Cupcake update details and lots of Android news

Well, the Android G1 Cupcake update is finally being pushed out (apparently started yesterday), although some may be waiting longer than others.What can you look forward to in the update? Well, the big ones are A2Dp (IE streaming audio over bluetooth), video recording and playback, better widgets, slightly redesigned user interface, enhanced browser controls, and the most anticipated of all: the software (touchscreen) keyboard.

Overall, I’m very impressed with the update, here are my initial impressions about this great patch and some great news for Android news.

A2DP – Fantastic, delivers excellent quality audio over Bluetooth. Now we just have to hope someone produces an application capable of generating turn by turn directions that can be broadcast over it.

Video Recording and Playback - Works great, the only problem with the video is, well, the audio. The phone wasn’t designed to capture audio for video, especially considering where the microphone is placed, so the audio on the device is weak, but I thought the video quality was actually pretty decent. Video Playback has worked perfectly in my tests.

Widgets – Actually, this might be my favorite part, there is a slew of new widgets, and I’m sure more will be coming down the pipe from developers. The new “regular” widget is the Music player, which gives you music at the touch of a button and even allows you to save a playlist and play it back easily. There is also a whole new category of Widgets called “Folders” which are a great way to get in contact with a specific group of contacts, giving you a speed dialing sort of interface. Sounds odd, but it is actually quite handy.

Soft Keyboard – I’m give and take, I bought the G1 specifically for the hard keyboard, as my fingers seem incapable of operating most touchscreen keyboards, but I’m fairly pleased by this one. In normal, portrait mode I find it quite hard to use, but in landscape mode it’s pretty good and I made very few errors while using it. It does offer you suggestions as you type, but it’s definitely not anywhere close to how Apple’s predictive typing works, for better or worse.

Other – GPS seems to lock a bit faster, but I have no hard numbers. Overall the phone seems much more stable and responsive, and I’ve yet to have it crash or give me a “force close” like so many times before. They also tweaked the UI a bit, it’s give and take, I’m sure someone will make an application to make it look just like the old one if it bothers you. The last thing is that the automatic rotation has been more fully integrated, so turn it on in the settings and give it a whirl, it’s very useful if you use the soft keyboard.

This is a big day for Android fans in more ways than one though, not only is the Cupcake release finally going out, but we can expect a ton of new Android devices, supposedly as many as twenty being available by the end of the year!

“Andy Rubin, senior director for Mobile Platforms for Google and the spearhead of the Android operating system, said the number could be as high as 20. (That figure does not include devices made by manufacturers that use a basic Android system but have not apprised Google of its use). The 18 to 20 devices Google knows about will be made by eight or nine different manufacturers, Mr. Rubin said.”

Yea, eight or nine different Manufacturers, where as of this moment we only have three confirmed (HTC, Samsung and Motorola), who are these other enigmatic manufacturers? There have only been fleeting rumors of other developers carrying devices, but Google seems pretty confident that they will produce their phones as well.

But that’s not even all the news about Android today, Android is also about to hit a major landmark on the application side: they are about to hit 5000 applications on the Android marketplace, meaning their reign as the #2 application store continues strongly. Although an interesting problem arises, how will the current marketplace function on future devices? As more developers make Android devices, a single marketplace will no longer be a functional solution, especially as developers continue to add custom features and hardware. As of now, the current Marketplace already needs to be restructured and redesigned, it’s not only ugly, but non-functional. There needs to be better categorization of applications and better ways for people to find new applications. They definitely need to take a page from Apple’s playbook in this regard, I may not be a fan of their rules, but they are cutting edge designers at least.

And just to crown this long post, here is a video a shot on the G1, talking about the new Cupcake patch! Enjoy!

FYI: please make sure to orient your own phone correctly when recording, apparently that doesn’t orient itself.