Question about touchpads

bryan.allen · October 21st, 2011, 03:07 PM

Someone offered me an HP Touchpad for a good price. He told me it runs Web OS as well as gingerbread. Can someone give me an explanation of how that works? Is it true Android? Any tips or advice would be great

Martimus · October 21st, 2011, 03:26 PM

Are you familiar with the custom Android ROM's known as Cyanogen Mod? An alpha port of CM7.1.0 has been modified to work on the Touchpad. It is not there by default but has to be manually installed onto the device. CM7 is true Android but it's put together by third party developers who have no affiliation with the devices that they write code for. So it's real Android but not provided, or supported for that matter, by HP...

Technically by installing this you void your warranty with HP. Considering that HP end-of-lifed these tablets within a short time after releasing them, I'm thinking this is likely not a big deal.

If you filter through several of the threads in this sub-forum you'll find threads that specifically discuss the process of installing CM7 on a HP Touchpad.

Does that help?

bryan.allen · October 21st, 2011, 03:31 PM

Thanks. I have a rooted Droid bionic running a custom rom. He told me its running gingerbread. If you were going to make a rom, why wouldn't they run 3.0 on them?

strat1227 · October 21st, 2011, 03:34 PM

Google isn't releasing Android 3.0 source code, so the only code we have to play with is of the 2.x.x variety.

They ARE releasing the 4.x.x code though, so expect ICS ROMS sometime next year

bryan.allen · October 21st, 2011, 04:07 PM

Oh, understand now. The only way to run 3.0 on a tablet is to buy one. As long as it will be able to run ICS eventually I'm happy.

strat1227 · October 21st, 2011, 04:20 PM

Well don't undersell cm7, IMO its 100 times better than webOS, I've been running it on my phone forever

colchiro · October 21st, 2011, 04:48 PM

BTW, can I ask, what's a good price?

bryan.allen · October 21st, 2011, 05:14 PM

Even swap for a playstation 3 that I had listed on craigslist. I have 175 total in what I'm trading

untitled1 · October 21st, 2011, 08:24 PM

That's a better deal than what most folks are paying on eBay. Still seeing the 16GB TPs sell for north of $200.

bryan.allen · October 21st, 2011, 11:53 PM

Got it. Now I need to figure out what's its capable of doing that my bionic can't

McLabia · October 25th, 2011, 02:02 AM

Didnt want to create my own thread since this will pretty much tie into the OP, and Im not trying to hijack. lol. I was curious about how those that own the TP's feel about the hardware overall. While I know that CM7 is far from perfect, Im pretty sure that you can give an feel on the overall performance of the TP with/without WebOS and CM7. Im asking because Im debating about pulling the trigger on a 32 gig for 220. Since everyones payin 250+ for them, I figure this isnt bad if the hard wares good, especially since CM9 is on the horizon. TIA for any responses.

colchiro · October 25th, 2011, 06:08 AM

Very fast, nice screen, great sound. I like it a lot. Make sure you get a case b/c the back is slippery. $220 is a nice price. $150 is better (but I didn't pay that).

A.Nonymous · October 25th, 2011, 08:17 AM

I was using mine solely to read comic books, but the comic book app I was using can't read some of my comics driving me back to my 7" Tab as there are literally no other apps on the market that open CBRs. One app and if it doesn't work, you're up a creek. The lack of app support is becoming very frustrating to me. I'm at the point where I might trade it for a 10" Android tablet if the opportunity came along. I'm getting ready to start dipping my feet in Android development and I would like a 10" tablet for that. I don't trust CM7 as a good development platform as I feel on the TP it'll always be beta-y.

untitled1 · October 25th, 2011, 09:06 PM

I wasn't prepared to use my TouchPad for work when it just had webOS, but with CM7 I'm using it every day. I like some aspects of webOS, but CM7 is already more reliable. I'm glad I bought mine.

binary visions · October 26th, 2011, 10:32 AM

My TP is screaming fast with CM7, and the only problems I have are not CM's fault - it seems to be that some of the tablet-aware are expecting Honeycomb, and crash when you launch them.

Other than that, I have no stability issues. Battery life is slightly lower than WebOS but not, IMO, by a really meaningful amount. I might test a movie at some point just to make sure I can watch a movie on the plane or something but I can always boot into WebOS for that if it's a problem.

strat1227 · October 26th, 2011, 11:39 AM

And they made it clear that they havent bothered with battery optimization yet, it should definitely improve in later releases

Itll probably end up being considerablu better than webOS if the past is any indication