In the aftermath of HP’s liquidation of their WebOS powered TouchPad, a new initiative has begun to bring alternate operating systems to the shiny new hardware.
While efforts to bring Linux flavors such as Ubuntu to the TouchPad already existed, the folks over at hacknmod.com have put together a $1500 bounty to anyone that manages to bring Android to the tablet.
Meanwhile, a group that calls themselves TouchDroid are already working on the task, although development is admittedly slow while some of the members await their flash sale purchases to ship. Nevertheless, they seem confident that they can manage to bring at least Android 2.2 or possibly 2.3 (Honeycomb 3.0 has to wait until the source is open) to anyone who lucky enough to find a TouchPad in stock.
In other related news, a YouTube video has surfaced that shows a TouchPad running what appears to be an official Qualcomm test version of Android 2.2 (Froyo). The validity of this video seems suspect, especially because the author claims to have bought it like that directly from Best Buy and says it must have been some kind of fluke in the manufacturing facility. True or not, the buzz it has created shows how many people are interested in such a possibility.
Porting Android to devices it doesn’t belong on is nothing new. Android has been found itself on certain Windows Mobile phones, laptops, and heck it has even been seen booting on an iPhone. Most of the time it is nothing more than a proof-of-concept, or perhaps because a certain platform or device was cheaper and easier to come by than an official Android one.
In this case, porting Android makes perfect sense considering the flash sale pricing, and the fact that WebOS’s app catalog leaves a lot to be desired compared to Android and iOS. As of this writing, support for Netflix streaming and native office editing were not possible, and many apps such as Pandora run in a windowed mode because they were only designed to be run on smaller phone-sized displays. HP pulling the plug on the hardware means future developments and updates are becoming more unlikely.
I personally love many things about WebOS, so I think having a dual boot option would be fantastic and I can’t wait to see where this goes.
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