By Well, this is just peachy. Another lucky soul was able to buy an HP TouchPad (for $100) that had Android preinstalled instead of WebOS. Apparently, there’s a bit of a back story as to why this anomaly is happening. It appears Qualcomm, the chipset vendor for the tablet, tested Android on several units.
Probably the result of a geek’s boredom between shoving more chipsets into more phones and tablets. But, somehow, retail stores are getting these units and selling them to customers. One user gives us nearly 3 and a half minutes of Android love on the TouchPad showing that Android can run quite nicely, likely without a lick of optimization.
We only have one question, Qualcomm – when will you release the method? The community’s going to get this thing cracked wide open eventually, so you might as well come clean and make it easier for everyone involved. Video’s above. [Android & Me]
please tell me where to buy one ._.
Yay…. Froyo…. who really cares until Honeycomb (which will never happen, btw)?
Errr…. why do you feel it will never happen? And why should we not care about gingerbread. I’d love gingerbread over webOs on my touchpad.
If only some of these people were generous enough to send this to the dev team working on a HoneyComb port. I am sure it would be helpful. I am also sure the team would be willing to either pay for it through their donations fund or send them one of their own units in return.
I think the post on Engadget said that the one owner did a Rom dump for that exact reason.
This is fantastic! :)
what if you buy and wanted to have your tablet with WebOs and you discover Froyo ?
I am sure you could return it for a refund as it is not as offered by HP.
then you sell it for profit over Ebay, use the revenue to buy another one and keep the profit. Repeat till you get your WebOS
I would then call you quite the idiot…sell it for tons of money or enjoy a superior os without the work of doing itself.
Superior? Not going to lie, I love Android, but WebOS is far more superior on a tablet than 2.2 is..
You are right…WebOs is a very very good OS…and is 100% Linux based…not a fork as Android. Linus told that Android kernel will come back tothe Linux kernel mainstream in the next 4-5 years. Let’s hope so, merging is going really slow.
Except for the pathetic number of apps, WebOS IS very nice.
WOOT, OKC! I am getting mine hopefully today from an HP rep out of OKC.
That just screams PATENT INFRINGEMENT!
Icons arranged in a grid? IN A GRID!
Apple has a patent on that!
Please tell me I’m not the only one that is starting to think that this was done intentionally??? I mean, isn’t it odd that they killed off and had a fire-sale of HP TouchPads, only to happen to find (in a seemingly random occurrence) several units with Android preinstalled? I’m starting to think this was planned.