HP TouchPad gets unofficial Android 4.4.2 KitKat update

HP TouchPad was launched in the United States on the 1st of July, 2011 but was discontinued less than two months later, on August 18. Fortunately, users of this rather old and outdated tablet are now able to load it with an unofficial Android KitKat update based on CyanogenMod 11.

First, the slate shipped with the webOS operating system, but Android 2.3 Gingerbread became available for the TouchPad in late October. The port was based on CyanogenMod and was followed by various Alpha builds of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in January 2012, with official stable builds arriving in August 2013.

A few days ago, a new build of CyanogenMod 11 from Jcsullins was loaded on a HP TouchPad and it looks like most features work as intended - HD video playback is smooth, the front camera works, Bluetooth connectivity is supported and battery life is decent. Unfortunately, user reports also mentioned various crashes caused by Bluetooth, as well as problems with Google Maps, Netflix, and other apps.

This is not an official build and installing it can be quite tricky, but it surely is something worth being mentioned.