Cupcake party: Android 1.5 update coming to T-Mobile G1 owners next week
(Credit:
Screenshot by Bonnie Cha/CNET)
Finally, the moment all T-Mobile G1 owners have been waiting for! T-Mobile announced on Wednesday that it will start rolling out the official Android 1.5 (aka "Cupcake") update to G1 users starting at the end of next week. The update will be delivered over the air in random batches over the next several weeks, and T-Mobile expects to reach all G1 customers by the end of May.
Android 1.5 will bring a number of user interface improvements, better performance, as well as new features, such as an onscreen full QWERTY keyboard, video recording and playback, and stereo Bluetooth support. For a full list of features and an FAQ, check out T-Mobile's forum page.
We're anxiously awaiting our own Cupcake, and we'll update our full review of the T-Mobile G1 soon after. G1 owners, once you receive your Android 1.5 update, we'd also love to hear about your experiences as well. In the meantime, feel free to share your thoughts about the news below.
Bonnie Cha is a senior editor for CNET, covering smartphones and GPS. When she's not testing the latest gadgets, you can find her chasing after her crazy lab or surfing in the chilly waters of Northern California. E-mail Bonnie. 
Iphone never stuck g1 is slow also i can install cydia on iphone, if g1 is open source they why charge $25 to put a app on g1, why i cant install open source software G1 one sucks.
iPHONE IS 1000 TIMES better.
"Open Source" and "Free Marketplace" Is a concept you thould invest time in defining. It might make you seem a little less uninformed and trollish.
Just a thought.
First, my G1 has *NEVER* been stuck and it's managed to crash requiring a reboot *A LOT* less than my iPhone.
As far as the charging $25 to get a developer account. That's to weed out a lot of the idiots who would make nothing but 6 billion fart apps or a malicious app and Google would have no way of tracking them down. I personally think it's a good deterrent against stupidity. Also, they don't charge $25 to put an app on the G1, they charge $25 to put an app on the Market. You can still write your app and release a .apk file for free.
As far as no open-source software...The G1 is based on linux, but it's a PHONE...Do you have any idea how slow OpenOffice or something written for Desktop Linux would be on a PHONE? Although, if you really want linux apps on your G1, there are Ubuntu images you can put on your microSD card that the phone can boot to and it's normal Ubuntu with a GUI and stuff.
Personally...I hate haters like this. If you like your iPhone, go back to being a fanboy and leave the intelligent G1 community alone.
I get a good day of moderate usage with a free power saving app i downloaded from the marketplace.
Try keeping wifi and gps disabled and make sure apps aren't constantly running in the background.
Or you can just complain to T-Mobile and have them send out a replacement battery. ;) tee hee
My phone is now screwed.
I have the video player and slightly revised look to the OS, but using the browser causes errors and loading the market place gives me a message saying my wireless account isn't allowed to use the app.
Hope you all have better luck...
Google has neglected its users in this regard. Please don't do the same by not pointing this out. Thanks.
Combined search and go in browser.
Obviously on screen keyboard but works with apps installed that need a keyboard but you will need to update your apps to make it work.
Default settings need changing to make auto rotate and other features work.
Fixed bug so that if in UK Google maps now show miles.
On screen zoom + and - as well as magnify box.
Widgets some pre loaded some in market place hold on blank part of screen to access.
Folders put a folder on screen add your apps to give more space on screen open folder to rename hold on title bar onscreen keyboard opens.
Sometims on screen keyboard obscures part of screen you are looking at just scroll down with trackball.
Video recording has its own icon but you can switch between video and camera from either hrough menu.
No more holding camera button on screen button for taking pictures or video.
What else new gallery,improved contacts and call history, google talk.
Probably lots more as always with G1 check menu options and tap and hold to find all the features.
I always liked he G1 as it was fairly seamless in the way it worked this update makes it exactly what it should be just need flash player andit will be perfect.
Waiting patiently for my update. chrismuk66, thank you for the 1.5 OTA Update feature review.
I heard it's very similar, if not exactly the same, as the real 1.5 that's coming this week in the U.S. The onscreen keyboard requires more keystrokes to enter national characters than the physical keyboard. So it would be ideal to keep both the physical and onscreen keyboards at the same time.
Also some of the apps I've acquired while in android 1.1 stopped working. So I decided to return my G1's state back to Android 1.1 and wait for the official 1.5 update for the HTC Dream from TMobile instead.
Also today, May 12, '09, I received notices of 1.5 version updates for some of the apps (actually just 2: power manager and imeem). I still have other apps that I know did not work during my 1.5 test and did not receive any update notifications. I hope this will not be an issue when the 1.5 rolls out.
Also, even if 1.5 comes out, I'd still look forward to the day when flash is built-in to the browser.
I also heard that the upcoming 1.5 cupcake update will make it faster for the GPS to locate the user using Google Maps as well as better voice search capabiility.
- by only1kiku June 8, 2009 1:27 PM PDT
- I got the cupcake update and now my email won't work. G-mail works just fine, but the POP/SMTP application that I set up to get to my other accounts crashes as soon as I open it. It's a standard app and not one I downloaded from the marketplace, so I am afraid to get rid of it and try to reinstall. I'm going to go to the T-mobile forum to see if I can get assistance, but I thought I would post here too. Anyone else having this problem?
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