14 DAY TRIAL // Looks like the HP TouchPad may soon get a working, reasonably bug-free version of the Android operating system, much to the delight of ever so many owners. Android being Android, there are more than a few people who know how to hack and customize it.
Thus, there are those who know how to tweak it and port it to devices that were never intended to run it in the first place.
The HP TouchPad is one of, if not the most attractive prospect for such experiments.
After all, given how well it sold even post-mortem (so to speak), there are many people out there who wouldn't mind switching webOS for Google's solution.
Not that webOS is bad, especially since it got updated not long ago (and will be supported for a while), but HP did say it was halting development while it made it open-source.
All in all, there won't be any webOS apps for a long time, so people with software and technical know-how are exploring alternatives.
We already saw it gaming with Android, a WiiPad and a Console Emulator.
Now, a different Android port has been demonstrated on video, the MIUI, in alpha form, from the developers at MIUI.us.
Rather than Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0), this is a build of Android 2.3.7 and has almost everything running already.
Normally, it isn't that easy to get WiFi, Bluetooth, audio and the touch input to work, especially in an Alpha build, but there they are.
The Button Savior app, free to download from the Android Market (accessible through Google Apps) circumvents the bugged on-screen menu bar (which is supposed to fill in for the physical buttons that are absent).
There are some so-called “random bugs” still scurrying about, but those should be gone in later builds.
The only problem is with aesthetics, since Android 2.3 wasn't initially made for big screens like this 9.7-inch device (it is a smartphone OS).
Go here for the download link and installations instructions, but make sure to give the video at least a skimming first.
