Pioneering T-Mobile G1 owners have been
enjoying the spoils of Android 1.5 (or
Cupcake, as it's known 'round these parts) for months now, but it looks as if that very treat will be the last taste of confectionery goodness that the smartphone gets. According to Android software engineer Dave Sparks, a time is soon coming when devs "wont be able to fit the latest [Android] release on the G1's internal flash," and yet another engineer has chimed in via Twitter to say that he "can't promise" that any update after 1.5 will fit. For whatever reason, HTC gifted the G1 with an incredibly meager amount of internal flash, and considering that no Android phone will support app storage / loading from a microSD card, there's no way to free up room for
Donut, Eclair or Flan. You've been a real champ, G1, but without 2.0+, we just can't give you the love and devotion you truly need. Go on, call us fickle -- we deserve it.
[Via
Electronista and
jkOnTheRun]
Update: We've received a statement directly from T-Mobile on the matter, saying "We plan to continue working with Google to introduce future software updates to the T-Mobile G1. Reports to the contrary are inaccurate." It's unclear whether those are just going to be security and stability updates to 1.5 or whether we'll see wholesale new versions like Donut and beyond, but for the sake of G1 owners everywhere, we're hoping it's the latter.
posted Aug 17th 2009 7:23PM
Damn. I just got one of those.
No worries, just head over to xda-developers and root your phone. Hell, we already have a bunch of the features from Donut(including universal search)
Wow, this article is a complete distortion. All the quotes that Daren cites are google engineers saying they can't promise it, but *noone*, not one single google engineer has said conclusively "no" like the title and body of this story say. In fact, they have said repeatedly that that is a goal of theirs (of course) if its possible. In fact, google are hard at work trying to make it happen, JBQ has made that clear in his many posting to the development mailing lists.
Plain and simple, T-Mobile wants G1 users to upgrade to G2.
that yellow teeth turtleneck chick is freaking me out
"Plain and simple, T-Mobile wants G1 users to upgrade to G2."
No keyboard = no thanks.
There's no good Android alternatives to the G1 yet, for me. The internal memory is a severe limitation that I saw as a major design flaw from day one. Despite that, it's still the best smartphone in existence, for me.
They could probably save a lot of pain by just giving G1 owners a reprieve of their 2 year contract, and instead, let them buy another Android phone for 1/2 price at their owner's 1 year anniversary. It's a shared responsibility between HTC, Google and T-Mo, for having this short-sightedness, and they shouldn't be punishing those of us who were early adopters that brought the platform into the mainstream.
Root your G1, +xda developers = issue resolved.
I did it so I could use apps2sd, it angers me that this was not how the G1 works by default, but its the only minor issue I have. I'm using a custom rom that adjusts the ram itself, and does auto apps2sd. Plus I overclocked the phone which helps with the lagging from all the apps I have installed.
no even xda wouldn't be able to solve this problem. the hero rom left the g1 with just 6mb of ram and that was just 1.5 with some stuff sprinkle on top. donut is going to be alot bigger and thus wont fit on the g1 the only way the g1 can be just beyond 1.5 is if dev figure out a way to run roms off the sd card similar to how you can run linux oses off a flash card.
@jay jay: Uh, wrong. Cyanogen has already implemented a bunch of the features from Donut. Also, we can always move things over to the sd card to keep more space on the internal memory. Haykuro's SPL from a while back should allow us at least Donut and probably Eclaire.
Yep. We will probably see more users using modified SPL ROMs to resize their partitions to make ready for the bigger and beefier ROMs. And, for those that are uninitiated there's the one-click root app that makes it a lot easier. Of course, you better hurry before the newest vulnerability that allows this is patched up...
I love how some people just talk straight out of their ass. I'm running Hero on my G1 with 78MB of free memory, many people on XDA are doing this already and it's a smooth rom. Of course running apps on the SD card. If you don't know how to navigate, read and do what is created over in XDA, you need to step away from Android and get yourself a RAZR.
Can you send me links to how to do all that, that sounds awesome...
compubasic (at) gmail dot com
lame!
Agreed. I don't want to give up my physical keyboard just to get a Donut or Eclair.
No Donut For You!
Mmmmmm . . . . Forbidden Donut . . . .
Come back....1 year!
Crap. Oh well, I guess it's to be expected. But I have one more year on my G1 contract and by then who knows what I'll end up with... although I do love the Android experience on the phone.
"I guess its to be expected?" WTF? I will just point out 1 time that if this were the iPhone this comment section would be rapid with anti apple people and not with Android apologists saying "Oh well ill just get a new phone"
WOW.
@Tsing Tao: And there'd be just as many people like yourself claiming that it's actually a good thing. Posts like yours are getting tiresome.
@Tsing Tao - Yeah but if apple did it they would be doing it only to be "innovate". Also would not happen with the iPhone per say since it has alot more internal memory. Wait wait let me correct myself it has happened with the iPhone......They released the 3GS with more features as the 3G or the 2G iPhones. Those bastards!!!!!!! Ask anyone with the original iPhone if they will be getting very many of the new features. Seriously the 3G can't do video with the new update why? Don't say it is because of the hardware because if you jailbreak a 3G or a first gen iPhone you can use cydia to get the video recording app. I mean come on your not getting down on Apple for these things but yet you get down on Google because the company that made the hardware didnt put more memory on their phones? Seriously you need to get your head out of Jobs rear end and look around for a minute.
Im sorry, my posts are getting tiresome? Have you read your posts mark. Your a everythingbyapple sux everyone else its ok just get a new phone when you get dicked over. My head is not up jobs ass, i am posting only the reality. I had a first gen phone from the 2nd week they were out and it got a TON of features over the 2 years i had it.
You guys need to just quit with your BS and admit this is total crap. YOUR posts are getting tiresome with your 1 sided bs answers all the time. Of course this whole site is in the toilet thanks to people like you guys.
This is partially true, if they optimize and condense the files it can fit. Cyanogen managed to get Donut update running on his G1. It is possible and anyone with a rooted G1 will be able to still get the updates through ROMS.
Wow, shady. Even Apple supports their first-generation device still, albeit with limited functionality due to the lack of hardware support.
The Android devs are not choosing to discontinue support, they can't continue to support it because of hardware limitations. It's not their fault.
Android devs also did NOT develop the hardware, just the software. If anything, blame HTC. And Apple doesn't have this problem because the OS partition and media partition are both part of the 8GB flash.
Shadow08
True... but think about this the next time you look for a phone: The G1 is obsolete 10 months after introduction. The next time HTC puts out a new phone, why should I trust them with a 2 year contract?
On the other hand, Apple and other companies put out phones that get new features even after the contract expires. Even the cheapest first gen iPhones get the same software features as the 3GS.
@bondsbw:
I have no interest in a softboard. Ergo, Apple does nothing for me. If I can't get a G1 (or rather the G1 v2, since I think I'll wait as G1 is supposedly approaching EOL), then I'll look at the Pre or something else. Not everyone is enthralled with softboards.
I have a G1 and this kinda bothers me a little. It seems that the phone should at least be kept up-to-date with the latest software for as long as the 2-year contract you're stuck with. I recognize that in this instance, there is a hardware limitation, but this kind of thing should be part of the plan when they choose hardware, i.e., they should choose hardware that has enough elbow room for 2 years of software updates.
My Kaiser is running WM6.5. It's just over two years old. It's got the latest version of TouchFLO2D, and Opera Mobile. In fact, even though I'll be getting a new phone (Touch Pro2 or Pre), I'll be keeping my Kaiser around as a tinkering/backup device.
Trust me, this thing is nowhere NEAR obsolete even after 2 years. This looks to me like a one off, HTC weren't going to give their latest hardware to a brand new OS.
@Joquarky
hello!! it's called an iPhone*, have you never had a mobile before?
*that being software support after you've paid for the phone.
OK, I suppose my N95 had regular firmware updates... but does it count when each version is lamer than the last?
well maybe that's because they're getting ready to come out with truly exciting Android phone?
.....What.
As a G1 owner I am shocked, and just.....DAMN.
I could care less. I am very happy with my G1 and who knows when we will see the updates. It's all part of the must buy must have system we have today. The G1 as it is rocks! Best phone I have owned to date. The new updates will have some extra goodies and what not but it won't be anything super great to buy a new phone over for me.
You couldn't care less.
http://www.incompetech.com/Images/caring.png
hahaha ^^
@PeterF: Maybe he meant that he cares a little but not very much? Therefore he could care less.
"I could care less" means he could care from just barely caring to it being the most important thing in the world to him. It gives almost zero information other than that he cares. Which doesn't look like it according to the rest of his post.
Bastards!
AGREED!
I take back my previous statement of "Bastards!" thusly.
I am running applications from my SD card since about may 2009... I have been running the latest builds from cyanogen and they have Donut components, I don't know what this guy is talking about here *rolly eyes*
He's referring to those who *arent* rooted, and receiving normal OTAs
Because very few people root their phone and go hunting for custom ROMS.
From an article on a different site showing the partitioning, they said the cache is about the same size as the OS so that it can hold OS updates for OTA. I'm sure the guys at XDA-Developers can figure out a way to make the cache partition smaller and the main OS partition bigger. This will drop the ability for OTA updates but USB updates are better than no updates at all.
That would work.
I'm sure that the devs are prob working on making use of the free space on the phone if you are using apps2sd, so approx ~60-78mb could be added to the phone for use with these new updates
As long as Cyan et all are around we will get the better features. This is the nature of OSS, where one fails, someone will be able to pickup the pieces.
I knew that the meager amount of memory in the device was going to come back and bite me, but i had *no* idea that it was going to be so soon. That's honestly pretty irksome, and it's high time that work was done to make the OS capable of treating the MicroSD card as a semi-permanently installed device.
Although, for me, I'd probably stop cursing at my phone if friggin' traffic worked in maps (low memory, traffic has been disabled).
This hurts and depresses me....