[Agactual]

I have had android tablets for about 2 years now and I never quite liked the operating system. Even with the many updates I have seen, I have never really liked android. I have been looking into getting something different, if the right opportunity comes along. There are 4 options

1. iPad, which i like but are extremely expensive

2. Windows 8, which will take some time before i can even try it out on a tablet

3. Blackberry, which looks like complete garbage

4. WebOS 3 on the HP touchpad

Now I realize this is probably a far fetch since they stopped selling the touchpad over a year ago. You look at the hardware and it is still impressive. And the price, it looks like a 32gb touchpad will run you about $120. So that is all good but the major potential downfall is WebOS 3. I can see people tend to load android onto touchpads. I have seen video demonstrations and it looks nice. However, I know nothing about it. Is it still supported by anyone? Are there still apps at the market, and if so, are there enough apps to really use a touchpad. Does webos 3 even function properly?

Is getting a touchpad and keeping the stock firmware on it a realistic option at this point or is that way too ridiculous of a thought?

 

[viking55]

The HP Touchpad is a very good Tablet. Web OS is very good, I have a 32 gig version. When you install Android on the TP you don't remove webos. Once Android is installed you then have a dual boot Tablet. The only thing that does not work when booted into Android is the camera so no SKYPE video chats. If you need the camera boot into WebOS.

I like the HP it has great hardware and I use it a lot. The only downside for me is that it is the same size as an iPad but a fair bit heavier.

Now you say the Playbook is garbage, but I disagree. I also have a 32gig Playbook and once you get used to the OS it is pretty good. I use it a lot too.

I only got the Playbook because it was massively reduced, that's why I got the Touchpad too. The recent up grade of the Blackberry OS has made a difference and when BB10 comes out soon it will be even better.

 

[Agactual]

Thanks for the info. The dual booting sound like an amazing feature, I am surprised more people don't go for the touchpad. I could actually end up with a tablet that has identical specs to what i have now (LePan II) but it would have two firmwares on it and i could probably end up netting about $70 after all is said and done. Plus the extra internal storage would be great. I have a 32 mb sd card but I can't install any apps on it, so i am pretty much down to about 5gb for apps, which aint enough. I am quite excited by this idea.

I do have 2 more questions

1. Do you find that webOS has good stock apps? I use my tablet mostly for school, which pretty much involves email, contacts, pdf's, videos, note taking and internet. I don't need or want all of the frills of android, on a day to day basis. I just want a tablet that has just those functions, working very well. The problem is have with android is it just feels bloated and overwhelming at times. I kind of want something more like iOS, just less locked down and evil. However, having android 4.0 would be nice with the access to all of the apps, so...

2. Is cyanogenmod 9 stable on this? I don't care about cameras or microphones, so as long as it doesn't crash all of the time or have wifi problems or anything like that, i am cool with it. Just having an operating system that is still very much alive and getting updates constantly would certainly be great to have.

And fair enough about the playbook. I read about them along time ago, when they were like $500 and had no features. I didn't realize they actually have been working to make them better and what i quickly read, it is not a bad operating system. I still don't want one, since i am not a fan of 7 inch tablets, but i suppose for the price and with the changes that have been made, it is probably pretty good.

 

[viking55]

Cyanogen mod is really stable and crashes are very rare I had my 1st crash/reboot for weeks on Saturday when my grandson was using the touchpad. With it being AOSP vanilla it has no bloatware and is very quick.

The WebOS is great the true multi tasking is great , email web browsing etc is a treat to use. I really like the ability to send texts directly from the TP too.

A big plus on the Touchpad is that it has Gorilla glass and is very tough. The screen is very good with superb viewing angles and the battery lasts a long time.

I got mine in the fire sale and I think it's the best £120 I have spent in a long time.

 

[Agactual]

Do you have the dock and keyboard? I wonder if it is worth spending an extra $30-$40 to get those.

 

[johnnyblades]

I have two Touchpads and an Toshiba Thrive. I love the Touchpads. The screen is awesome and the speakers are the best I've heard on a tablet. Very good at playing videos, better than the Thrive for sure. I loved WebOS, but the app availability is essentially zero. I haven't booted into WebOS, I too am dual booting with CM9, in six months. However, if you are really just interested in email, videos, and web browing...then WebOS is terrific! I've never done any notetaking on any tablet, so I can't comment on that. I agree that the dual boot option is very nice on the Touchpad.

I'm still running CM9 alpha 2 on my touchpads and I absolutley never have had an reboot or wifi issue on either of them. Most people are running nightly builds, so that might be a better option. The alpha 2 build is perfectly stable and does everything I need, so I haven't bother to do the nightly thing.

I like the Thrive for the replaceable battery, full sized SD, USB, and HDMI ports. But the Touchpad is better in everything else.

 

[johnnyblades]

Do you have the dock and keyboard? I wonder if it is worth spending an extra $30-$40 to get those.

I bought a bluetooth keyboard for the Touchpad a long time ago (luckily got it very cheap) but have literally never used it except to try it out when it arrived. I don't do that much typing on the tablets and find the keyboard makes it much less portable. That being said, it did work.

 

[Agactual]

I ended up getting a touchpad. I got the 32gb version with android already installed. It also came with a case, the dock, and a 3rd party bluetooth keyboard. I think it was about $175 in total. I have only been able to try it out for about a hour tonight but I do really like it. WebOS is very simple, which I like. It is all very integrated and the native apps are very well done. The android half work fine. The touchscreen is very slightly unresponsive at times in android but not too bad. Overall, i do very much like it, especially the feel of WebOS. I think i may have (hopefully) found a tablet that I like. I need more time to try it out but I do have a good feeling about this one.

 

[johnnyblades]

I ended up getting a touchpad. I got the 32gb version with android already installed. It also came with a case, the dock, and a 3rd party bluetooth keyboard. I think it was about $175 in total. I have only been able to try it out for about a hour tonight but I do really like it. WebOS is very simple, which I like. It is all very integrated and the native apps are very well done. The android half work fine. The touchscreen is very slightly unresponsive at times in android but not too bad. Overall, i do very much like it, especially the feel of WebOS. I think i may have (hopefully) found a tablet that I like. I need more time to try it out but I do have a good feeling about this one.

175 is a pretty good deal with all those accessories. I think you'll be happy with it. Did you get the Touchstone charger? If not, buy one! That's probably the best thing about the Touchpad is that inductive charging.
Also, I overclocked the Touchpad on CM9 to 1.5Ghz for a pretty noticeable increase in responsiveness. There is a way to overclock the WebOS as well, but it's been so long since I've done that, I can't remember much about it except it involved Preware installation:
http://www.webosbuzz.com/hp-touchpad/633-how-install-preware-onto-hp-touchpad.html

 

[Agactual]

Did you get the Touchstone charger? If not, buy one! That's probably the best thing about the Touchpad is that inductive charging.

Yup. Got the USB charger and the touchstone dock thing.

It seemed like quite a steal, considering a little over a year ago, this would have been $800+ bundle.

I finally have some free time tonight, i should be able to really get to know this thing now.

 

[Agactual]

I actually have discovered two issues of slight annoyance while in android

1. Flash videos don't work. I go to youtube and videos just don't play. They work in webos but not cyanogenmod 9. Is there any way to fix that?

2. The market is limited. If i go to the playstore and look at "top games" or something like that, there will be like 10 listed, whereas on my old tablet, there may have been 100. I can get around it by going to the amazon market or the playstore's website but it is all a bit of a hassle really. Any thoughts?

 

[johnnyblades]

I actually have discovered two issues of slight annoyance while in android

1. Flash videos don't work. I go to youtube and videos just don't play. They work in webos but not cyanogenmod 9. Is there any way to fix that?

2. The market is limited. If i go to the playstore and look at "top games" or something like that, there will be like 10 listed, whereas on my old tablet, there may have been 100. I can get around it by going to the amazon market or the playstore's website but it is all a bit of a hassle really. Any thoughts?

What android rom did you install?
flash videos play just fine on my touchpad, and I'm on the older CM9 alpha 2. Do you have hardware acceleration enabled in settings?

Not sure about the games, I don't really use mine for games. the kids use it all the time for their kids games. If you read the forums, I'm sure there is a way to edit the build prop file...

http://rootzwiki.com/forum/232-hp-touchpad-android-development/

 

[demag]

I have a dual boot Touchpad but it has started dropping the connection on wifi even though I have a top spec new Linksys router. Apparently its a common fault which might be hardware not software related. So I am now looking for a new tablet, possibly 3g but am very confused now!

 

[bearbuck]

I actually have discovered two issues of slight annoyance while in android

1. Flash videos don't work. I go to youtube and videos just don't play. They work in webos but not cyanogenmod 9. Is there any way to fix that?

2. The market is limited. If i go to the playstore and look at "top games" or something like that, there will be like 10 listed, whereas on my old tablet, there may have been 100. I can get around it by going to the amazon market or the playstore's website but it is all a bit of a hassle really. Any thoughts?

It was stated already but I believe you need to update your TP. Since you bought it already dual booted you never know what's there. You may want to check out Rev Kyle on youtube, he's great for walking you through installation of nightlies and builds for the touchpad. Since I added android to mine it's become the tablet I reach for first. I have full market and like say earlier, I boot into webos when I need to use the camera. I just love the option when i turn it on to go android or webos. Last, use the homebrew to improve you speed and experience. No other tablet gives you the freedom of the touchpad.

 

[johnnyblades]

I have a dual boot Touchpad but it has started dropping the connection on wifi even though I have a top spec new Linksys router. Apparently its a common fault which might be hardware not software related. So I am now looking for a new tablet, possibly 3g but am very confused now!

Does it drop wifi in Android and WebOS both? If it's both, it's probably hardware related. If its just in Android, I would suggest finding other versions of CM9 (assuming you are using CM9). I've had zero wifi problems on the old, outdated Cm9 alpha 2 on either of my Touchpads. I've read about others having problems, but I think everyone eventually gets it sorted out by changing the channel on the router or using a different build.

perhaps you have already tried, but this is the forum that I mostly follow for HP Touchpad CM:
http://rootzwiki.com/forum/217-hp-touchpad/

 

[Agactual]

Ok, I finally got around to looking into this. I have CyanogenMod version 9.0.0 RCO Touchpad alpha 0.6. Build date is from January 2012. Seems like the person I bought this from never updated android. I am quite surprised that it is working as well as it is for an alpha build. Looks like I know what I will be doing once I get some free time.

I used to have a viewsonic G tablet that I would put roms on all of the time. I probably changed it about a dozen times. Hopefully that experience will make switching this thing easy enough.