T-Mobile UK confirms G1 'cupcake' rollout for May

Users of T-Mobile UK’s G1 handset, powered by Google’s Android operating system, are set to receive the long-awaited ‘cupcake’ software update in May.

The new version of the software will finally bring a native onscreen keyboard, previously only available within 3rd party apps, and the ability to use the 3.2 megapixel camera to film videos and upload them straight to YouTube.

The news comes as the company announced sales of the world’s first Android handset have reached almost 100,000 units.

Richard Warmsley, Head of Internet and Entertainment, T-Mobile, said: Sales of the T-Mobile G1 have exceeded our expectations “ we are very excited to hit the milestone of 100,000 units sold in just over six months. Our customer research has shown us that nine out of ten G1 users would recommend it to a friend and this is down to the great user experience, web browsing via T-Mobile’s award winning Broadband network, the value a customer receives on our 18 month price plans, and G1 features such as the slide-out QWERTY keyboard.”

Since the handset was released users have complained of the lack of expected features such as the onscreen keyboard. An earlier software upgrade introduced a few new features but some users were disappointed at the small scale of the update.

The cupcake upgrade introduces:

• New touch-screen keypad
• Full video record and playback in MPEG-4 & 3GP formats
• Direct uploading of video to YouTube
• Copy and paste within browser
• View Google Talk friends’ status in Contacts, SMS, MMS, Google Mailâ„¢, and Email applications
• Animated window transitions
• Accelerometer based application rotations
• Faster camera start-up and image capturing
• Direct upload of photo to Picasa
• Faster acquisition of GPS location
• More home screen widgets
• Stereo Bluetooth support of both A2DP & AVCRP profiles plus auto-pairing
• Faster browser with updated Webkit & Javascript engine In-page search function
• User interface refinements to key tools including the buil-in Google Mail appliation,  Email and Browser

Second Android Handset
Warmsley, also confirmed plans for a second Android handset, commenting: “We’re committed to delivering a market leading internet service, and are excited that with the G1 and Android Market customers can tailor that experience to make it more relevant to how they want to use their phone.  We’re looking forward to launching another groundbreaking phone on Android later this year.”