Android 1.5 'Cupcake' starts arriving on G1s

Computerworld - The Android 1.5 update for G1 smartphones, dubbed "Cupcake," began arriving on some of the devices over the air today, according to G1 owners reporting on blogs and forums.

T-Mobile USA Inc. could not be reached to comment on whether it has officially begun shipping the update, which includes several new features, including an on-screen touch keyboard.

Some forums say the update is only shipping to users in Europe, but others say T-Mobile users in the U.S. are also beginning to receive the software. Boygeniusreport.com said it was getting reports of updates, and warned users that custom software on the G1 might thwart users from getting the update notice.

Gadget Web site Gizmodo said "select" G1s were getting updates today, but it did not elaborate.

Forum writers indicated that they knew the update had begun arriving, but there didn't appear to be much commentary this morning on how users liked the new features.

Speech recognition, better camera and GPS performance, support for video recording, and stereo Bluetooth are some of the other features that Android developers described would be part of Cupcake.

Google Inc., which along with the Open Handset Alliance backs the Android mobile platform, said that Cupcake would ship shortly after the software developer's kit, which shipped earlier this week.

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