TouchPad - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

[Updated] CyanogenMod 9 Nightlies Go Live For The HP TouchPad And AT&T LG Nitro HD / Bell LG Optimus LTE

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in AT&T, Bell, Development, HP, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, LG, News, Nitro HD, Optimus LTE, TouchPad, Videos

The AT&T Galaxy SII (i777) isn't the only Android device getting official CyanogenMod 9 nightly love today, as the first nightlies just went live for the HP TouchPad (codename tenderloin) and the LG Nitro HD (codename p930, also known as LG Optimus LTE on Bell Canada).

Definition: A "nightly" is a bleeding edge release that is built on a daily basis, usually at night after a full day's worth of new code has been committed.

It could oftentimes be unstable and not properly tested, lacking any changelogs, but eventually evolving into alphas, betas, release candidates, and finally stable releases.

Feb

HP Finally Gives Up Touchpad's Android Kernel Source (From Touchpads Caught Running Android In The Wild)

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Development, HP, News, TouchPad

Remember back when an HP Touchpad was spotted running Android out of the box? Well, it would appear that after some cajoling, the CM team (in association with an attorney) have convinced HP to release the Touchpad's Android kernel source, along with a couple of other GPL components specifically modified for Android-powered Touchpads accidentally released to the wild. In addition to the kernel, HP released code to androidvncserver and i2c-tools. The only thing missing, according to Green (part of the CM team), is the Wi-Fi driver. Green explains this in an announcement on the RootzWiki forums:

I did some digging around and it appears that the wifi driver shipped with both webOS and with the Android are GPL, there are multiple evidences of that including the driver licensing string.

Jan

CyanogenMod Releases CM9 Alpha 0 For The HP Touchpad

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in News, Tablets, TouchPad

The CyanogenMod team recently teased us with a video of CM9 running on the Touchpad and now it looks like their efforts have culminated in the first Alpha ("Alpha 0") release of CM9 for the WebOS tablet.

The earlier CM7 Alpha 1 and Alpha 2 builds were quite buggy and not really ready for primetime use, but the latest CM9 release is a whole "*two* CyanogenMods better", bringing Ice Cream Sandwich goodness to the Touchpad. However, CM9 is still Alpha 0, which means "'zero hardware-accelerated video', 'zero camera', and 'zero support!'". In addition, the audio "is a mess", the microphone does not work, market filters prevent some apps from being installed, Titanium Backup crashes the kernel, some older hardware problems from CM7 still exist, and traditional storage mounting is not supported.

Jan

CyanogenMod's HP TouchPad Team Releases A Glimpse At CM9, Hopes To Give Us "Something To Play With" Soon

Posted by Brandon Lancaster in News, Tablets, TouchPad

If you happen to own an HP TouchPad and have been waiting patiently for a proper Android port, you'll be overjoyed to see a sneak peek of what CM9 brings to the table. If you recall our announcements for the CM7 Alpha 1 and Alpha 2 builds, you probably remember an overwhelming indication that neither build was all too stable, and running them was not for the faint of heart. Alpha 3 is a bit better, but still has a laundry list of issues. A lot of things don't work, or only work intermittently, which makes it very difficult to use for the average consumer.

Oct

CyanogenMod 7 For HP TouchPad Updated To Alpha 2, Brings Various Bug Fixes And Improvements

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, News, TouchPad

Just six days after The CyanogenMod (CM) team released the first alpha build for the TouchPad, they're back with alpha 2. Despite being bumped up a version, it's still an alpha, meaning there are many things that can (and likely will) go wrong. Still, it looks like they've made quite a few improvements with the update:

Changelog:
(AKA things we hope we fixed)

* Plugging headphones in should now shut off speaker volume
* Battery drain issues have been (partially) addressed
* More apps now available in market (thanks to Flemmard)
* Temporarily removed suspect fsck_msdos to fix random folder deletion on media/sdcard.

Oct

CyanogenMod Team Releases CM7 Alpha 1 For The HP TouchPad

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, News, Tablets, TouchPad, Videos

Soon after HP started their TouchPad fire sale, a version of the device running Android 2.2 appeared on eBay and went on to sell for almost $700. Hopes for an Android port were high and the developer community swung into action offering a $2300 bounty for anyone who could load Android on the TouchPad. The CyanogenMod team, Android developers extraordinaire, did not disappoint and soon the news broke that they had managed to successfully get Android running on the TouchPad. Over the next few weeks the CM team made a number of tweaks to the various hardware and software components of the HP TouchPad, including GPU acceleration, Wi-Fi, Sound, Accelerometer, 3D Games, and video acceleration to ensure that CM7 worked smoothly.

Sep

TouchPad Update: Now With Working Wi-Fi, Sound, Accelerometer, 3D Games, And Video Acceleration

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Android OS, News, TouchPad

The HP TouchPad Android port has been a fascinating journey to follow. Last we spoke of the device, Team CM showed off multitouch and GPU acceleration; and, since then, great strides have been made in the way of the port. Basically everything works as it should now, including Wi-Fi, sound, the accelerometer, 3D games, and video acceleration.

While everything appears to be running smoothly, Team CM reminds us that this is still a closed alpha build and it's not quite ready for the masses, as "things still aren't as reliable as [they'd] like."

For more information on the status of the project, check out this thread over at RootzWiki.

Sep

Team Touchdroid Disbands Amid Rumors Of Theft/Plagiarism, Open Sources Their Code

Posted by Liam Spradlin in News, TouchPad

Since HP made its decision to -ahem- streamline their inventory of Touchpads via fire sale, Android users have been clamoring for the ability to run Google's mobile OS on the inexpensive (yet powerful) tablet.

This, of course, led to fierce competition between developers to be the first to get Android running on the Touchpad. The competition really heated up after Hack N Mod offered a bounty to the first developers able to get Android working on HP's previously doomed device.

In the beginning, there were two primary teams working on developing a touchpad-friendly version of Android: Touchdroid and CyanogenMod. When the first video of CM7 successfully booting on the Touchpad surfaced, it was big news, despite the fact that next to nothing worked (not even the touch screen).

Sep

CyanogenMod Team Fixes Color Issues And GPU Acceleration On The HP TouchPad

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, TouchPad

Yesterday we saw a video of an HP TouchPad with full multitouch capabilities, and today Team CyanogenMod dropped a video not only showing off multitouch (which was apparently their work in the first place, but we'll stay out of that drama for now), but accurate color reproduction and full GPU acceleration as well.

^{ohai, creepy doll!}

The rate of progress being made on the TouchPad is truly astounding. It won't be long now before we have a fully working version for all of you who took advantage of the firesale.

[via Reddit]

Sep

HP TouchPad Android Port Gets MultiTouch Support

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, TouchPad

Developers are making progress on the Android - TouchPad front almost daily, and the next major hurdle has been crossed(aside from getting Android to boot, of course) -- the touchscreen. For the past few weeks, devs have been spending countless hours trying to get the multitouch display to work properly with Android, and that feat was achieved earlier today.