TouchPad + Android = Touchdroid!

What you can do with the heavily-discounted HP TouchPad are limited, now that Hewlett-Packard is killing its WebOS devices and the $99 TouchPad will slowly wear off.

However, when one door closes, another may open. The death of TouchPad could give new life to TouchDroid, thanks to Android, obviously.

HP said on Thursday that it would discontinue all webOS-powered devices, which includes the HP TouchPad and Pre 3 smartphone. After 50 days of its introduction, HP ruthlessly slashed its TouchPad's price to $99.

To breathe new life into the dying device, a group of intrepid hackers have begin a project named Touchdroid, which marks the first effort to bring Android to the TouchPad.

According to the TouchDroid team's post on the RootzWiki forums, the group aims to first work on developing a port of Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Once that's reached a stable beta, it will begin working towards an Android 3.0 Honeycomb port as bugs are being fixed.

They have also launched TouchDroid Wiki for developers.

While each of the team members purchased their own TouchPads, they have put a donation link in case they brick one of their TouchPads, or if one needs to be the victim of a teardown for additional information, reports Geek.com.

Whether the Touchdroid project will entirely replace the TouchPad's webOS software is still unclear. It's possible for the developers to give an option to dual boot the tablet into either webOS or Android, said Venture Beat.

The project's website, touch-droid.com, is currently down for maintenance.

If you are getting the TouchPad and are an Android fan, stay tuned for the birth of TouchDroid.

HP Android