The TouchPad thread
Snarkasm
Madison, WI Icrontian
For the few of us that have a TouchPad, there are a couple of tweaks that make the tablet much, much speedier and more usable. You're going to start by overclocking it to 1.5GHz from its default 1GHz, and then you're going to use Preware to install all manner of patches and applications to tweak the device to your desires. 
Step 1
Update your TouchPad to the latest version. Go to the launcher, scroll to the Settings section, and select the System Updates option (looks like a little present). Check for and install updates to ensure you're on the latest version (3.0.4 build 77 as of today).
Step 2
Enable developer mode. Go to the Cards view by hitting the home button and type "webos20090606" without the quotes into the "Just type..." box at the top. You'll see a window pop up with a toggle for developer mode. Enable this, and do not enter a password at the following prompt. Leave it blank and hit submit. You're all set!
Step 3
Install Preware. The easiest way is to use the WebOS Quick Installer, which you can grab here at the moment. (If this link ever fails, I'll update, or you can Google for it.) You'll be hooking up your TouchPad to a computer to install Preware; I've done this on Windows, but it will apparently work on OS X as well. The Quick Installer is a JAR file, which means you'll need Java installed on the machine you've chosen. When launched, this will install the Novacom driver required to communicate with the TouchPad, and then ask for you to connect the TouchPad. Do so, and do not enable USB storage mode - leave it as is. When the WebOS Installer notices your TouchPad, it will show it in the dropdown box in the top right for Devices. Once you see that, click the globe icon on the right side; from the list that comes up, find Preware, and tell it to install that.
Step 4
Overclock your TouchPad. Once Preware is installed, you can disconnect from the PC; everything else can be done directly from the device. Preware should now show up as an application in the Downloads section. Open it, and accept the notices it shows you. It will retrieve and update package lists for your TouchPad. When it finishes, tap the magnifying glass in the top right corner, and search for "Govnah" and then "UberKernel." UberKernel is a set of kernel improvements for the TouchPad that includes a profile that allows the TouchPad's max frequency to scale to 1.5GHz. Govnah is the application that will allow us to choose this profile for use. Once both are installed and you've rebooted the TouchPad, open up Govnah and tap the Profile field at the top. It's set to Palm Default by default, and select "OnDemandTcl 1512." You're done! The TouchPad will scale to 1.5GHz as necessary, and ramp down to 192MHz otherwise.
Step 5
Install your tweaks. Preware has a ton of user-generated tweaks out there that you may find useful on your TouchPad. As a sample, I've installed the following:
- Remove Untrusted SSL Certs: this removes compromised CAs such as DigiNotar from acceptable root authorities for the TouchPad.
- Disable Lock Screen: does what it sounds like.
- Faster Card Animations HYPER Version: speeds up the animations of the TouchPad, giving the whole thing a snappier feel. Coupled with the OC, this makes for a very responsive tablet.
- Muffle System Logging: improves performance by reducing the amount of logging the system does by default.
- Remove Tap Ripple: hides the animation that pops up on every finger-tap in WebOS. Personally very annoying to me - happy that it could be removed.
- FileMgr: a file manager.
Keep taking a look around Preware. There's a LOT in there.
And finally, some of the apps I've found and liked:
- Dropboxify HD: not free, but a nice Dropbox client for WebOS.
- Internalz Pro: excellent file manager
- KalemSoft Media Player: also not free, but an exceptional media player. Can play anything you throw at it.
- NomNomNom: a rather pretty Reader client. Also not free.
- FeedReader: free Reader. Multi-pane layout is nice.
- Spaz HD Beta Preview 2: a nice HD Twitter application for WebOS.
Hopefully this helps some others that might come across TouchPads.
Step 1
Update your TouchPad to the latest version. Go to the launcher, scroll to the Settings section, and select the System Updates option (looks like a little present). Check for and install updates to ensure you're on the latest version (3.0.4 build 77 as of today).
Step 2
Enable developer mode. Go to the Cards view by hitting the home button and type "webos20090606" without the quotes into the "Just type..." box at the top. You'll see a window pop up with a toggle for developer mode. Enable this, and do not enter a password at the following prompt. Leave it blank and hit submit. You're all set!
Step 3
Install Preware. The easiest way is to use the WebOS Quick Installer, which you can grab here at the moment. (If this link ever fails, I'll update, or you can Google for it.) You'll be hooking up your TouchPad to a computer to install Preware; I've done this on Windows, but it will apparently work on OS X as well. The Quick Installer is a JAR file, which means you'll need Java installed on the machine you've chosen. When launched, this will install the Novacom driver required to communicate with the TouchPad, and then ask for you to connect the TouchPad. Do so, and do not enable USB storage mode - leave it as is. When the WebOS Installer notices your TouchPad, it will show it in the dropdown box in the top right for Devices. Once you see that, click the globe icon on the right side; from the list that comes up, find Preware, and tell it to install that.
Step 4
Overclock your TouchPad. Once Preware is installed, you can disconnect from the PC; everything else can be done directly from the device. Preware should now show up as an application in the Downloads section. Open it, and accept the notices it shows you. It will retrieve and update package lists for your TouchPad. When it finishes, tap the magnifying glass in the top right corner, and search for "Govnah" and then "UberKernel." UberKernel is a set of kernel improvements for the TouchPad that includes a profile that allows the TouchPad's max frequency to scale to 1.5GHz. Govnah is the application that will allow us to choose this profile for use. Once both are installed and you've rebooted the TouchPad, open up Govnah and tap the Profile field at the top. It's set to Palm Default by default, and select "OnDemandTcl 1512." You're done! The TouchPad will scale to 1.5GHz as necessary, and ramp down to 192MHz otherwise.
Step 5
Install your tweaks. Preware has a ton of user-generated tweaks out there that you may find useful on your TouchPad. As a sample, I've installed the following:
- Remove Untrusted SSL Certs: this removes compromised CAs such as DigiNotar from acceptable root authorities for the TouchPad.
- Disable Lock Screen: does what it sounds like.
- Faster Card Animations HYPER Version: speeds up the animations of the TouchPad, giving the whole thing a snappier feel. Coupled with the OC, this makes for a very responsive tablet.
- Muffle System Logging: improves performance by reducing the amount of logging the system does by default.
- Remove Tap Ripple: hides the animation that pops up on every finger-tap in WebOS. Personally very annoying to me - happy that it could be removed.
- FileMgr: a file manager.
Keep taking a look around Preware. There's a LOT in there.
And finally, some of the apps I've found and liked:
- Dropboxify HD: not free, but a nice Dropbox client for WebOS.
- Internalz Pro: excellent file manager
- KalemSoft Media Player: also not free, but an exceptional media player. Can play anything you throw at it.
- NomNomNom: a rather pretty Reader client. Also not free.
- FeedReader: free Reader. Multi-pane layout is nice.
- Spaz HD Beta Preview 2: a nice HD Twitter application for WebOS.
Hopefully this helps some others that might come across TouchPads.
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