Two developer teams are working feverishly on bringing Android to the HP TouchPad — CyanogenMod and TouchDroid — and it now looks like the former is within striking distance of a fully-functional port.
In a video posted over on YouTube and included below, a CyanogenMod team member has shown off its progress so far, and nearly all of the TouchPad’s hardware is now supported. All that remains is to sort out the TouchPad’s wireless NIC. Once that has been completed, an easy-to-install CyanogenMod 7 download should be available for all those new $99 TouchPad owners who aren’t in love with the stock webOS experience.
One other important thing to note about the CyanogenMod port for the TouchPad is that it’s not going to replace webOS on your tablet. It’s a dual-boot system, so you’ll be able to reboot and switch from Android to webOS and vice versa. That’s pretty slick, and it’s an option none of your Android tablet-toting friends will have, since there are no webOS ports running on other hardware.
While CyanogenMod will bring Android to your TouchPad, it won’t bring the tablet-focused Android Honeycomb. CyanogenMod is built on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, though the team has made several tablet-friendly tweaks, such as adding the Honeycomb software navigation buttons to the bottom of the screen.
Even if the OS is a version behind what you’d find on a brand new, $400-plus Android tablet, you’ve still got bragging rights. With a dual-core 1.2GHz processor and $99 price tag, not even your chums that picked up a subsidized Honeycomb tablet got anywhere near the deal you did.
http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/android-for-hp-touchpad-port-nearly-ready-to-download-2011098/
