The Android Site

Fresh from a post over at xda-developers, someone got the link to the US version of Cupcake. Get it now, while it’s hot. You can download it here. No more waiting for the T-Mobile OTA update, this is the real thing.

As always, here’s how to apply the update:

1. Download the image.

2. Rename it to update.zip, and place it at the root (the very top directory) of your Micro SD card. (If you added the file to your microSD card by connecting the handset to your computer via USB [rather than using a dedicated microSD card reader], make sure to unmount it and disconnect the USB cable now.

3. Turn off your G1, then turn it back on by holding the Home+End keys until you see an icon popup after the T-Mobile G1 logo.

4. From the icon screen, open the keyboard and hit Alt+L. This allows you to see what’s going on during the update.

5. Press Alt+S to begin the update. Remember, the update needs to be in the root of the Micro SD card and needs to be named update.zip.

6. Once it finishes, follow the onscreen instructions and press Home+Back to finish.

7. The G1 will reboot a few times to flash different parts of the firmware.

And while you’re waiting for it to update, you can read through the official feature list.

Thanks to everyone that that sent this in.

Update: Those of you running rooted ROMs like JF1.5 check this link: http://code.google.com/p/android-roms/wiki/Unroot Thanks BenderUnit9000

Ben Marvin Google, News, Software, T-Mobile Android 1.5, Cupcake, Google, Tmobile USA, Update, Upgrade

So someone got their hands on the UK 1.5 image and you can manually update to Android 1.5 Cupcake without having to root your phone and worry about bricking it.

I cleaned up the instructions a bit, because the grammar was horrible. I also uploaded to a third mirror and PirateBay, since RapidShare wouldn’t let me download and SendSpace was throttling the download. If you can mirror this somewhere else, please share the bandwidth and drop a link in the comments. But here you go, from the t-mobile.com forums:

Download the image:

http://rapidshare.com/files/234560998/update.zip.html – Mirror 1

http://www.sendspace.com/file/amcvxn – Mirror 2

http://uploading.com/files/2GDTJMY3/update.zip.html – Mirror 3

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4906690 – TPB Torrent

Download one of these and copy to your MicroSD card.

1)Turn your phone off. Boot while holding the home button.

2)When you see the triangle, hit Alt+L

3)Then Alt+S

4)Press Home and Back when it tells you to (to reboot your phone)

5)You’ll notice it says installing Radio after you hit Home+Back (thats normal and fine)

6)You’ll see it reboot like 2 times then you’ll see the new android loading screen. and there ya go! android 1.5 without having to root/jailbreak and you’re good to go.

7)when 1.5 for the US comes out, just repeat the same process except with the TMobile USA update.zip

Please note, just like the JF1.5 image and others currently out, this does not include the IM application, only Google Talk. It’s also reported that Amazon MP3 and Google Voice Search are not included.

Ben Marvin Hacks, How-To, Software, T-Mobile Android 1.5, Cupcake, hack, TMobile UK, Update

Fresh from the T-Mobile forums, looks like the OTA Cupcake 1.5 rollout is being pushed back “approximately a week”. No specifics on what the hold up is, probably some minor technical issue specific to T-Mobile, such as MyFaves. Hopefully this won’t piss too many people off. But if you’re feeling frisky and you can’t wait for T-Mobile, you can always upgrade yourself.

Ben Marvin News, T-Mobile Android 1.5, Cupcake, Firmware, T-Mobile

Some juicy details on the HTC Hero firmware just got posted over at xda-developers by Haykuro in the form of screenshots and a video. No word on if this is going to be available anytime soon, but the overall more polished look is very enticing, although nothing really groundbreaking from the other 1.5 firmwares out right now. Haykuro says he won’t be releasing this for legal reasons, so we can only hope the HTC Hero will be dropping on a carrier sometime soon.

Ben Marvin HTC, Pictures, Video 1.5, Cupcake, Firmware, Haykuro, Hero, HTC, screenshots, videos

First off, I take no credit for this guide, this is straight from the xda-developers forums, which is an excellent place to learn about HTC phone hacking. So let’s get started. Make sure you backup anything important on your phone as this will erase everything. There are several apps in the Market that will backup apps, SMS, and other data for you. So don’t complain if you’ve lost your data. Your contacts and email should still synch with Google once you reinstall the new OS.

If you have US-RC30/UK-RC8 or higher, you will first need to downgrade your phone to a previous version. (Skip these steps otherwise)

1. Format your phone’s SD card to FAT32 mode:
   • Hook your phone up to your computer using a USB cable and then wait for the notification to show up in your title bar of your phone.
   • Click the notification, and then click “Mount”.
   • A new removable disk should show up on your computer. Right click it and select Format, and select FAT32 as the file system type.
2. Download and unzip the RC29 or RC7 image file. Copy the DREAMIMG.nbh file to the SD card. (RC29 for US, RC7 is for UK)
3. Turn the device power off.
4. Hold Camera button, and press Power button to entry bootloader mode. You should see a gray/white screen with instructions to flash your phone with the update on your SD card. If you don’t see that, make sure you followed the instructions properly.
5. As per the on-screen instructions, press the Power button to start upgrade procedure. DO NOT DO ANYTHING TO INTERRUPT THIS PROCESS.
6. After it is finished, perform the restart your phone.

Once you are running RC29 firmware:

1. Download recovery.img and copy it to your SD card (see the previous instructions on how to copy from your computer to your Phone’s SD card).
2. Download the Hard SPL and copy the zip file to the SD card.
3. All files must be on the root of your SD card.
4. Restart your phone. Wait for your phone to start up fully and show the home screen.
5. After your phone starts up, hit the enter key twice, type “telnetd” and press enter. (Yes, it will start up a contact search, don’t worry. Just type it.)
6. Download an Android “Telnet” application from the Market and connect to localhost.
7. If you connect successfully, you will have a root prompt “#”.
8. Type the following into Telnet (these commands will give you root access easier in the future):
   • mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
   • cd sdcard
   • flash_image recovery recovery.img
   • cat recovery.img > /system/recovery.img

Now you have root!
Now that you have root, you will want to apply “Hard SPL” to your phone. HardSPL is what will allow you to apply flash images from other regions (like UK on US phones, and vice versa), create full backups of your phone, install the latest build from the Android source, and usually resurrect your phone if it is “bricked”. You have already downloaded the file to your SD card, so now you can apply it.

1. Power off your phone.
2. Start up in recovery mode by holding home and pressing power.
3. You will now enter recovery mode. You should see an exclamation.
4. If you do not see a menu on screen, press Alt-L to show the menu.
5. Press Alt-S to apply the update from the SD card.
6. After the update is complete, hold Home and press Back to restart.

And now, the last step! You are still running an old version of Android, but you want to upgrade to the latest and greatest update! You can do this, and not lose root by downloading modified versions of the updates.

Download one of the latest ROMs to install, I recommend JF1.5:

JesusFreke 1,51

Haykuro Builds

The Dude’s Cupcake 1.2 Full
The Dude’s Cupcake 1.1a Lite (No 3rdparty/dev apps/Manup Blue Theme)

You will also want to apply the latest radio update from HTC. Install the same way as the system image:

HTC Downloads Page

To install the latest build (instructions from Haykuro):

1. Gain root (follow the various threads available on the forums to accomplish this).
2. Download the latest build above.
3. Copy to your sdcard as update.zip
4. Power off your phone.
5. Hold the Home button, and power on the device. (This should send you into recovery mode).
6. Press ALT+B to create a nandroid backup (if you wish to fall back without losing any data later, if you do go back to RC33 [or any other firmware 1.0 update] you will need to reflash your radio, users have reported problems using the new radio on the old firmwares.)
7. Press ALT+W, then ALT+S.
8. wait for it to finish, then home+back.

There you have it. I hope I gave proper credit and backlinks to the awesome people that make this possible. Now you can brag about your new Cupcake and also do all the cool stuff with root, like install full Linux distros, tether your phone, and install apps on the SD card.

Ben Marvin Hacks, How-To, Software Android 1.5, Cupcake, G1, hack, hacking, Hacks, Haykuro, How-To, HTC, JesusFreke, root, Rooting, Upgrade, xda-developers

Here is the supposed release schedule for Android 1.5 “Cupcake”:

Google will push the MR OTA to 0.10% starting Thursday, May 14th

5% of the G1 population will be offered Cupcake/ Android 1.5 on Monday, May 18th.
15% of the G1 population will be offered Cupcake/ Android 1.5 on Tuesday, May 19th.
30% of the G1 population will be offered Cupcake/ Android 1.5 on Wednesday, May 20th.
45% of the G1 population will be offered Cupcake/ Android 1.5 on Thursday, May 21st.
60% of the G1 population will be offered Cupcake/ Android 1.5 on Friday, May 22nd.
75% of the G1 population will be offered Cupcake/ Android 1.5 on Saturday, May 23rd.
90% of the G1 population will be offered Cupcake/ Android 1.5 on Sunday, May 24th.
100% of the G1 population will be offered Cupcake/ Android 1.5 on Monday, May 25th.

All new devices will receive the OTA three days after activation.

So by May 25th everyone should have 1.5 on their phone. I’m still seeing lots of people saying they still don’t have it yet, so we’ll see if that we’re half and half by next week.

[via TmoNews]

Ben Marvin Rumors, Software, T-Mobile Android 1.5, Cupcake, release schedule, Tmobile

T-Mobile officially announced the release of Android 1.5, better known as Cupcake. You heard all the rumors, you read countless blog posts, now the wait seems to be over for T-Mobile USA users. Well, maybe just one more week.

T-Mobile is delighted to announce the upcoming release of Android 1.5 with “Cupcake” coming soon to the T-Mobile G1! We plan to begin sending out the update starting the end of next week. As with previous software maintenance releases, the update will be randomly sent “over the air” to T-Mobile G1 customers. We expect everyone will have their update by the end of May.

Official feature list:

• System-wide:
  • Refinement of all core UI elements
  • Animated window transitions (off by default)
  • Accelerometer-based application rotations
• UI polish for:
  • In-call experience
  • Contacts, Call log, and Favorites
  • SMS & MMS
  • Browser
  • Gmail
  • Calendar
  • Email
  • Camera & Gallery
  • Application management

Performance improvements

• Faster Camera start-up and image capture
• Much faster acquisition of GPS location (powered by SUPL AGPS)
• Smoother page scrolling in Browser
• Speedier GMail conversation list scrolling

New features

• On-screen soft keyboard
  • Works in both portrait and landscape orientation
  • Support for user installation of 3rd party keyboards
  • User dictionary for custom words
• Home screen
  • Widgets
    • Bundled home screen widgets include: analog clock, calendar, music player, picture frame, and search
  • Live folders
• Camera & Gallery
  • Video recording
  • Video playback (MPEG-4 & 3GP formats)
• Bluetooth
  • Stereo Bluetooth support (A2DP and AVCRP profiles)
  • Auto-pairing
  • Improved handsfree experience
• Browser
  • Updated with latest Webkit browser & Squirrelfish Javascript engines
  • Copy ‘n paste in browser
  • Search within a page
  • User-selectable text-encoding
  • UI changes include:
    • Unified Go and Search box
    • Tabbed bookmarks/history/most-visited screen
• Contacts
  • Shows user picture for Favorites
  • Specific date/time stamp for events in call log
  • One-touch access to a contact card from call log event
• System
  • New Linux kernel (version 2.6.27)
  • SD card filesystem auto-checking and repair
  • SIM Application Toolkit 1.0
• Google applications
  • View Google Talk friends’ status in Contacts, SMS, MMS, GMail, and Email applications
  • Batch actions such as archive, delete, and label on Gmail messages
  • Upload videos to Youtube
  • Upload photos on Picasa

[via Tmobile Forums]

Ben Marvin News, Software, T-Mobile 1.5, Cupcake, Official Announcement, OTA, T-Mobile, Update, Upgrade

Just came across this cool video showing the making of the giant cupcake outside of the Google offices. The company, Custom Creations, also made the giant Android robot.

Ben Marvin Google, Video android robot, Cupcake, Video

What a nice surprise from BGR this morning. The phone that everyone had pegged as the G2, is now known as the HTC Magic. And it looks like it’s going to be an exclusive to Vodafone in Europe. The sleek, all touch-screen phone features HSPA, WiFi and GPS along with a 3.2 megapixel camera. And lacking a physical keyboard, the HTC Magic will be sporting the Cupcake branch of Android, with the touch keyboard the fanboys have be waiting for ever so patiently.

Head over to the Boy Genius Report for more sexy shots of this yet-to-be-announced handset.

Ben Marvin HTC, Hardware, Pictures, Rumors, Vodafone Cupcake, G2, HTC, HTC Magic, Vodafone

Steel is an alternative web browser for Android with a few very cool added features over the standard Android browser. The description from their website pretty much sums it up perfectly:

Steel offers a new, touch-friendly user interface to the Android browser engine. It supports auto-rotation, full screen browsing, a virtual keyboard, advanced touch controls for zooming and flipping through multiple windows. Steel provides full integration with the Android platform. It can be made the default browser, it opens multi-media files in the appropriate viewers, and supports downloads of arbitrary files (videos, mp3, playlists,…) from the web.

After testing out Steel for a few days, I am definately impressed. The on-screen keyboard is very nice in landscape or portrait modes. The auto-rotate is snappy and works even on phones without root access. Some of the gestures take a little bit of getting used to, but a swipe to the right instead of hitting a back button, for example, seems like second-nature after using Steel for a while.

Ben Marvin Software Cupcake, Software, Steel, web browser