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 August 17th 2009 7:23PM
I love my G1! I'd hate to see it go like that. I'm keeping it until there is another decent, T-mobile android device WITH a keyboard. I'll root my g1 and get updates if possible. I will not upgrade to the UGLY MyTouch3G
I got a MyTouch by mail the other day, and sent it back a few hours later. Why? The touch keyboard is impossible to use.
This may sound nuts, but I'm beginning to think the best way to go is with a net computer with a data plan. Then, I can use Skype as my phone service. I don't take many calls with the cell phone, and the net computers are almost small enough to carry like phone.
T-Mobile took a wrong turn somewhere. Either pay $97 for a G1 with potentially no OS updates, MyTouch with an unusable keyboard, or the Touch Pro2 for $350. How about a Blackberry with 3G at WalMart for $47 and none of the above?
I am using the onscreen keyboard with my G1, and I have no problems using it at all. I prefer the hard keyboard for accuracy and feel but if I had to get the MyTouch it would not be much of a issue, well for me at least.
All right T-Mobile with this encouraging news!
I been loyal for 7 years and they always looked out for my best interests. Looking forward to the next 7 and beyond. :)
I'm already running with a SPL that has expanded G1's /system partition to 90MB, and at the moment there's 27.5MB free, which is about the same as the mytouch and hero. My phone should be just fine for any updates coming down the pipe.
Who cares, it was doomed from the beginning with it not having a 3.5" screen, 3.5mm headphone jack, larger fonts & more memory. I sold mine a month ago due to these issues & as much as I love Android I'm not getting another until I can get the hardware I've listed. Give Apple credit though for knowing that a standard headphone jack, larger screen & bigger fonts was a prerequisite if a phone is to sell well.
I've read this same comment from this same person 3 times already. Are you trying to reassure yourself?
not necessarily, the phone could have sucked but its all good as long as their logo is on the back
Thank you for updating your article!
-TheMessiah
Yeah, of course T-Mobile is going to come out and contradict that statement; they're still selling phones and they don't want to scare anyone off and be stuck with stock!
I absolutely agree that T-Mobile is doing this in part to ensure they continue selling G1's, which is what really irks me. Although I won't be happy with a one-year old phone that may no longer update, at least I can say I took the risk of being an early adopter. It was my choice, and I can live with that risk.
If T-Mobile continues to sell a phone that it knows will likely be obsolete within a few months, that's utter crap. It may not be illegal, it may be business as usual, but it's still crap.
good thing im on my bee
o wait, wrong website
uh, good thing i got a mytouch instead
guys guys , this article is not totally base less , it may not be impossible to provide future upgrades for G1 but its very difficult, you can see this following article which explains clearly why.......
http://androidandme.com/2009/08/news/the-g1-storage-problem-in-charts-and-numbers/
anyway G1 was great , they provides video recording and Bluetooth stereo with software upgrade which Apple couldn't do , i just need flash more thats all i don't mind not getting Donut, eclair etc. so cant blame Tmobile or Google , may be HTC didn't have foresight of what android OS can turn into or they simply didn't care.
You can get both the visual voicemail program and the slightly hard to figure out sherpa program from the mytouch in the g1 market. At first it was seeming like they were making those out to be a mytouch thing. I have hope the tmobile will do better than what they have in the past on other phones on updates to the g1.
Well if this is truth just root ya phone. The custom roms are way better and you can even have Hero interface. Problem solved!
I don't see it being too big of a deal...In my opinion, a lot of the new features can be plugged in as if they were apps.
For example, all the new features they announced for donut: TTS, Gesture control, System search; These have all been intruduced by third party developers and can be downloaded from the market...And yes, these may not be as good as if the were baked in to the system, but I have a feeling that Google will be able to bake in these apps from the outside, making it completely possible to continue upgrading on the G1 without loosing too many features(saying it would be exactly the same would be very optimistic, but will probably be unnoticeable for the average user).
Please people, relax!!! The G1 won't be dropped for at least another year; You will continue to get decent mock ups of the latest Android system, very similar to the 1st Generation iPhone running the mock version the 3.0 iPhone OS...The options are too vast to drop over a million users this soon.
Lastly, for those interested in rooting your phone, go to www.androidandme.com. One of today's headlines has some great newbie-like instructions on how to root your phone easily and successfully(be aware that it does vacuum up your warranty though, so don't do it if you aren't prepared to accept that risk).
i think the g1 was a tester device, and was rushed out for android (when android was not ready to be put out)
the g1 is too big, too heavy, battery life is shocking, the worst i have every seen (impossible to get 24hrs out of it), doesn't need a keyboard (i.e. keyboard, was needed in first release of android.
i have not checked out the specs on the samsung or the hero, but i believe all of the above have been sorted
The only difference with the Hero is the additional RAM. Otherwise, everything is the same as the G1: CPU, ROM, screen, everything.
I think that this is a load of bologna. I'm running a version of Android ION on my phone (which is also known as My Touch in the USA on T-mo) and its twice as fast as cupcake. I don't know what kinda crap t-mo is trying to blow up their rear-ends, but there is plenty of stuff that can be put on a G1 still.
I have 2 G1s and I've had a Hero rom on one of them for the last several months. The dev's at xda are continuously improving the rom, I'm running Drizzy's Champion Hero rom currently and it rocks, fast and of course I have Apps on my SD and 70 MB free memory on my G1.
G1 will run 2.0. I guarantee it.
It may take a few, but there's a reason I'm with T-Mo USA. For one, not all the features of the stock Android 2.0 ROM even apply to the G1, and can hence be removed. And, if worst comes to worst, the update can be performed PC-to-Phone instead of OTA, like iPhone updates.
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My G1 is running Android v1.6 now so what the heck is this Web Page heading talking about!