G1 News

T-Mobile is do to be backing Android heavily into this year, and are slated to have four phones powered by the new OS. We’ve just seen the latest one, dubbed the Motorola Morrison.

Looking similar to the ‘Bigfoot‘ in terms of form, the Morrison is a slider in the vein of the HTC Touch Pro, hiding a QWERTY keyboard behind the screen.

Further specs are unfortunately thin on the ground, but it’s interesting to see how similar the form factor is for all these devices! Not that free when making touchscreen phones, it turns out…the G1 is starting to look pretty unique!

Motorola is indeed the third partner for T-Mo hinted at earlier, and it proves that some big player are really committed to Android moving forward, with some needing it to be a success for them more than others.

If you aren’t as technically savvy as a NASA control centre operator and just want Cupcake in your G1 early, it seems like you can do it without rooting your G1. I know, right? Great news!

Oddly, you do need the Blighty version of Android 1.5, but it will work okay in your US G1…provided you follow the darned instructions!

This is courtesy of bigfoot85t and Android Central, by the by, full disclosure and all that!

1. Head over to the T-mobile Forums to download the UK version of Android 1.5 Cupcake
2. Put the downloaded file into your SD card
3. Turn ur phone off and re-boot it holding the home button
4. When you see the triangle hit alt+L
5. Then alt+S
6. Press home and back when it tells you to (to reboot your phone)
7. It’ll say installing Radio after you hit home+back (thats normal)
8. It’ll reboot a couple times and after you see the new Android loading screen, you’ve got Cupcake.
9. When Android 1.5 for the US comes out repeat the process with the US download

Being the UK version of Cupcake, you see how hobo-fabulous us guys in the UK live, without snazzy things like Voice Search and Amazon MP3. Them’s the breaks, but you know that you can upgrade to the real deal when it does come out, so worry not and enjoy early!