A couple of months ago, the HP TouchPad was put on sale for as low as $99. That’s the same price as the Android 4.0-powered NOVO 7 Paladin tablet that we have now. But back then, Android Ice Cream Sandwich was still in development and none can fathom that a day like this would come – a day wherein the abandoned HP TouchPad that used to run on WebOS could be one of the earliest tablets to be ported with an aftermarket firmware that’s heavily based on Google’s Android 4.0.3 platform.
Those who skipped the sale are probably in tears now; regretting the fact that they missed the chance to get the HP TouchPad. Oh well, blaming yourself won’t do you any good now. It’s too late for that, you know.
As for those who luckily got their own, you should know that the Android 4.0.3 ICS based CyanogenMod 9 firmware for the TouchPad still needs a lot of work. But the ‘Alpha 0’ build of the ROM has already been released with a lot of bugs and glitches of course. You can’t really expect much from this very early build but throughout the span of time, the brilliant mods that are currently working on the CM9 for TouchPad will eventually get those kinks ironed out. For now, you’ll have to bear with the fact that you can’t use your slate’s camera, audio and hardware video. But hey, look on the positive side. There’s Google Books that lets you read your favorite books while on the go.
As for those who are bold enough to try out the Alpha 0 build of CM9 for the HP TouchPad, you can go straight to this link to download the source code. Take note, if you know nothing about custom firmwares (flashing, rooting, etc.), better ask for help. But really, isn’t it quite great that Android ICS can actually run on a non-Android slate?
[Via Phandroid]
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