G1 News

Lucky UK journos have been getting up close and personal with the HTC Magic today, and Zara of Shiny Shiny had her beautifully manicured hands on the Vodafone exclusive handset, comparing it to the T-Mobile G1!

Why am I not there? Good question. Think I’m having far more fun listening to Asher Roth (with his rude lyrics) and writing blog posts about arcade games! I think you’ll agree, I’m the real winner.

“Razor Ramon flow, oh so sharp, you can take Kapowski, I’ma take Lark on my Go-Kart.”

Extra, extra points for any Saved By The Bell reference.

Yes, we know that it was meant to come out many moons ago, but the recent official releases of the new Android 1.5 ‘Cupcake’ update means an ever-closer legitimate release.

Well, if T-Mobile are to believed this time, the G1 will be getting it’s official update in May!

Yes, all the whizzbangery of the HTC Magic with touch screen QWERTY and direct uploading of videos taken (yes, with the phone) to YouTube will soon come to the humble T-Mobile G1 in the very same month.

More good news to come from T-Mobile UK is an impressive 100,000 units sold in the first six months, making the G1 the network’s most successful handset! Great news, but as T3 remarks being a leader in a field of one is not that impressive…the real test will be when Vodafone’s Magic and (allegedly) O2’s Samsung’s i7500 are on the market!

Best. App. Ever.

Bringing gaming to your mobile is nothing new, there is an app currently available that allows the Samsung Omnia to play Playstation games, but this new one called Android Arcade for the G1 takes it to the next level!

The insanely expensive games on the Neo-Geo! Final Fight! Street Fighter! Metal Slug! Arcade classics, baby! Man, I remember a misspent youth dumping my pocket money in to some of those titles. To even fathom that they could now be played on a mobile phone boggles the mind!

Controls leave a bit to be desired, but enjoy all the greats on your mobile! As for where you get the legally suspect ROMs to emulate these games, you’re on your own…

HTC and Google have finally released the Android 1.5 “Cupcake” update for owners of the developers’ version of the T-Mobile G1, the Android Dev Phone.

Available as a free download from Android Developer’s Blog, the Cupcake update brings a virtual touchscreen QWERTY keyboard, video recording, and generally snazzier performance when surfing the web.

Check out this video to see what we can expect very soon on our G1s!