HP TouchPad Gets Another Lease On Life With Android 9 Pie ROM

It isn't just wights that refuse to die (no GoT spoilers here, sorry). Even some devices do, too, if given enough attention, love, and a dose of Android. Nearing a decade since it launched, the HP TouchPad seems to refuse to bite the dust. Especially now that it has just gotten yet another chance with the latest version of Android that isn't even available yet on some of last year's smartphones.

In the fast-paced mobile market, devices come and go, especially the ones that bear new and different platforms. Palm's webOS, which later became HP's and then LG's, had ideas that, back then, may have seemed too far ahead of its time. Unfortunately, that also meant that devices that ran it met their demise also ahead of their time.

The HP TouchPad was one of those. By today's standards, of course, it may hardly be worth mentioning except for its short-lived time in the spotlight. But its old, almost ancient hardware, does have one benefit in this case. It's easier to make it work with ROMs.

XDA Senior Member elginsk8r took upon himself to create an Android 9 Pie ROM that runs on that very same hardware. Given that Bluetooth and Camera are the only ones left not working, that's still a laudable first attempt. The developer promises it's already a work in progress. The HP TouchPad has waited 8 years, it can probably stand to wait a few more weeks.

You could very well use it without those two features, presuming you still have a working HP TouchPad at this point. The $499 webOS tablet immediately dropped to $99 when HP announced it was abandoning it. Many may have just decided to cut their losses and stow it away somewhere hopefully safe. If it's still there, now might be a good time to dust it off to get a "free" Android tablet running the latest version.