Modders offer bounty for HP TouchPad Android port - Update

Modders hope that the cash insentive will help speed along an Android port for the HP TouchPad tablet
Source: HP Following the recent fire sale of HP's TouchPad tablet, members of the Hack N Mod hacker and modder community have setup a cash bounty for the first functional port of Google's Android OS to replace the default Linux-based webOS mobile operating system. The Hack N Mod prize is intended to "speed up the porting process" and is currently valued at a total of $1,500.

The bounty is split into five different tasks: a Basic Android Port, WiFi, Audio, Camera and MultiTouch support. Submissions must be released and documented under an open source licence and source code should be published to the GitHub project repository service. The first group or individual to complete one of the required tasks will receive the corresponding prize.

Another group of developers under the aegis of the RootzWiki community has also started development on an Android port for the TouchPad. The TouchDroid team members say that their first build will be based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) running version 2.3 "Gingerbread". Once they have been able to successfully boot Android, they will switch to a CyanogenMod 7 base. Following a functional and 'stable' beta, they plan to start work on "a full Honeycomb port". At the time of writing, the new Team TouchDroid web site was down for maintenance.

After announcing that it would shut down webOS device operations, late last week HP began liquidating 16 GB and 32 GB models of the TouchPad in Canada and the US for $99.99 and $149.99 respectively. Yesterday (22 August) prices in the UK were also reduced to £89 and £115.99 at a number of online retailers such as BestBuy.co.uk, Currys, John Lewis, PC World and Comet.

The HP TouchPads are powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core Snapdragon CPU, have a 9.7-inch multitouch display with a resolution of 1024×768 and a front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera. Built-in wireless connectivity includes 802.11b/g/n wireless and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.

Update: AndroidGuys has now reported that some developers have already succeeding in getting Android to run on the HP TouchPad. More details, including a short video demo, can be found in the news post.

Update 2: The XDA developers have now teamed up with Hack N Mod to increase the total bounty to more than $2,000.

(crve)