T-Mobile serves up some Android cupcake

Davey Winder
Friday, 08 May 2009 02:59

Business IT - Open Source

It has been a long time coming, so what will Google Android 1.5 AKA 'Cupcake' bring to the T-Mobile G1 party?

Just this week we learned that Google is being sued over the Android trademark. It would appear that the US Patent and Trademark Office told Google that the trademark application was no good because one far too similar had already been granted to the Android Data Corp, but Google pushed on with the Android OS anyway.

Unsurprisingly, it is now being sued along with the Open Handset Alliance and 40 or so other companies for trademark infringement.

Still, there is some good news for Android lovers: the long-awaited and much hyped firmware update for the T-Mobile G1 is coming next week.

Android 1.5, or Cupcake as it has become better known to those in the know, has been confirmed as arriving next week by T-Mobile via an over-the-air upgrade rolling out until the end of the month.

Amongst the new features to come with the Cupcake will be a vibration feedback enhanced virtual QWERTY keyboard (huzzah!) which will be hugely welcomed, somewhat ironically, by non-G1 users. Whereas the G1 does have a keyboard, handsets such as the HTC Magic do not and a virtual keyboard is an essential item (just ask iPhone users.)

Other additions include iPhone-alike application rotation using the accelerometer function, and a bunch of new widgets for the home screen such as a calendar and clock for example.

Video recording will also arrive with 1.5, including an easy-share option for video clips via a native YouTube uploader.

Finally, G1 users can look forward to a better copy and pasting experience, tabbed bookmarks and even A2DP stereo Bluetooth support - a feature which iPhone users will have to wait a while for, until the release of iPhone OS 3.0 in fact.