14 DAY TRIAL // The Android 1.5 OS upgrade for T-Mobile G1 phones was reported last week to be on its way to all users, yet it seems that it was only a false start, as the Cupcake firmware has just started to go over-the-air towards the 100,000 G1 owners in the U.K., while those in the United States will receive it at the end of next week.
According to the latest news on the Web, the update will be sent to users OTA in a random order, at least for most cases. Hopefully, this time it will actually come to the handsets, for it includes a wide range of new features and improvements compared to the previous versions of the operating system.
Among them, we can count a camcorder that allows users to activate it through an icon on the touchscreen, placed, it seems, in the bottom right corner, as well as a brand new video player that enables users to play both recently recorded videos and already existing ones, in addition to offering them the possibility to upload videos directly to YouTube.
Furthermore, the upgrade will also allow users to send images to the Google-owned Picasa photo sharing website, and will bring a new virtual QWERTY keyboard that is expected to work in conjunction with an overhauled texting platform that includes predictive text options as well.
As many of you might already know, the Android 1.5 OS is already included in the second mobile phone powered by Google's platform, the HTC Magic, which has been launched with Vodafone in some European markets. The phone is expected to come to the US as well, most probably in the form of My Touch 3G, which will also be launched with T-Mobile. The Cupcake will be included on the device right out of the box.