Android 1.5 (Cupcake)

Google has finally released the long-awaited update of Android OS to version 1.5

UI improvements:

• System-wide:
  
  • Improvements to all built-in interface elements
  • Animated switching between windows (off by default)
  • Automatic screen rotation based on accelerometer reading
  
  
• "Polishing" interfaces for:
  
  • Incoming calls
  • Address book, recent call list and favorites
  • SMS and MMS
  • Browser
  • Embedded Client for Gmail
  • Calendar
  • Mails
  • Cameras and photo galleries
  • Application Management
  
  

Performance improvements:

• Faster camera start and faster shooting
• Significantly faster determination of coordinates by GPS
• Smoother scrolling in the browser
• Faster scrolling of messages in the Gmail client

Innovations:

• Screen keyboard
  
  • Works in both landscape and book position
  • Supports the ability of the user to install third-party soft keyboards.
  • User Dictionary
  
  
• Desktop
  
  • Widgets (including base: analog clock, calendar, music player, picture and search)
  • Live folders (a widget for displaying dynamic feeds, such as RSS or e-mail)
  
  
• Camera and photo gallery
  
  • Video recording
  • Video playback (MPEG-4 and 3GP formats)
  
  
• Bluetooth
  
  • Stereo support (A2DP and AVCRP profiles)
  • Auto pairing
  • Management Improvements when using hands free
  
  
• Browser
  
  • Updated to the latest versions of the engine Webkit engine and Javascript-engine Squirrelfish
  • Copy-paste in the browser
  • Search page
  • Ability to custom select page encoding
  • Interface improvements: combining the search string with the URL entry string; bookmarks / history / frequent pages screen
  
  
• Notebook
  
  • Custom pictures for your favorites
  • Specify date and time for events in recent call list
  • One-touch access to the contact card from the list of recent calls
  
  
• System
  
  • Updated Linux kernel (version 2.6.27)
  • Auto-check and file system recovery on SD memory cards
  • Support for operator applications on a SIM card (so-called SIM menu)
  
  
• Google apps
  
  • View the status of friends from Google Talk in the Address Book, SMS, MMS, GMail and email client
  • The ability to group archiving, deleting and tagging messages in Gmail
  • Download videos on Youtube
  • Upload photos to Picasa
  
  

The update is already available for free download to happy owners of Android Dev Phone. All the others are patiently waiting for an automatic “air” update, which is due to start (according to rumors on the T-Mobile forum) at the end of this week (~ May 17, 2009). This is what every G1 owner is looking forward to, approximately since January :)