Android 1.5 announced, early-look SDK available today
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Apr 13th 2009 8:17PM
posted Apr 13th 2009 8:17PM
We've known that Cupcake has been floating around in dev circles for months now, but it's been clear as mud how the Open Handset Alliance plans to incorporate all of the lovely features it brings into Android's trunk, how Android will be versioned going forward, and in general, how the group plans to present a unified front to developers, manufacturers, and end users. That all gets a little clearer today with the official unveiling of Android 1.5 that fully incorporates the Cupcake branch, and -- perhaps much more importantly -- a home screen framework for developing widgets and populating live folders with whatever content you can dream up. There's no word on exactly how 1.5 will come to existing Android handsets in the field, but as far as we can tell, there's nothing listed in the changelog that would prevent current hardware from taking full advantage -- and the OHA is going to be releasing a series of articles about new-to-1.5 features in the coming weeks to help devs "prepare your applications for the release of Android 1.5 on phones." Sounds encouraging, doesn't it?
giggity giggity
Urghhhhhh Family Guy.
It stopped being funny after Season 3.
It appeals to the 11 - 16 year olds.
*Waits for a 30yo to comment on how he loves Family Guy*
I dont know wether ill be ranked highly or lowly, perhaps ill just stay neutral. Kept all my bases covered :-)
I voted you down because it always sucked.
I know a forty year old man who likes Family Guy, but this Guy also lost his temper and went down a one-way with his entire Family to "teach them a lesson." Needless to say, he ended up in a psyche ward of some kind, but I hear he still watched Family Guy on DVD every day until they let him out. Some people......
@Adderz: I voted you down because it never stopped being funny.
As for the story - I'm glad we're finally gonna see cupcake, but I also would like to see some new proper hardware - and not just slightly sleeker version of Android G1.
Family Guy's ok but I think The Simpsons is better.
The Simpsons is OK but I think Family Guy is better.
Nobody messes with Adam We...
The Simpsons was totally hilarious about ten years ago. Then they ran out of ideas but kept making new episodes. It's been pretty pathetic since the 90s ended.
Now if we could just get a phone other than the G1 to come out for the rest of the 270 million people in the USA.
Let's hope the devs get a little more excited about Android. I haven't heard much buzz on that front in a while.
Awesome!!!
BALLS 2 DA WALL!!!!!!
Finally some widgets! Still need more phones before people get interested.
On the topic of widgets, the Magic/Sapphire android build has been ported over to the G1 with a music and calendar widget on the home screen. http://htcsource.com/index.php/Android/Sapphire/Magic-Android-built-on-T-Mobile-G1.html
What does live folders mean?
The android logo reminds me of the imp characters in Zero Punctuation.
*waits on the iphone guy loser comment*
hehe, you think iPhone users are worried about Android? that's funny..
@mike
Of course they're not, they have Steve Jobs to tell them what apps they can have on their phone. iPhone users didn't need basic features that moist flip phones from 2003 have. They don't care that even though iPhone apps vastly outnumber Android apps at this point, they still can't get apps that are available on Android. Oh well, GPS Nav, tethering, themes, widgets, word docs/editing, Exchange, alternates browsers/media players, stickam/streaming apps, are all probably useless anyway?
Hopefully 3.0 comes soon enough for you, and then you can actually match some features of my old flip phone.
Congrats
Please go somewhere far away, FarAway. Or just STFU.
Jobs does not tell me what to have on my iPod Touch. iPhone does not lack 2003 flip-phone features. We can get GPS apps, we have alternate browsers. No thethering? OMG I guess the iPhone won't sell a single unit without that feature ... oh, wait.
Early 2008 called, they want their reasons to criticise the iPhone back. And they also want to know if their list of reasons has prevented the iPhone selling millions. Um, you tell them, okay?
@VanillaSpoce
iPhone doesn't have actual alternatives to browsers, it has different versions of Safari with a different feature on each one. I'm pretty sure my old flip phone could record video and had full BT, and GPS NAV before the iPhone did. Like I said it doesn't have any of the features I listed. Hopefully you can catch up to a couple of them in May.
So if I use Android, I get a robotic cupcake? Makes sense.
Can this still be used to develop for the current version of Android on the G1 (RC33 or Android 1.1)?
Yes. It includes both 1.1 and 1.5 SDKs.
For some reason, Android isn't interesting anymore, it reminds me of how Linux is doing right now; lots of hype, some people adopt it then not much care about its updates or news. Shame, I really liked what it was going to be, but maybe the long delays and slow updates are just making it not current anymore.
Saad, I couldn't agree more. Just a few months ago, I was highly interested in Android. Now, it feels like a stagnant platform with little to show for it. Maybe I'll feel differently when I see what Samsung and Sony Ericsson(if they actually release their product in the U.S.) have to offer. That said, the latter half of the year seems like a long way away for a new device, especially when Palm and Apple have potentially strong products just around the corner.
Slow updates and stagnant? It's been out for less than 6 months and it already has had several updates and is getting a massive update soon(many, including myself, already have it).... Compare that to the iphone which gets an update that's nowhere near this nice about once a year and windows mobile that has been on 6.1 for what? like 2 or 3 years now? What does it take to keep your attention? Massive rehauls of the operating system every day?
You compare this to what?
Because I'm looking around, and all I see are stagnant feature-phones with 0 updates, RIM and WinMo with the occasional bugfixes and rare feature upgrades, and iPhone with an update each year. It's a shame Symbian hasn't made bigger inroads in the US market, I guess.
I goes to show that what geeks like, isn't necessarily what normal people like. For all this talk about openness, geeks also forget that most Linux users are cheapskates. They expect everything for free, so this doesn't bode well for a business model, which is why Android is pretty much a failure so far.
OMG, I'm agreeing with Saad man!
@Paul
Communist.
Looking forward to the homescreen widget SDK... even though apps like Sweeter Home have done a super amazing job with Android customization..
I just want some more hardware out there.... I mean all these so called coming updates are great, but what hardware do we have? Just the G1 which is a bit sucky.... Bring on more cool hardware.
I agree with you about the hardware.
Reading about Android and all of the upcoming hardware gets under my skin the same way reading about all of the awesome new diesels, EV's, and PHEV's that are in testing, in other countries, or are in someone's dreams on AutoBlogGreen. Can we just get some of it already??
I think that's what everyone else is waiting for too, they need new hardware for this to appeal more.
I've had cupcake for a while now (by while i mean a few hours)... the brilliant people over at xda brought it to the G1
http://haykuro.theiphoneproject.org/
I've had it for a couple of days. Its awesome. I can watch high quality youtube, have an onscreen keyboard, a2dp, video camera, etc. The whole system feels a lot faster too.
Ya, I've had it for about 2 weeks, was unstable as all hell but now is more stable and much faster than stock G1's, and with all the great features. Android just keeps getting better.
I did the Hykuro 5.0D update about a week ago; My G1 finally has A2DP!
It is also much more responsive and I think the battery life has improved- in spite of my always leaving Bluetooth on now...
If anyone else is looking to do this, I found some good instructions for getting root (if you are RC33) and installing Haykuro 5.0.1H/5.0D over at: http://code.google.com/p/sapphire-port-dream/wiki/PageName
Let me guess another overhyped
Android cupcakes os upgrade 6 months and only on
1 American phone. Not to mention supposed open source
Philosophy has been raped by iphone app store 34,000
Apps n counting
Raped by the 34,000 Flashlight apps. Well, yah I guess that's the right word then, but it sure does sound nasty.
Here-here....good call....rape tis the word.
Don't feed the trolls, people.
1. The iPhone is based upon opensource code (OSX = linux base)
2. Of COURSE the iPhone app store will have more apps - it was out well over a year in earlier than the Android Market. Do you not comprehend the effects of time?
3. TMobile and Google have not advertised the G1. The iPhone is CONSTANTLY being advertised. Shortly after the G1 was released, the iPhone was in every single commercial block in primetime on the major networks. 4 commercials an hour for 3 hours on each of the networks. It is STILL currently advertising heavily in targeted primetime shows which fit their demo.
Put #2 and #3 together, and of course you're going to get the results we have today.
The saddest part about #3 is that the apps that iPhone advertises constantly as "only.... on the iPhone" are ALL on the G1 too. And they'll all be on the g2 and every other Android phone that is coming out this year. As a matter of fact, with more Android phones coming out, you'll quickly see more apps being made for Android, since it will have a bigger market share. You'll only have to code 1 app, and it'll be in the Android market for dozens of phones. Hell, just by the end of this year you'll have ~10 phones of various form factors meeting the demands of multiple market segments and the Android Market will cover the planet, while the iPhone will still be just 3 phones with a closed market meeting a single (albeit highly profitable) market segment.
I wonder if this update will be out when the rumored sony ericsson CS8 comes out for t-mobile this summer.
Of course there is always the possibility the CS8 is not an android phone.
Cupcake will not make use of the G1 or any other android phone something comparable to the experience of iPhone owners. After having a G1 and staring at the stupid, useless applications in the android market, I sold my G1 on eBay. I was elated that my crappy phone could muster interested bidders and ultimately, a winner!
Good riddance to my crappy G1....hello to my jailbroken iPhone.
I do agree that the Android Market is crap, but it's not because of lack of content. It's because Google, of all companies, released a market app with the most piss-poor search feature imaginable and it's damn near impossible to find the good apps that you're looking for. There's tons of fantastic apps in the Market, but unless you know exactly what their titles are you will never find them.
For example, I went to go look up the "Eyes-Free Dialer" that was on Engadget a few weeks ago. I went to the market and typed "eyes" into the search bar, and it returned zero results. The thing can't even do a search for partial words! It's absolutely pathetic that Google would release something with such an archaic search feature.
So I guess apple was too much for google
Software developers , y'all failed to remember
Google only good for one thing . That is search engine.
This htc tmobil android google alliance has
Failed to dethrone iPhone .
The people have spoken in last year developers have created more applications programs on iPhone ,than any other device on the planet. iPhone a computer for the people by the people . Open source is a thing of the past. Agree?
Somewhere, there is an english teacher collecting a paycheck they should not be receiving...
Open sourse will never fail, what a stupid thing to say. Just because majority of silly sheep will not adapt it and choose a logo over it.
I'm not sure if im alone, but i don't want to have a phone that EVERYONE i know has as well....... individuality is a great thing logo boys!
Yeah, sure, let's blame the "silly sheep" and not the lackluster user experience that the OS and the device provide (especially compared to the user experience of the "silly sheep"'s choice). Let's blame people for choosing simplicity over "freedom".
Fight the machine, man!
@lurch-mojoff: Do you even know what you're talking about or do you just come and randomly spew out crap? The android UI is WAY better than the iphone UI and much more customizable since you can literally replace any part of it with an equivalent app. Everything is easy to find and usually takes just 1 or 2 screen presses to get where you need to go. Hell my girlfriend has a G1 and loves the "user experience" and is definitely NOT tech savvy. Seriously, where do you people get this crap from? Oh right, you bought an iphone and now you have to try to justify it by trashing anything that is similar in terms of quality or better.
anyone know if certification authentication for wifi is in the works at all? my university's network uses them and i have to navigate through the website and log in every time i want to access the internet
Hooray finally A2DP I hate these ear cords......! please.
If you want it that bad, head over to xda-developers and get one of haykuro's ROMs and you can have cupcake today.
For gods sake, stop this pathetic iPhone v Android crap.
Thank god we have BOTH of them. Decent competition will drive more and more and more features for both platforms in the coming years.
True, Apple are a bit restrictive and have been slow with some features, but they are getting there. But they changes the way we use our phones forever with the iPhone and I salute them.
Android- well, it's hardy even started yet. In a years time it will have matured when you can choose from a dozen or so handsets from 4+ manufacturers. Has good potential, but not there quite yet. Dont forget, this is 1.5 they are talking about. Wait till version 2 or 3 of software and it should be great.
Which would I choose ? If I could have android 1.5 on a phone similar to my Touch HD then I'd love it.
Which would I recommend to friends ? iPhone for ease of use and range of apps.
Android 1.5 on hardware similar to Touch HD? Wouldn't that be the HTC Magic?
@chefgon_ign: actually the HTC Magic(Sapphire) is pretty much the exact same hardware as the G1, just without the keyboard and camera button.
Hahaha everyone's been using cupcake for a couple weeks now, thanks to haykuro.
Small preview of the new SDK http://xn--srenj-vua.dk/?p=220
here's a walkthrough of Kaykuro's Magic post to the G1: http://htcsource.com/index.php/Android/Sapphire/Magic-Android-built-on-T-Mobile-G1.html
OMG
nut splatter
im speechless