Hey everyone. As you may know already the Touchpad is limited to playing movies formatted as MP4. We can't really get around this right now effectively with apps or anything on the actual device. I however was pointed towards a windows program which does a fantastic job at converting all types of video formats to MP4 and they come out looking great. The program is called Free Video Converter and is on the site www.any-video-converter.com. I have played around with it and it will convert a full length movie in about 20 to 30 mins depending on the original quality. I converted a 720p movie in about that time.
Give it a try and let me know how you go or if you have found any better programs
EDIT: Thanks everyone for your app suggestions in regards to playing vids on the TP. Here's a list of your suggestions
So I've been busy over the last couple of days that's why I haven't got any posts out. I am still working on compiling a list of good webOS apps, which will come eventually. I wanted to post today to tell you that, and also to tell you, in case you hadn't heard yet, that the Cyanogenmod team have apparently been working very hard on getting android over to the HP touchpad. They announced yesterday that they have developed an alpha Android rom for it. This rom IS NOT released but they have announced that they will be releasing the Beta once completed. The only other information given was a video showing the touchpad running this OS and some information which hinted that the device would be able to multi-boot e.g run webOS and Android.
The Rom allows them to boot into Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread but many of the components are barely functional at this point. The touchscreen isn't supported yet, the graphics are a bit dodgy because graphics acceleration is not yet supported, and also the general layout of android is optimized for mobile phone rather than a tablet which would normally run 3.x.x Honeycomb Android.
This is great and exciting news that we've all been waiting for and I can't wait to get an easy to follow tutorial out for all of you to be able to enjoy what is bound to be a great $98 experience. Lets all show our support by donating over at the dev sites like Rootzwiki and Cyanogenmod
Ok people, change of plans. I was going to bring you a list of good apps. I have changed my mind because today I was trawling the web for news on porting android and it turns out that progress has been made.
Soo....
you may have already heard and/or seen the video of someone with android running on a hp touchpad. There was a spoof one and then there was a legit one supposedly (that's what I'm running with because I like to be optimistic :) <---like how I turned the close bracket into a smiley face?? Anyway I found out over at rootzwiki that there is an image dump of a hp touchpad with Android 2.2.1 Head over to rootzwiki to see for yourself.
I have downloaded this dump and had a bit of a look at it (it doesn't look like much to the untrained eye).
One thing I can be sure about is that progress is truly underway. At one point there I thought that the Touchdroid Team had disbanded, but clearly I was wrong. This means that soon we should have a working rom out on the web and available for me to make a tutorial on. Until then, get excited, because I definitely am and it looks weird if I'm the only one.
I will keep trying to get this image on my touchpad and if it works well and is easy enough I'll make a tute for that otherwise we'll just have to wait until a proper rom release is out.
So the main stuff is posted already but I thought I'd make a post with a collection of other stuff that you can do with your touchpad. The first thing that you can do is change the theme:
So far the only theme available for touchpad is called Glass Effect suite, and all it really changes is the launcher menu to be transparent a bit. I thought I'd add it here anyway because its something to do while we wait :)
1. Firstly open up your Preware app (which you would have installed in tutorial 2) and wait for it to download the latest repository lists. Secondly we have to turn on the theming repositories. The following short video will show you how to do that.
Excuse the bad filming but basically what you have to do is enable the feeds that contain the themes. Then either look through the themes list for "glass effect theme for touchpad" or search for it in the search bar.
2. Deleting multiple emails at a time
In the email app and in the middle column you have a list of all the emails in the selected inbox. To delete one email you can swipe it to the right and then press delete. This works for one or two emails, but if you have a gigantic inbox then this can become somewhat tedious. There is however a better way to delete multiple emails.
In the middle column down the bottom there is a small icon that looks like a folder - tap on that
This will take you to a batch select mode which looks like this...
The blue highlighted ones are selected. Down the bottom you will notice there is a trash-can icon. This will delete all the emails you have selected.
3. Minimizing app quickly.
To quickly minimize an app simply swipe upwards from below the bottom of the screen onto the screen about an inch. This will minimize your application and take you to the home screen.
4. Closing an application.
To close an application either minimize it using the method above or press the "home" button. Once in the cards view you may simply drag the session you want to close, upwards off the top of the screen.
5. Managing Cards
To manage open cards you may do a few different things. The following video will demonstrate this.
So there you go. A few more things to play with. Tomorrow's tutorial will be a list of useful/good apps from both the hp app catalog and from the homebrew app store.
So far the last three posts outline the main things that you can do with the touchpad. By the end of tonight I will have one more post with a few smaller things eg themes and ease of use things. Over the next couple of days I will be attempting a dual boot with ubuntu linux and I'll post my results. If you do not know what ubuntu is just google it and you will soon find out.
I will of course keep the website updated with any progress I get on dev of android for touchpad from other sites. If you have any other requests for the blog then please feel free to comment on this post or send me an email at rlgod92@gmail.com and I'll get back to you asap. I have already received some fantastic feedback about the blog which is great as it was only a spur of the moment idea which has worked out quite well. If anybody would like to contribute to the blog in any way I would love to post their findings and/or thoughts.
I hope everyone else is as excited as I am about the possibilities of this bargain tablet we've managed to get hold of.
Ok so here's the big one - overclocking. For all those who do not have any knowledge of overclocking basically it just allows the brain of your device to think quicker. Keeping that in mind the end result is a faster touchpad which will do all those small tasks just that little bit quicker.
WARNING!! - This step has an aspect of it which is reasonably high risk. One of the parts of this step requires you to flash a new kernel to your device. The implications of that not working correctly will mean that you may not be able to recover your device or use it for a long time until somebody comes out with a solution to recovering it. ALSO this process may VOID your manufacturers warranty, therefore if you choose to go ahead with this step it is your own decision and any resulting consequences are your and only your responsibility. Do not expect me to take any responsibility for any of these consequences.
Now that that's over lets get on with it. Just one more thing for those who are going to attempt this step. For your own good try and think through every step in your mind and make sure you know completely what you are doing before you start to do it. We will be overclocking to 1.5Ghz but there is a kernel that allows 1.7Ghz.
You will need:
A fully charged HP Touchpad
Have updated your Touchpad to version 3.02
Have an active wifi connection from your touchpad
Have completed tutorials 1 and 2 from this blog which cover activating developer mode and installing the preware app
A computer or other device to watch the following video on whilst you do this step
Hi all, welcome to one of the more involved steps. Before beginning I recommend you have about 15 minutes free and are sitting in front of a computer with your Touchpad and usb cable as this step requires use of your PC or Mac. I will only be posting the PC method for now as I have not attempted this on a Mac, but I will include a link at the bottom of the post for Mac users.
Developer mode enabled on your Touchpad (watch tutorial 1)
1. Please install the Latest Java package before you attempt any of this or I guarantee you this will not work correctly for you. Once you have downloaded 'webOS Quick Install' please copy the file 'WebOSQuickInstall-4.2.3.jar' to a folder that is easily accessible for you as this will make your life a lot easier when you need to reopen the program.
2. Plug your Touchpad into your computer via the included USB cable. A small popup window will appear on the top right of your Touchpad. Press the 'Close' option. DO NOT select USB Drive as this step will not work for you if you do.
3. On your PC double click on the WebOSQuickInstall-4.2.3.jar file. The program will install a subprogram called Novacom which you will have to allow it to do to function correctly. Once that is done you can close the program and restart it by double clicking on it again. In the window that opens, select the globe icon on the right.
4. Once the program has finished downloading the latest packages you will need to search in the Applications tab for 'Preware' and install that package. Once that has finished installing you can go onto your Touchpad to the Launcher, which looks like a House, and in the Downloads tab you will notice the Preware app.
So that's the end of this tutorial. I would encourage you to have a look through the Preware app because there is a whole database of webOS apps that aren't in the HP app store and I expect it will grow continuously now that the Touchpad is into the homebrew community.
