CyanogenMod Shows Off Android On the HP TouchPad 117
adeelarshad82 writes "While a $99 TouchPad running webOS is a pretty good deal on its own, most of us got it hoping developers would eventually figure out how to run Android on it. And though we were warned against wandering off to the darker side, it seems the developers behind CyanogenMod wanted the device to boldly go where no TouchPad has gone before. In a video demonstration, they show off a very early version of its software running Android 2.3.5 on a TouchPad."
If Cyanogen releases a stable build... (Score:3, Insightful)
...the TouchPad will instantly become a superb value for the money. Cyanogen truly offers the best that Android has to offer - i've flashed my phone a while ago and never ever looked back. Screw you, HTC!
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Re:If Cyanogen releases a stable build... (Score:5, Insightful)
At $99 is already a great value, but the issue with WebOS is the same we had with other great OSs like OS/2 and BeOS: apps. Android has a much wider selection of apps and, given that HP shelved WebOS only 6 months after paying a truckload for it, it will only continue to get worse.
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Where can one be had for $99?
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On the bright side, you can still snatch a drawing [ebay.com] of a Touchpad for as low as 1 cent (though it goes up to 1 dollar for higher-spec versions), with many supplier choices.
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Okay I clicked that link and noticed there's like 400 "drawings" of the touchpad for sale. Why is everyone doing this?
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When Touchpad originally went on sale for $99, it sold out real quick, and a lot of that stock later popped up on eBay. It started with somewhat reasonable prices - like $150-200 - but then it become crazy; there were several cases where people ended up offering more for it than it cost in retail before the sale. This is just poking fun at that.
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That's hilarious. I actually saw a drawing going for $132 at the time of close (with bids mind you). I wonder if someone actually thought it was a real TouchPad?
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If you poke around the lots, some of them actually promise to ship a real Touchpad with the drawing if the bids go high enough. That might explain that.
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eat THAT, Joneses! (Score:2)
On the bright side, you can still snatch a drawing of a Touchpad for as low as 1 cent (though it goes up to 1 dollar for higher-spec versions), with many supplier choices.
Still waiting for the 64TB w/7G version...
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But the apps already available include chroot and an X server.
You can run your choice of desktop environment and apps (including more and more touch friendly ones) from Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, or any other ARM distro alongside WebOS and its own apps -- without waiting for Android port to be finished, and without losing WebOS's real-computer style multitasking.
Android certainly will add value -- another option is always a good thing -- but even without it, WebOS doesn't look very dismal to me. (And the diffe
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I *Really* wanted a webos tablet for the reasons outlined above. I didn't think it was worth $500 for the touchpad. I would have paid $250 for it. Maybe even $300 if the hardware was a little better.
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Look on eBay, some are only going for double the firesale prices. Worth a try bagging one IMO.
Almost bought a WebOS tablet... (Score:2)
I was planning to buy a WebOS tablet this fall to start looking into developing on (currently I do mostly iOS development). I always liked the platform, but just didn't have time to start looking at it until then... I figured HP would give the platform at least a year and wanted to help them out for Christmas sales.
Oh well!
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Palm Pre-/WebOS user here.
Basically, until the Touchpad, the hardware has kinda sucked. The Pre had serious build quality issues. A few came out of the factory perfect, but man, a lot of us have gone through a lot of phone replacements.
As far as the Touchpad, I didn't get one when it first came out because HP priced it horrendously. You simply can't price something slightly heavier, thicker and with only 1/300th of the number of available applications the same as an iPad. If they had priced it at $300
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Oh, and occasionally I use the al
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You really only need one link [google.com]. But here's another [liliputing.com]. And here is a place [precentral.net] where you can pop over to ask for help if you need it.
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thats the thing, the browser on webos is terrible. Opening links in a new card is painfully slow. Coming to Slashdot, and going through the front page opening a new link in a new card like a tabbed browser is the worst ux ever.
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thats the thing, the browser on webos is terrible. Opening links in a new card is painfully slow. Coming to Slashdot, and going through the front page opening a new link in a new card like a tabbed browser is the worst ux ever.
It doesn't have to be that way. I added a replacement Kernel that lets me boost the CPU to 1.836 Ghz, added some patches that stop some logging services, a tweak here, a change there...Slashdot comes up in +/- 3 seconds. Opening a site in a new card 5-6 seconds. Not bad at all.
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very well phrased sir.
I am sick and tired of all this appCount fever.
Also I would like to point out that:
Android has no value atm. It is not a dependable distribution of software. Since you are not buying it, You don't have a contract of support and since it isn't open source ( you can't compile your own android spin atm ) You cannot depend on it being supported for your needs in the future. It is a nice bundle of binaries sure but you have no power over it so it's value to population is Null.
And don't eve
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The real question is whether anything HP says or does is going to matter in two or three years.
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Let's see, I want to make a tablet, which OS shall I use?
iOS? Seems to be selling well, but the company that makes it won't license it to third parties, so that's out.
Windows 8 / Windows Phone 7? Adds a few dollars to the cost of each unit, but it comes backed by a company that will do a lot of the customisation for me and is pushing the developer tools at everyone with a Windows machine. Sounds possible.
Android? Costs nothing, seems to be doing pretty well in the market, backed by a company that's t
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Costs an OHA membership if you want Honeycomb on your tablet, as well as whatever terms and conditions Google imposes on your licensing of Honeycomb. Such terms include minimum hardware, compatibility requirements, and support requirements (you must promise to be able to run Ice Cream Sandwich and whatever the next revision that comes out is - 18 months of support minimum).
Of
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Incorrect it's not 99$ at all.
It was 99$ ONCE and has been flushed out of the system, it's now 180 to 300$ on ebay for a product which will NEVER BE SOLD AGAIN - with no ongoing support from the supplier and unlikely to get any improvements.
With Android, these things might be ok - but as they are, people are taking a gamble. If it was still 99$ I might consider one but as they are over 200 to 250$ on ebay right now, no thank you - bit too pricey for an impulse purchase.
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Why is that?
Works fine on the Nook.
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If you could still get one for that cheap. I'd like to know where you can get them now for those closeout prices.
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I kind of agree with this. I believe that it will not be worth as much until Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, is working. That's the unified version for both tablets and phones, and with the unified API, that's probably what devs will be coding towards for the foreseeable future.
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...the TouchPad will instantly become a superb value for the money. Cyanogen truly offers the best that Android has to offer - i've flashed my phone a while ago and never ever looked back. Screw you, HTC!
For someone who's still running the default HTC Android build and is not overly keen on bricking his phone (it's an HTC Desire S) and/or voiding his warranty, could you give me a summary of the compelling reasons for me to switch to Cyanogen?
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It is a good way to get rid of the HTC sense UI but really the only reason to upgrade is to gain software updates that the phone companies didn't bother with. I have an HTC desire Z that came with android 2.2 so the upgrade was worth it just for the ~30% improvement in battery life.
I see your phone comes with android 2.3 already so you may find it's not worth it until the next version of Android for phones is released.
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I was a massive Sense fan and only rooted my phone (Desire [Bravo]) to try and hack Sense 3 onto it.
While doing that I stopped my phone from booting.
So then I was forced to try a light ROM to get it back and running before having another go at what I wanted.
When I went back to Sense it felt... slow, bloated, full of crap I didn't want or need.
I decided I could live without the eye candy of the weather.
Next thing I installed Oxygen, Zeam Launcher and Swype keyboard.
I will play with other ROMs, but not Sense.
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In addition to what already been stated here, my phone in particular (HTC Tattoo) is an older, low-end Android phone which was basically abandoned by HTC, stuck with Android 1.6. Cyanogen 7 (sporting Android 2.3) really transformed it into a brand new phone.
My brother recently brought an HTC Evo, which is fairly well supported by HTC as well. He flashed it to Cyanogen and never looked back after complaining about the Sense UI and uninstallable applications.
cost/benefit analysis complete (Score:1)
BRB, buying up TouchPads enmasse.
Wow.. should buy one! (Score:1)
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This might be a good reason for me to buy a TouchPad. Good hardware , great price and it's an Android Tablet now.
Good luck. This page [slickdeals.net] may help you.
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Overclocking it is your friend. Mine runs almost as fast as iOS after upping the clock speed and minimising all the logging that goes on inside.
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There's no reason to use a 53 character random string when a memorable 3 word combination is just as effectively impossible to brute force with current technology.
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A dictionary attack does wonders for your 3 word combination.
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Choose between a thousand words or so for each word, and you have a password you can actually remember, with just as much entropy as the standard 8-digit random nonsense. Something like "original horse tuesday" or "memorable yacht Tasmania" is also much easier to remember than "r3!xp20.".
If you want more strength, then increase the number of words. Four words aren't much harder to remember than three.
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Or maybe correct horse battery staple.
If only someone like XKCD would promote something like this!
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available
really?
Cool (Score:2)
Meh to Android. (Score:3)
I bought a cheap TouchPad (trying to bag a Pre 3), installed Preware on it (so simple to do), over clocked it (again simple and now I have a dual core 1.5Ghz with 1GB of RAM) and gained access to all the lovely open source software available as well as a curated App Store by HP who have stated they are fully behind (receiving new apps and updates everyday), I've no reason to take WebOS off it thanks. I feel I'm only missing the Amazon Kindle App (US only atm), and Viber (which is still coming so they said in an email to me).
The community also seems a lot tighter for it as well. I think people are being too quick in their efforts to port Android to it.
I think the worse part of this is HP's impatience towards this, even as an existing iPad owner, I believe the HP failed on pricing and not on the technicals. They should stick with the hardware not just the software.
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Correction, too quick in their efforts to want to swap WebOS out for Android.
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For what it's worth, the Cyanogen guys said they plan to make it a dual-boot option, allowing TouchPad owners to continue to use WebOS alongside Android. I was lucky enough to pick up a TouchPad, and I've been pleasantly surprised by WebOS. Out of the box, it was extremely disappointing (the WiFi wouldn't work for more than 30 sec at a time), but it's been outstanding after upgrading to 3.0.2.
Is Preware to WebOS what Cyanogen Mod is to Android? I'll have to check that out, thanks!
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preware is basically cydia on iOS but with HP's blessing, I'm still new to this but that's how I understand it. If you're a Mac User I have some dead simple instructions to pass on if you want them, otherwise head on over to precentral.com.
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You can install kindle by following the instructions here:
http://forums.precentral.net/hp-touchpad-apps/288730-no-kindle-app-uk-3.html#post3099814 [precentral.net]
Works fine on my uk touchpad :)
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Thanks guys, this is what is also so great about WebOS as well. The community.
WebOS is quite good (Score:2)
I have many portable devices. ipads, ipod touches, various Android tablets and phones. I like them all and use them as a user and a developer. I had never used a WebOS device before. I went ahead and splurged for the $99 tablet and I was blown away. The card interface is beyond awesome. I had seen videos of it before, but that didn't do much for me. Using it in person was a different matter. The control and the visual feedback this interface provides is unbelievably good in my opinion as an advanced
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I agree, WebOS is really nice. I picked up a TouchPad last week and so far I'm really impressed. I have used Android since the original release date of the T-Mobile G1 and I have a ASUS Transformer that is nice but I don't pick it up over my Macbook. I've found myself using the Touchpad quite a bit. I don't know how to explain it other than it's very comfortable to use.
WebOS interface (Score:2)
As a happy WebOS user my self (Palm Pre since it's available in europe), I really, really hope that the type of "card-stack interface" that WebOS pioneered somehow finds its way into future versions of Android.
Already got an Android tablet. (Score:1)
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There is a port of Ubuntu that can be run on the TouchPad. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet but it seems like it might be worth a shot. Actually I haven't even had an opportunity to check out PreWare.
At the moment I'm not overwhelmed by the TP. It has a great looking display and seems pretty responsive even w/out the PreWare speedups, but the S/W is a bit flaky. The built in browser has trouble with gmail and I can't log into facebook. I'm stuck using the built in apps for that. OTOH I haven't explo
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Thanks for making me feel better about my crappy Android devices. :) :P
Text reflow works, but the keyboards are just as shitty ;)
Re:i'm sorry, this is really freakin old news. (Score:5, Insightful)
Your friend is an idiot. The Pony Express only operated from 1860 to 1861, which if you consult your calendar was more like 150 years ago, not 120. Also, unless you were dealing with extremely quick wars, it's a stupid example, not a hilarious one; it only took about 10 days for mail to travel from one end of the Pony Express route to the other.
Besides that, not everyone that was interested knew 8+ hours ago. Then again, some of us have productive things to do besides read tech news every waking minute of the day.
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You must be new here.