Hannspree Hannspad to Digital Sketchpad

Posted on October 9, 2011

The Hannspree Hannspad comes with a rather old version of Google’s Android operating system which is running a version of Tap ‘n’ Tap to give it a more friendly look. The thing is, the latest (tablet orientated) version of Android 3.x (aka: Honeycomb) is friendly by default. So, here’s how I got the old out, and the new in.

First, you need to download two files:

http://blair.be/hannspad/recovery.rar
(NOTE: you must unrar the recovery.rar file to get to the update.zip)

http://www.multiupload.com/U2H2TOFDM8
(NOTE: only download from one of the links at MultiUpload. It’s several hosts all with the same file)

Plug in the Hannspad, with the USB cable, and turn on USB from the prompt on the screen. Copy across both files, and when it’s done unmount your Hannspad via your operating system and from within the Hannspad too.

So, now your Hannspad has two files on it, and is disconnected from your PC. Hold down the power button and completely power off the Hannspad. Hold down the volume + button and (with it still held down) hold down the power button. Your Hannspad will come up with a black screen with the green Hannspree logo, but in the top left of the screen you’ll see it display ‘Recovery key detected’ and ‘Booting recovery kernel image’. When you see those on the screen you can let go of the buttons.

A text only screen will appear with some options. Use the volume + and – buttons to move up/down the list of items until you see ‘Apply internal update.zip’ with that highlighted, tap the power button. This is it using the update.zip file. After a short time the tablet will reboot, but hold down the power button to turn it off. With the power off, hold down the volume + and power buttons and you’ll see the same text as last time, but now the text only screen will look a bit different. This is what’s called ClockWorkMod Recovery (CWM). In this screen you want to use the volume buttons to select ‘Install zip from sdcard’, but instead of the power button to select, you use the home button to select. In the next screen choose ‘Choose zip from sdcard’ then in the third screen choose the GtabCOMB3.3_refresh.zip. This is your Honeycomb ROM now installing. After a little while you’ll be taken back to the first text screen where you need to choose the option to wipe the Hannspad to a factory reset. Once this is done you can choose ‘Reboot’ and finally get to use your new Honeycomb device.

Android Honeycomb running on the Hannspad with the ASUS ice-cube live wallpaper.

It may seem long winded, but compared to other devices it’s surprisingly simple to reflash it.

To make it a sketchpad, I purchased Sketchbook Pro via the Google Market. It’s pretty cheap at £3.10p and it’s an excellent art app which has everything from pencils, brushes and various other strangely shaped brushes available: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.adsk.sketchbookhd

Someone (not me) using Sketchbook Pro: