O2 UK becomes the latest network to offer an Android powered handset as they launch the Samsung Galaxy i7500, the first non-HTC created device and the thinnest Google-powered device on the market today.

The Samsung Galaxy is a 3G handset with Android ‘Cupcake’ (so it’s vanilla in the vein of the G1 and HTC Magic, rather than the HTC Hero’s bespoke user interface), has a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, 8GB of internal storage, and a 3.2″ AMOLED capacitive screen.

An exclusive on O2 for four weeks, the i7500 Galaxy will turn up on other networks in good time. The i7500 is available for free on a £44 per month pay monthly contract.

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!

Haykuro of the xdadevelopers forum brings this to us (obviously) and the new Android interface (allegedly named ‘Rosie”) is frankly amazing. The live widgets, the switches for various functions, that huge clock, it’s brilliant!

Which phone it’s from is unclear, but I would like it now, please!

Source: SlashGear

In a galaxy far far away, men of a certain age, weight and personality idolised a particular 30 year old sci-fi film, resulting in the creation of millions of pieces of useless tat in the form of tie-in memorabilia. The twisted progeny of the Star Wars trilogy include action figures, T-Shirts, posters, Christmas albums (R2-D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas is my favourite track), spin-off cartoons and yet more films. Mobile phone themes are the latest addition to this endlessly expanding brood .

My dreams have been answered. Finally I can have a picture of the Death Star, Tie Fighter and the Millenium Falcon on my mobile home screen, now if I could just get a girlfriend….

It is these sorts of security issues that might make people wonder whether it was such a great idea for Google to give anyone free reign to release Apps into the market without any serious scrutiny. Apple’s App store may be restrictive and controlling but at least issues like this would never come about.

Androinica have got hold of a letter from an Android developer worrying about the dangers of using Open Home from Better Android:

I am an engineer on the Android Team and I worked on the default Home screen. I recently came across your Home replacement called Open Home. First of all, let me congratulate you for it, it has some very nice ideas and it’s good to finally see a viable 3rd party replacement for our Home screen. However, I would like to warn you about two very serious security holes in your application, both related to the way you implemented widgets.
(some texts removed….) * by Better Android

Home runs with quite a few permissions, most notably the ability to read contacts. With your implementation of widgets, any application can offer a new widget that, once installed by the user, will silently use Home’s permissions to achieve whatever it needs. For instance, a widget could be easily modified to read all the contacts and upload them silently to a website. At no point the user will know that the widgets will make use of the “read contacts” permission.

The second security hole is the ability you give the widgets to spoof any other app. A widget could for instance find shortcuts on the Home screen and change their Intent or attach a different click listener to execute something entirely different. This way, a widget could for instance execute a fake Email app and grab the user’s password and emails. A widget could do much more too since they have access to all the information stored in the Home screen UI. These two very important issues are the reason why widgets were not implemented in Android 1.0. We need to implement them correctly to guarantee the privacy and safety or the user’s data.

As your application currently stand, I would strongly advise you to disable the widgets support until you come up with a secure implementation of widgets. You have customers who paid for your applications and it would be really bad both for them, you and Android if a malicious widgets started taking advantage of these security holes.

- -UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE- -

Better Android have been in contact to refute the claims in this post check ‘em out here.

The latest T-Mobile G1 apps are making headway in terms of nefarious activity, as the latest offerings are an interesting spin on scanning apps like ShopSavvy.

The premise remains the same in that you use the G1’s camera to scan barcodes of CDs, DVDs and the like, and the result is that instead of receiving a comparison of prices, you get a handy torrent link to download it for free!

ScanTorrent is the latest of these, giving users a scary amount of details as soon as a product is scanned, and then sends off the torrent data straight to your home computer. By the time you get back from a hard day of scanning, a PC full of pirate material!

ScanTorrent’s features include:

• Search by scanning barcode
• Search by entering title
• Google Base product lookup
• isoHunt torrent search
• Ability to omit results originating from certain torrent sites.
• Multiple “Client Sites” or uTorrent WebUI configurations.
• Download history
• Search history

Watch it in action!

Wow. Not available in Android Market just yet, but apps like these show how the power of open-source can come back and bite you in the butt.

When the G1 becomes synonymous with portable piracy, maybe Google will not be so disparaging about the App Store’s ‘walled garden’ policies….

I’m sorry to dash your cupcake update dreams but a T-Mobile USA spokesman, a one, Erica Gordon, is on the record as saying that there is no plans for a Cupcake update, “as far as (she) knows”

But there may be good news for the American market as both Androinica and BoyGeniusReport are both confident that T-Mobile will unveil the G2 at next month’s CITA. (The HTC Magic for us Europeans).

Andoinica speculates the sudden drop in price for G1 handsets, suggest that T-Mobile is ‘trying to drum up sales before releasing their next Android phone”. While Boy Genius which is banking on an April Cupcake update (sorry guys, read the above) think it would make sense for T-Mobile to release their new handset at the same time.

The most compelling argument for an April release however is the CITA Wireless conference that takes place in April. What better place to unveil a phone than one of the ‘most important global technology event(s) of the year’ according to the site? After all LG announced the GD910 at CES in January.

Andoinica

Boy Genius Report

Yeah, I said paid apps were coming, then they didn’t. Sorry!

But when not trying to get some Michael Jackson tickets, the only thing I’ll be doing tomorrow is trying to get some decent paid apps for my T-Mobile G1, as the UK Android Marketplace finally goes live for them on the 12th of March.

According to Regan Whitehead from T-Mobile UK:

“From tomorrow, UK customers will have paid apps on the phone, and there’ll be a wide selection of paid apps on the market.”

Pretty clear cut there…

Maybe then you’ll be able to tell us which ones you’ve bought!

Source: AIsForAndroid

Bless you T-Mobile! According to Pocket-Lint, the Cupcake update is back in action, and being prepped for an April release on the T-Mobile G1!

This means the video playback, virtual keyboard, voice recorder, and stereo Bluetooth changes to the Android operating system we’ve been promised may finally be on its way! Check this post to see all the Cupcake goodness that is said to be contained…

“We will be offering G1 users the firmware update sometime in April”, a spokesperson for T-Mobile told Pocket-lint.

“We can’t say whether this will be connected with the launch of the HTC Magic as we aren’t aware of what alternations if any they are making to the operating system”.

With the HTC Magic also out in April, is that a coincidence or is the Cupcake update going to be out on both at the same time? Hmm…let’s hope it isn’t an April Fool!

Since the T-Mobile G1’s October release, the only thing that has disappointed me about the supposedly-open operating system Android is the relative lack of customisation. I mean, I had the Ed Hardy custom theme on my jailbroken iPhone, complete with Intelliscreen for my mail…whilst the G1 just looks at me incredulously with that damn Malmo clock!

Well, with the release of Open HomeLite, we can retain the cool feel of Android, with a new lick of paint on the front end. Some of the best themes created by xda-developers forum members have been lifted and placed on the Marketplace for free, and now the G1 can have one of six new fascias, plus support for widgets!

Check it:

I know, there are other apps like aHome which switches up the G1’s interface, but if I wanted an iPhone, I would continue to use my iPhone!

Source: AIsForAndroid