2011 4:43 PM EST
I missed this fire sale, as anyone want to dispose of their unit?
I am sure there is someone out there? ;-)
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SylvieBarak
1/2/2012 1:50 PM EST
You could try checking on eBay? I'm sure some (ungrateful) kids who got a fire sale TouchPad for Christmas will be trying to sell it to raise cash for an iPad...
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yalanand
1/11/2012 6:25 AM EST
HP made a big mistake by closing its tablets business to early. They should have waited till December to check the sales trend.
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