T-Mobile in May started rolling out an update for the Android-based G1 with
Google smartphone. Dubbed "Cupcake," the update provides an appealing
but modest mix of fixes and feature enhancements to the already feature-packed
smartphone, with some previously glaring shortcomings remaining unaddressed.
Overall, I would classify Cupcake's enhancements as nice to have, but not
enough to compel anyone not previously interested in the G1 with Google to
finally make the purchase.
I triggered the update via the System Updates dialog found in the
Settings-About Phone dialog. The update took about 15 minutes to download over
the air and another 10 minutes or so to install. As part of the update package,
Cupcake upgrades the base firmware (to 1.5), the kernel (to 2.6.27) and the
baseband.
One of the most notable enhancements Cupcake makes to Android is providing an
on-screen keyboard, giving users a quick way to input data. The on-screen keyboard is accessible either in portrait or
landscape mode, although the user will need to change the Orientation display setting to switch automatically when rotating the phone to use the onscreen keyboard while in landscape mode.
The on-screen keyboard should be easy enough to type on for those who are
used to the iPhone's keyboard, although I found Android's predictive text
algorithms to be much more useful. Users can configure the on-screen keyboard
to provide either or both haptic and audio feedback when a key is touched.
Those who can't type effectively on the iPhone probably won't cotton to
Android's take on the on-screen keyboard, but the slide-out physical keyboard
more than adequately compensates.
Also changed from the shipping unit I reviewed last fall, Android now comes with a built-in Google search dialog to provide features
commonly found on other mobile platforms—specifically, voice-enabled search.
The Google search box on the rightmost panel of the Android home screen now has
a microphone button for selecting voice search instead of entering text. In
text, I found the voice recognition capability on par with that of my iPhone—that
is, interesting but not reliable. For instance, a search for "Andrew
Garcia eWEEK" returned search results for "interpersonal eat
wheat." On the other hand, a search request for "Bill Simmons"
returned "Bill Simmons."
Cupcake updates Android's browser to the latest version of WebKit, and in
the process adds a few capabilities users should find beneficial. For instance,
the browser now supports an excellent Find in Page tool to help users find
content within an open Web page. This will allow users to easily cycle through
all detected instances of the desired word or phrase.
The browser also now supports cut and paste, allowing the user to select and
copy text to the clipboard to be shared with other applications via the Menu+V
paste keystroke combination. Unfortunately, I found that the paste command does
not play nicely with the on-screen keyboard, necessitating the use of the
physical keyboard.
Bluetooth capabilities in the initial release of Android on the G1 were
limited, as the Bluetooth API was removed
from the Android SDK (software development kit) a few weeks before the product
first shipped. Cupcake improves Android's Bluetooth capabilities somewhat with
the inclusion of A2DP support for stereo Bluetooth capabilities. Indeed, I
found it quite straightforward to connect the updated G1 with my stereo-enabled
Motorola S9 headset.
On the other hand, I was very disappointed to find that Cupcake provides no
detectable improvements to one of the biggest drawbacks in the original Android
release—the software's subpar handling of e-mail attachments, particularly in
the POP3/IMAP e-mail client. I originally
criticized the inability to view, modify or save attachments that come in via
the POP3/IMAP client, as I found I had no
control over the attachments whatsoever. (The Gmail client provided handling
for a few attachment types, like JPG.) Sadly, with Cupcake, this remains the
status quo.
Enterprise Mobility News & Reviews 
