Android on HP Touchpad

[Executor32]

CyanogenMod 7 (an Android ROM, for those who don't know) has been available for the Touchpad for about a week. I've been playing around with it, and it's surprisingly complete for an early alpha. Wifi is a little flakey sometimes, and they haven't gotten 2D graphics acceleration working on the GPU yet, but other than a couple of apps not working because of the latter, everything works rather well. Every 3D game I've tried except N.O.V.A. 2 HD has worked perfectly, and the only 2D game I couldn't get to work was Crush the Castle. Netflix works perfectly, too, though its next-to-last update broke video playback on all CM7 devices. The latest update fixes that.

So, has anyone else with a Touchpad taken the plunge and set theirs up to dual-boot Android and WebOS?

Download and install instructions are at the relevant RootzWiki thread.

[SCRawl]

I saw the news, but I'll wait until it's out of alpha before I do it to my Touchpad. But Android was always the ultimate plan for me, I don't think there's much future for WebOS.

[White Haven]

Now that Ice Cream Sandwich is out, I'm keeping on eye on that. Honeycomb was a bear to port due to being closed-source, but if I read correctly, ICS should be much easier.

[Executor32]

More of a bear than you think; CM7 is Gingerbread-based even on the Touchpad, though it has some tablet-specific tweaks like a bottom status bar with soft keys on it. AFAIK, there are no Honeycomb-based ROMs for any device. If Cyanogen's transition from Froyo to GB is any indication, it'll be at least several months before Cyanogen moves to ICS, probably longer still for the Touchpad fork.

[Edward Yee]

Just to check, is there any way to get the Touchpad to "support" mobile data or is it wi-fi only? I currently use a LG Optimus T for on-the-go Web browsing, but I'm considering getting the Touchpad just for having a bigger screen, seeing as I'm almost a year out from qualifying for a phone upgrade, so at first glance the Touchpad seems to be a cheaper option, especially with CM7 and with the Optimus T's stock firmware having wi-fi tethering.

[Forgothrax]

The only reason I ever bought a Touchpad was to load it with Android. Still, I'd rather not deal with alpha issues and will probably wait until it's out of alpha to load it on my TP. Still, I'm gonna miss some aspects of WebOS, primarily their multitasking-- shuffling apps into cards and stacks and throwing the ones you don't like off the screen is just awesomely intuitive. Won't miss the web browser, though.

[Executor32]

The only Touchpad with a 3G radio is the 64 GB model, which is almost impossible to find; the 16 and 32 GB models only have a Wi-Fi radio. Under WebOS, they don't support ad-hoc networks like your phone's tethering, but I that's just a WebOS limitation. Under Android, my Touchpad works perfectly with my Droid 2.

[SCRawl]

The only reason I ever bought a Touchpad was to load it with Android. Still, I'd rather not deal with alpha issues and will probably wait until it's out of alpha to load it on my TP. Still, I'm gonna miss some aspects of WebOS, primarily their multitasking-- shuffling apps into cards and stacks and throwing the ones you don't like off the screen is just awesomely intuitive. Won't miss the web browser, though.

In its current incarnation it's a multi-boot arrangement, though; if they keep that, then we'll have the best of both worlds.

[Executor32]

That's also why there's really no downside to trying it out now. So long as you follow the instructions properly, you won't brick your Touchpad. If you try it and it's too buggy for you, you can just continue using WebOS and update CM7 in Clockwork Recovery later on when it's less buggy. You can even uninstall CM7 completely and revert to WebOS only, if you desire.

[Edward Yee]

Assuming a Touchpad can be found now, heh... unfortunately the prices I'm finding online are ranging $200+, and HP has said that while they're making "one last run of TouchPads to meet unfulfilled demand," they'll be priced at the retailer's discretion and not necessarily the $99/$149 that made it... worth it in the first place.

[Forgothrax]

I picked my 16GB up off ebay for $150 about two weeks ago--open box but pretty much untouched, which isn't so bad.