G1 News

Ah, the GP2x… The greatest handheld that never was, the GP2X was an Open Source handset from Korea that was designed to be equally easy for homebrew programs to run as commercial titles.

Unsurprisingly, it took about 6 minutes before devs managed to emulate all the popular machines from the Sega Megadrive/Genesis to the Neo-Geo and even arcade machines on the powerful device.

Even the famous GTA clone Payback started life as an ambitious GP2X game before recently jumping ship to the iPhone.

Why does all this matter to you, humble G1 owner?

Well, the machine is being emulated in its entirety onto Android, meaning all of the arcade classics you used to spend you lunch money on can be replicated on your mobile phone!

Check out this video from clever dev Jrioni, chowing off all manner of emulation (via GP2X emulation!) of some classic titles. When it will be available to the rest of us is unknown…

Samurai Shodown on the toilet? I thought this day would never come!

Source: Android Community

The wait is finally over. A nice little suprise for the hols, as the Android update popped out across the US and the few spots in Europe that got left behind.

Everyone should be in possession of the sweet new Android 1.5 update, and if not the US version is available on XDA Developers for download.

What do y’all think of it? An android revolution or a mere evolution of a sweet platform?

Let me know!

Haykuro from xdadevelopers, he of the early, early Cupcake Android install and much other loveliness, has done it again!

Presumably performing some arcane magic involving 1.21 gigawatts and amazing skill, he has crowbarred the spanking new HTC Hero build of Android Cupcake and placed it into a T-Mobile G1!

Check it!

Points of note for the video:

1. The music. Relaxing. Artist, title anyone? Shazam says Oscar Wilde, I’m inclined not to believe it. Oh, there it goes. “Green Grass of Tunnel” by Múm, from the Finally We Are No One album. Another one for Spotify, methinks!

2. The revamped media player. Can you say GPod?

3. Calendar looks so pretty, almost Mac-ish! Will be so organised in future!

4. Tasty new browser, check out the progress bar! (Never thought I’d get excited by a progress bar, but never thought I’d get shot by a crossbow either. You live and learn.)

Just so you feel like you’ve wasted your life, super-developer/reverse engineer Haykuro is 17. 17. I still don’t do my own grocery shopping, and often get lost in malls.

On a more serious note, how much of this is Cupcake, and how much is Android? Even the iPhone interface hasn’t changed that much since 1.0, and that’s only a single device. The way that Android will start to be developed in different directions by manufacturers will certainly be interesting, as HTC seems to continue to use the raw uncut in their devices.

What would Sony do with Android, also want to see more from Samsung. However, I’m not talking about just sticking a Touch-Wiz UI hat on it like Windows Mobile on the Samsung Omnia, I’m talking a genuine integration! Interesting to see the little Operating System grow up…

Source: modmyGphone

We’ve only just goten our fill of Android 1.5 a.k.a. ‘Cupcake’, and already the wires are buzzing and lips salivating with talk of a successor in the form of a tasty Donut!

Donut will be version 2.0 of Google’s Android interface, offering big steps beyond the original as well as the recently rolled-out Cupcake 1.5.

Samsung has apparently taken Android close to their heart, bringing out two new devices which apparently take advantage of this next generation of Google’s OS.

These phones, codenamed Spica and Bigfoot (it could well be that Bigfoot!), are said to be the first real Android devices to come from the manufacturer, powered by this new Donut 2.0.

Here’s how they will look:

Spica (L) & BigFoot (R)

Aside from the form factor, the Samsung Spica and Bigfoot are almost identical on paper…here they are alongside the i7500.

Samsung Spica will be the affordably priced mass market device, whilst Bigfoot is said to be the sexier gaming device for smartphone lover. It also seems that Samsung will finaly eschew the standard Android home screen to offer a more familiar TouchWiz user interface on top. These pics show the Spica’s UI to be a cross between the iPhone’s CoverFlow for media and the original Widget-based interface seen on every new handset from the Samsung Tocco Ultra to the Samsung i8910 HD.

Word has it that this Donut 2.0 is what all of the other manufacturers are waiting for, before they jump into Android-flavoured waters. It might be the first update which offers them the level of customisation so desperately required to have their phones stand out from each other.

More interestingly, Donut is said to not be a mandatory Android update, so some handsets will enjoy the whizzy speeds of this latest version, whilst others languish with Cupcake. Which side will the T-Mobile G1 be on?

More importantly, who’s hungry for seconds??!

Source: Unwired View/Mobile Review

As the T-Mobile G1 and HTC Magic get released in more territories, so the shadow of Android Market grows over the world!

Phandroid has been given a special Support Team telegram, within which the latest countries to receive extra Android lovin’ for apps have been announced.

Free apps can now be downloaded in:

- Canada (eh?)

- France (oui!)

- Ireland (so they are)

- Italy (buongiorno)

- Portugal (tudo bem?)

- Spain (si)

- Switzerland (tschuss!)

…whilst local language support will be available for English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Czech and Polish.

More languages supported, the more people that can make an enjoy apps! That’s indeed the key to their success, and it’s cool to see Google recognising that.

Am linking to this, as people far and wide have been breaking their G1s to get Cupcake in there the hard way. This exhaustive guide from androidandme is indispensable.

Simply follow it through and you should have Cupcake up and running in no…actually in quite a long period of time, but you will get it working.

Read it, print it, commit it to memory!

Hopefully this will be the last of our Cupcake woes…

Whilst we all know the fate that has befallen the HTC Magic in the UK, becoming a Vodafone exclusive and all, but it seems that the Android handset will still come to the US under the T-Mobile banner!

Better yet, it seems that the T-Mo market research that was being done to find a new name has found a winner!

On their stock computers, the MyTouch3G hs popped up in black, white, and even a fetching merlot colour…

Which one are you going to get, or are you sticking to the G1? Also, aren’t you glad it didn’t end up being called the Genius 3G with Google?

Source: TMoNews

Rumour has it that some lucky people have already been getting their onscreen keyboard and video recording update on! Let me know if you’re one of the lucky ones, as both the UK and US has apparently seen some Android 1.5 love!

Check your calendars, folks. This is not an April Fool’s hoax, the G1 metal detector app really works!

How the heck does it work? According to the smart bods (namely johnkzin) on the Android Guys post, “Could be the compass. Could also be that metal probably has an effect on the EM fields around the device, and thus affects signal strength/etc. of the GSM radio. Therefore, it may just be looking at fluctuations in the signal strength that are somehow easily relatable to proximity of metal interference.”

That was exactly what I was going to say. Awesome app, either way!

Is your G1 playing up? Found mine becoming really laggy and quite annoying to use recently. Might be all that early Cupcake fiddling! Found that a good way to clear the cobwebs is just to restore the whole device to factory settings. Also good if returning it for any reason and you need to remove all traces of nefarious activity!

Here goes:

1. Turn off the G1
2. Press Home Key and End key at the same time for abuot 15 seconds, until you see a triangle with an exclamation point with a picture of the G1.
3. Slide out the QWERTY keyboard and press Alt and W at the same time.
4. That’s it! All done!

To do a soft reset, just press the Home and Back buttons when you see the triangle with an exclamation point and a picture of the G1 on the screen.

Thanks, Android Central!