HP TouchPad lives on… As Android or Ubuntu.

Introduction

The incredibly popular, but unlucky, HP TouchPad has been discontinued. The company announced it would no longer sell any of their WebOS products, including the Palm series as well. The HP TouchPad was decently equipped with good specs. The HP TouchPad has incredible specs for the price point it is currently in. The specifications include CPU: 1.2GHz (DUAL) Qualcomm. GPU: Adreno 220. Display: 9.7 @ 1024*768 (132ppi). Memory: 16/32 GB (1GB RAM). All the above package for an astonishingly cheap $99.

Discontinuation

The device was sold out in almost every shop selling it for the $99 price mark. It quickly became the best-selling tablet on Amazon and other retailers. With specs like that of the TouchPad and a price of only $99 anyone who knew anything about technology broke their piggy banks to snatch up the device before another one did. HP discontinued support for the new and loved operating system. Mainly because the pressure and competition from Apple and Android could not allow for a new comer to capture the consumers. However with the hardware giant’s blessing you can manipulate your device, if you can get one that is. You can breathe new life into it allowing for another system to call your TouchPad home. However the amount of systems with that privilege are few and currently, if any make it out of beta. These include the popular Android OS and the also new Ubuntu for tablets. Ubuntu’s attempt in the mobile world.

Developer Support

  Thanks to the increase in sales and popularity the developer community have now begun work on the TouchPad reviving it from the inevitable doom of WebOS, which was however available for licensing. The device attracted the likes of Cyanogen Mod developers, which are famous for creating official nexus-like ROMs for devices with custom skins e.g. Samsung. The have now allowed for TouchPad users to be able to install Android into their devices. Other developers have taken the Ubuntu for tablets to the HP device allowing to run more systems than the unsupported WebOS. The XDA forum has also welcomed the tablet with new applications and tools to allow for a seamless and simple install of the Android system or the Ubuntu system. It will take quite a while for the developers to work on it and release stable releases of system updates and support. However it looks now that the community may be the only hope of restoring the Touchpad’s life as it says goodbye to WebOS.

Bugs and fixes

                Ubuntu for tablets is in beta and may not function fully on the HP TouchPad disabling some settings such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc. Android for the HP TouchPad also started off buggy with only a handful of features working on the device. In later releases such as that of Cyanogen Mod 9 you can see the tablet running the YouTube application natively. There is, as stated above, a large community supporting the HP TouchPad and allowing for more functionality to come out of the device. One stride in the importing of Android is that now all the hardware works seamlessly with the software including the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Gyroscope, etc. There are demos on how the device functions after the Android installation has been completed. For the wary first-timers who wouldn’t want to damage their device.

Worth it?

                The HP TouchPad is a great device and it only gets better the more you play with it. The WebOS system may become discontinued but that doesn’t mean the applications and services already running won’t function. There are many benefits from “upgrading” to either Ubuntu or Android however there are equal amounts of disadvantages namely, bricking your device (failing the installation leaving your device to become worthless). You can use the web browser as normal and go on about your day being able to browse your Facebook and Twitter while watching YouTube only not in a well-built native app. In summary if you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t do it.