Android 1.5 Starts Rolling Out to T-Mobile G1s

As expected, Android version 1.5 started arriving over-the-air to T-Mobile G1 users on Thursday. Of course, when I say "as expected," it's just barely so; T-Mobile said last month the upgrade would arrive "sometime in April."

The upgrade delivers the "Cupcake" development branch features we've discussed before. A few of them should make iPhone users envious. Just a reminder though, to those who might be using customized ROMs: you might not be able to get the upgrade notification, so if you want a "taste" of "Cupcake," you should probably revert to the original T-Mobile ROM.

Here's a list of the full changes:

Applications

• MMS
  
• New features
  
• Save attachments from MMS.
• Significant bug fixes

• Email
  
• Significant bug fixes

• Alarm Clock
  
• Significant bug fixes

• Package Installer
  
• Significant bug fixes
  

• Settings
  
• New features
  
• New menu option to list running processes in Settings->ManageApplications.

• Music
  
• New features
  
• Music playback fades in after suspending for phone call.
• New media search intent allows for 3rd party apps to launch or respond to media searches based on artist, album, or title.
  Affects: Music Player, YouTube, Browser applications.

• Browser
• New features
• Updated WebKit browser core, synced with Nov 2008 WebKit version.
• Support for new, optimized JavaScript engine (SquirrelFish).
• Copy / paste is enabled in the browser. To copy with touch, press and hold the shift key and select the text. Releasing the shift key or ending the touch drag copies the text. To copy with the trackball, press and hold the shift key, move the cursor to the selection start, click the trackball, and move the trackball to the extend the selection. Releasing the shift key, or clicking the trackball a second time, copies the text.
• Find is enabled in the browser. To find text, choose it from the menu and type the text to find.
• Drawing has been sped up substantially by supporting partial content invalidates and partial screen invalidates. Pages with animations are 5x faster.

• VoiceDialer
• New features
• VoiceDialer supports 'open app' command

• Camera/Gallery
• New features
• Video recorder mode
• Share intent for videos
• Video thumbnails
• Local file playback

Download manager

• New features
  
• Support for HTTP codes 301, 302, 303 and 307 (redirects).
• HTTP code 503 is now handled, with support for retry-after in delay-seconds.
• Downloads that were cleanly interrupted are now resumed instead of failing.
• Applications can now pause their downloads.
• Retry delays are now randomized.
• Connectivity is now checked on all interfaces.
• Downloads with invalid characters in file name can now be saved.

Framework

• New features
  
• Support of touch events in WebView.
• New JavaScript engine (SquirrelFish) in WebView.
  
• Input method framework, for soft keyboards and other on-screen input methods. Includes new APIs for applications to interact with input methods, and the ability for third party developers to write their own input methods.
• Access to the raw audio data for playback and recording from application code.
  
• New PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT option.
• Support for top-level boolean resources.
• Tactile feedback to the LockPatternView. Tactile feedback can be enabled/disabled by going to Settings > Security & location and then checking/unchecking "Use tactile feedback". Note that this can be used independently of the visual feedback of the lines ("Use visible pattern"). Thus it gives users a middle ground between showing the lines on the screen and having no feedback at all.
• PackageManager changes to support un-installation of partially installed applications. Added new flag PackageManager.GET_UNINSTALLED_PACKAGES to include partially installed apps in all relevant PackageManager api's. ManageApplications screen now lists such partially installed apps and the user can uninstall these applications completely.
• Support third party updates of system applications. New menu options in Settings->ManageApplications to list updated system applications.
• Framework support to list current running processes. New API in ActivityManager.
• Framework feature to declare required configurations by applications. New manifest attribute uses-configuration in android manifest.
• Hardware accelerated video encode (video recorder) in opencore.
• Simplified SREC speech recognition API available.
• Streaming audio I/O for applications.

• Significant bug fixes
  

Bluetooth

• New features
  
• Support for A2DP & AVRCP profiles.
  

• Significant bug fixes
• First connection after pairing always fails on many carkits.
• Mini Cooper and some late model BMW cars fail to use Bluetooth or take 2 minutes for Phone Book transfer.
  

System software

• New features
  
• New kernel based on Linux 2.6.27.
• Improvements to the wakelock API.
• Work to transition to the USB Gadget Framework underway.
• Basic x86 support.
  

Radio & Telephony

• New features
• SIM Application Toolkit 1.0.
• Green CALL button is no longer a shortcut for "add a new call". This has been a rarely used feature and confusing if triggered accidentally.
• Longer in-call screen timeout when using the speakerphone.
• "Show dialpad" / "Hide dialpad" item added to the in-call menu, to make it easier to discover the DTMF dialpad.

• Significant bug fixes