Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich to Run on HP TouchPad?
Anyone who ended up getting their hands on the WebOS powered HP TouchPad tablet during last year's fire sale of the device could be running Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich on it in the near future.
Many developers have already successfully created ports of Android software for the device including Gingerbread, the predecessor to ICS. Now it appears that HP was also testing its own custom builds of the Android software on the TouchPad, according to RootzWiki.
The source reported that HP gave the CyanogenMod team some information they needed in order to continue building its CyanogenMod 9 port for the HP TouchPad. The resources given should speed up the process and help them to run a stable version of the Android software on the tablet.
"HP supports the community and was kind enough to provide us with the Android kernel source and some other GPL components that they modified for the few Touchpads that were accidentally running Android," explained the CyanogenMod team.
Tech site 9to5 Google commented on the matter.
"The bundle of code that HP handed over sadly does not have Wi-Fi support for the tablet, but we are sure that it will not be long with some simple hacking," wrote the site. "So, why would HP do such a thing? In related news, CyanogenMod Alpha 0.5 was released yesterday for the HP TouchPad."
With source code that will help them create successful ports of Android software, an Ice Cream Sandwich port should arrive on the device sometime in the near future.
The TouchPad became the hottest tablet on the market this summer when HP decided to discontinue the line making its price drop to just $99 for the 16GB version. The tablet immediately began flying off shelves and supplies became scarce due to this fire sale.
