Android on the HP Touchpad (Alpha Release) | Hacker News Reader

Android on the HP Touchpad (Alpha Release)

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Installed it on my 32GB Touchpad last night; here are my observations so far (YMMV).

Pros:

+ It's an alpha, but impressively stable. No more than a couple force quits all night. No random reboots.

+ It feels a world faster than webOS already.

+ Battery life isn't optimized, but wasn't horrible, either.

+ Touchstone worked for me; even had a chime when docked.

+ Many apps I restored to the device worked wonderfully.

+ Did I say apps? I'll say it again: Apps.

Cons:

+ Obviously, not all apps work perfectly.

+ Wi-Fi was flaky on 802.11n (5Ghz). Turning on and off a few times fixed it.

+ Market reported being offline when everything else on the unit was connecting fine. See above Wi-Fi fix.

+ Market is filtering many apps, but here's a fix: http://forums.precentral.net/other-tablets/303534-how-guide-...

+ Unexplained slowdowns from time to time. It's Alpha. It happens.

+ Will wipe your /media/internal directory for repartitioning. Back it up first.

Overall, I'm really impressed with the speed and result of the CM7 Team's effort although I find myself missing the multitasking/switching component of webOS (but not the slowness).

webos user here. App switching, do you mean the card system ? I think its terrible in comparison to holding down the home button on any android. Hold down the home button and it shows you all the recent apps.

There's pros and cons to both systems; it's merely a preference of mine after having a mixture of both Android and webOS devices for a couple of years now.

A lot of people don't know that you can move the cards around so that you can arrange two cards to be right next to each other, if you could speed up your workflow that way. I also don't like how you have to keep the home button pressed pon android, may be it is just my phone, but I would rather have an instant response to pressing home button rather than a timed one.

Using it for a day now - it is surprisingly smooth for an Alpha. Some rough cuts here and there but nothing bad at all.

The boot time is fast. Apps launch fast. GPU seems to be doing its job - no sluggishness. Google Apps install and work fine. Wifi hasn't dropped. Browser/Flash works as well as it does on any other Android phone.

Haven't tested battery life yet but for the few times I tested disconnected from power source for a hour or two it did not seem to drain abnormally.

If you install moboot - you can conveniently choose between recovery/webOS/CM7.

BUT the webOS UI has different richness and cohesiveness to it - it goes closer to Apple experience than Android. But on the other hand it is dog slow in loading apps.

Once ICS based CM port comes out - the $99 TouchPad will be the best thing I ever bought! Till then it's a great hacking machine.

does sleep work on it ?

Yes, but not perfectly, it has the occasional sleep of death, the power management isn't all there, and wifi my not come back on without turning the wifi off and then back on.

For the wifi, turn off wifi sleep in the advanced wifi settings.

Don't think so - based on logcat and just how instantly it is there after pressing power button, only seems to turn off display.

I'm running this on my TouchPad, it's a little rough around the edges but miles above WebOS in speed and usability.

Screenshot of my home screen http://i.minus.com/ix1hOWz4bdIsi.png

Speed, maybe, but whenever I use my iPhone or Droid Incredible for web browsing and multitasking, I miss the WebOS app switching interface something terrible. It's the best handling of multitasking on a mobile device, period.

I can deal with having a less consistent, less beautiful interface than WebOS had, but I honestly find it very difficult to go back to Android/iOS's form of multitasking. Handling tabs in browsers makes no sense, I can't switch between applications quickly enough, and worse yet if I'm trying to copy information from one application to another (and copy/paste doesn't cut it).

I remember seeing a jailbroken iOS version with WebOS-style multitasking, that I'm going to have to look into once my Pre bites the dust.

What? Copy/pasting in Android between apps is At least as easy as the counter actions required in WebOS, and I can say that with a lot of certainty given that my passwords are all in LastPass and I don't save them in the browser. Further, having 8 cards of my browser open is beyond ridiculous, as is having to dismiss the entire window just to "change" tabs.

Downvoters, have you actually used both? I can open LastPass, click "Copy Password", long-press home, tap browser, click paste. Or, I can open LastPass, "copy password", swipe up, swipe to my browser card, select it, then paste. How is that faster?

I like some things about WebOS, but I don't know how it's card system is in anyway easier. It IS extremely condusive to those who like to wave their hands about on their tablet. The swipe up and left/right is great for those who like to emphasize "I'm gesturing on my tablet". Besides HC/ICS has the same mt-button which brings up live previews in the same way.

> I can open LastPass, click "Copy Password", long-press home, tap browser, click paste. >Or, I can open LastPass, "copy password", swipe up, swipe to my browser card, select it, > then paste. How is that faster?

Those sound about equally as fast. One benefit of the card-swiping system is that I know the state of each application visually when I'm switching between them-- for me, there is a better mental model that the application will have the same state when I return (be that in two minutes or two weeks).

I meant to imply copying between applications by manual entry and interpretation. I'd be hard-pressed to defend how webOS copy/paste implementation is any better or worse than Android/iOS.

> I like some things about WebOS, but I don't know how it's card system is in anyway easier.

It mimicks the PC, and it preserves state a lot longer than Android/iOS. I can leave Notes, a web page, a map, and phone open; they'll be open in the sequence I opened them, and if I drop everything, when I return, I'll know I'm in the middle of performing data aggregation with each of those applications. Android/iOS simply tackles this differently, I guess.

>One benefit of the card-swiping system is that I know the state of each application visually when I'm switching between them-- for me, there is a better mental model that the application will have the same state when I retur

Couldn't agree more. I'm very, very happy that Android has cloned this feature.

>It mimicks the PC, and it preserves state a lot longer than Android/iOS. I can leave Notes, a web page, a map, and phone open; they'll be open in the sequence I opened them, and if I drop everything, when I return, I'll know I'm in the middle of performing data aggregation with each of those applications. Android/iOS simply tackles this differently, I guess.

The only part that is unique about WebOS "It mimicks the PC" which I find to be slightly dubious anyway - switching apps in Ubuntu and Mac OS X are done via app icon ala Android-style. Resuming Applications in Android puts you in the same exact spot you left them in, in fact that is an essential component to how chained Intents work (whose absence on all other mobile platforms' multitasking implementations is an enormous wasted opportunity in my opinion, Intents are one of my favorite application mechanics ever).

| Handling tabs in browsers makes no sense

Opening new links in a new card is by far one of the worst user experiences I have ever seen. Also a pressing another button to switch to different windows ( default android and mobile safari) is not any better.

As someone else said, maybe the shortcut isn't obvious, but holding down the home button allows you to see a recent apps and switches apps (Android) must faster than scrolling through cards.

How is copy and paste different in WebOS (haven't found a use for it yet)

This is where we differ then :) For me, it's akin to how each application on PCs implement tabs, but in a slightly different way (Chrome v. Firefox v. Nautilus). Because webOS has a consistent interface for handling multiple pages (and WebOS 2+ has card grouping), it makes for less mental effort to expect that is going to happen.

Holding down the home button is as fast as scrolling through cards in my experience. You're right, that is a comparable interface for going back and forth between applications. I like how in webOS there is an infinitely-scrollable list of tabs, whereas in Android OS/iOS it is "most recently opened" applications, the state of each application is hard to tell just from their icons, etc. webOS better mimicks the PC model.

And I was unclear about copy/paste on webOS; I meant situations where you can't just copy and paste (like consulting a map for nearby cities or roads, and you have to perform manual entry). But I'm skilled in the webOS switch, others in Android/iOS. YMMV.

I agree WebOS task switching is second to none. Googles Ice Cream Sandwich release should go a long way to addressing the multitasking situation, team Cyanogen should be able to link the ICS task switcher to the "slide up" gesture, which should make for a much improved experience.

This was actually relatively painless! Got it installed in a matter of a few minutes, with the multi-boot option.

I downloaded a few apps and was happy to see Netflix work! Angry Birds too.

Facebook doesn't even show up from the market - not sure if other people are experiencing this or not. I assume the facebook app will not work on it, but strange that it doesn't even show up from market searches.

Would like to get swype on here somehow.

No problems with my wifi, at least not yet.

Very impressed!

EDIT: I see from a link lower down there is an update for the market apps not all showing. I'll install that later!

Just a note, if you have the sync turned on and own an android phone, it'll automatically grab the apps. This can be viewed as a pro or a con depending on the apps.

There's also an issue with the usb mounting when copying over large chunks of data. It'll randomly disconnect from time to time.

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