May 1st, 2009
T-Mobile G1 US cupcake 1.5 update, nothing to see here
I posted that the T-Mobile G1 cupcake (aka 1.5) update was rolling out to G1 owners yesterday, but with no official T-Mobile confirmation and some confusion in the Android space I am no longer certain the update really is rolling out here in the US. Conducting a search on Twitter shows that those receiving the update seem to all be in the UK. There is also lots of confusion around the update since there is definitely a 1.5 update for Android Developer Phone models (unlocked) available right on the HTC site. People either have these ADP models or have already rooted and updated their T-Mobile G1 devices to get the cupcake update so it is difficult to know if people are all talking about the same thing. I have only seen one person on Twitter in the US mention they received the G1 update OTA, but in the short conversations there it still isn’t clear they had a T-Mobile G1 purchased from T-Mobile and not hacked or rooted.
I rooted and updated mine to see what 1.5 was about, but have now taken my G1 back to its original RC33 form so I can get the official 1.5 update. It was definitely a nice improvement with the video capture and playback natively supported, Bluetooth A2DP, and on-screen keyboard. It is now pretty funny to read about all the ways people are trying to “force” the OTA update on their G1s, that may or may not be available. People are hard resetting, taking out the battery, constantly going to the Settings>About phone>System updates screen (I am guilty of this myself), and turning their device off and on. So far none of these techniques seems to do anything, but I suppose it makes people feel like they have some control over the update.
These updates are being performed similar to how T-Mobile Sidekick devices receive their updates. It appears to be random and I am very curious to know how T-Mobile rolls these out and wonder if it is geographic, IMEI numerical order, or something else. To be fair, they really should roll the update out in the order in which the devices were purchased so that the first people who bought the device get the update first and if that was the case I would be getting the update soon.
Can anyone confirm they have received the G1 1.5 cupcake update on a standard, locked, non-rooted T-Mobile G1 in the USA?
Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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