RSSAndroid 1.5: Two days and counting
By Tim Conneally | Published April 28, 2009, 11:16 AM
Two weeks ago, a developer preview of Android 1.5 SDK was released, promising developers an early look at what the OS update had to offer if they hadn't already. Now, RC 1 of the Android 1.5 SDK is available from Google for use by emulators, and from HTC for testing on the Android Dev Phone 1 (ADP1).
The SDK overview says the Android 1.5 production system image will be deployed starting in May, so there is a possibility of "Cupcake" coming to users even before the week is out.
The Netherlands, which was the first country to carry an Android-powered handset, will likely also be one of the first countries with the 1.5 update. An early press release from T-Mobile Netherlands yesterday promised an over-the-air software update to all users beginning "in early May." The Android Market in that country, along with a number of other EU nations, however, still lacks paid apps.
United States users have been running Android 1.1 RC33 for just under four months, and users in the United Kingdom and Germany have been running RC9 for just under two. The Cupcake branch, however, which promises to bring Video recording, a soft keyboard, improved browsing, Google Talk, live folder population, and improved widget creation, has been a topic of discussion in the Android user community since late last year.
There's a little misinformation here. Nowhere in Xavier's blog post (linked above) mentioned this was 1.5 RC1, and the build itself is tagged as R1 (Release 1) rather than RC (Release Candidate).
Additionally, 1.5 OS images have shipped from Google. HTC has posted them for the Android Developer Phone 1 already, as they require little to no modification. The other carriers likely received them at the same time. Now it's up to those carriers to add whatever features they want to the core images, and prepare them for an OTA. The ADP image for instance, which I installed yesterday, doesn't include IM capabilities other than Google Talk, where as T-Mobile adds support for MSN, AIM, and whatever else they see fit. They also add their "5 favs" app, and I've heard they bundle some other software with it such as Amazon UnBox (I've never used a T-Mobile build, so I can't say for sure what the differences are, just that there are differences).
Either way, it's in the carrier's hands now, and it'll be when the carriers finish developing their specific feature sets that they'll start releasing this to the wild.
All of the information I've posted here can be found on the XDA developer's forum, the T-Mobile forum, and various google groups.
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|I wonder if this will be coming to all users, or just certain carriers? Does anyone know?
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