HP hands in-house Android code to TouchPad tablet hackers

Top marks to HP for handing over an Android kernel it once coded for its TouchPad tablet to fondleslab hackers. The catch: there's no Wi-Fi support. Still, for the likes of the CyanogenMod team, that shouldn't pose too much of a hindrance. Indeed, early investigation of the wireless code in WebOS and regular Android shows the …

[Jas 1]

Cyanogenmod already has wifi support

Hopefully this will help them get other bits working though, like the camera.

I've got CM7 on my touchpad, and use it regularly.

Not tried the CM9 alphas yet, but one day soon i'll take the plunge into ICS. Probably before HTC release it for my phone.

[David Neil]

My daughters going to be annoyed when I take her Christmas toy back off her to play around with.

[Gordon 10]

Kudos to HP

Normally this kinda stuff gets deleted and never admitted to.

Hopefully it will be some use to those looking to polish CM and others.

[Peter Gordon]

Nice move HP

I'm still not tempted to put Android on my Touchpad, though.

[fLaMePrOoF]

Told you so again...

Just as I said (and was roundly downvoted) in two previous articles - now it turns out HP were doing Android development themselves.

[Heironymous Coward]

ask and you shall recieve

Lets down-vote him again, boys...

(please check the icon)

[tmTM]

HP have cracked it?

They made a good spec tablet, sold it at a rock bottom price and provided very decent after sales software support.

Now they are out of the tablet game?!?

[Thomas 4]

What?

You actually thought HP was a business instead of a money pit?

[Big_Ted]

yeah

I bought 5 of these babies for me and family.

Am waiting for ICS port to load on them, have CM7 on a couple they are great with it.

Hopefully this will aid them on problems with CM9 and get it into Beta quicker so I can test on my tablet......

[Anonymous Coward]

... it's already out there somewhere...

a colleague has ICS working on his TP, albeit w/o the camera. Has dual boot for WebOS and ICS. Looks great and I wish I could have gotten one.

[Hooksie]

Why are you waiting???

I had CM7 on my Touchpad and never really used it, put CM9 on and now I actually use the Android installation - ICS is without doubt a huge leap forward.

Not sure of the use of HP releasing the code but if the CM team can pick out enough to get the Hardware Accelaration working then all to the benefit of us.

HP are going to be releasing a windows 8 tab as soon as they can but I suspect they will also have webOS on it as a dual boot. If MS will let them. If not then they may offer it as an alternative.

[P. Lee]

fat chance

Windows 8 & Webos?

Not a chance that MS will allow that. Remember the UEFI boot locking MS are making a compulsory part of the spec? There's no way hp will get preferential licensing if they don't block other OS's.

MS will probably subsidize the hardware to try to sell units and make the system seem popular which means the last thing they will allow is customers to wipe the OS and install something else. It is the ultimate short-term view, to take MS' money in subsidies and forgo the more popular OS, but HP seem intent on, er, "externalising the cost of OS expertise."

That may not be all bad. Enyo is lovely and it would be nice to see that spread. Android is fine too, though I like it a little less for tablets than for phones.

[Keep Refrigerated]

Has to be one of the worst decisions for a company in recent history...

Not to offer an Android version alongside WebOS to gauge demand.

Problem seems to be that some of these older companies have been trained by Microsoft that consumers only want one OS per brand, and that having options would confuse them.

It's very disappointing and the blame should rest solely with HP's board and CEO (at the time) Apotheker - since they are the ones who are supposed to see where the market it headed and set the vision for the company.

Why is it so many companies are failing to see the trends that people want to be able to root their devices and stick on any OS, it's not the 90's anymore, it's not even the 00's - there is a growing demand for open standards and interoperability.

[JamesMcP]

HP had Android printer/tablets prior to Palm purchase

They didn't sell well, but I'd been eyeing it as a possibly cost effective network printer & tablet, assuming the tablet was rootable.

It's no surprise that the team responsible grabbed a pile of touchpads and tested their software stack on it. They'd kind of be stupid not to. The surprise is that their test software package got flashed onto shipped hardware.