A major update was coming in the first quarter of 2009 to Android, and it wasn’t just bug fixes. Code-named “Cupcake,” it brought some much-needed features: stereo Bluetooth, video recording, and an on-screen keyboard. Not confined to just the G1, these updates were arriving as a development branch, with a merge into the master branch expected around January.
While some of the changes were obvious to end users, others would be less visible. There were the standard bug fixes that most people wouldn’t notice. And in between were refinements like having the music player fade in after hanging up a call, tactile feedback on the security password screen, and a fix for the display timing out too quickly during calls.
The web browser was also seeing improvements: an updated WebKit core, new JavaScript feature support, and copy/paste. The ability to save MMS attachments and the arrival of the soft keyboard were both welcome additions. One-handed typing was getting closer.
One feature that remained conspicuously absent: the ability to install and run apps directly from the SD card. For many users, that one addition would have been worth more than everything else on the list combined.
