We’ve all been on pins and needles over the upcoming cupcake build of Android, which is slated to add useful things like an on-screen keyboard, A2DP Stereo Bluetooth, and more. One of those pins just burst our bubble (to extend the metaphor), as Robert just tipped us on this thread over at Google Groups, where Jean-Baptiste Queru writes about how the G1’s code isn’t being currently rolled into Cupcake:
The G1 contains a significant number of proprietary applications, drivers, etc… that aren’t part of the core Android Open-Source Project. Even if the source code for the 1.0 platform that powers the G1 was released, you’d still be missing many parts to turn the base platform into something that exactly matches what shipped on the G1. […] Cupcake sets a base that should reduce the impact of the first aspect, with the open-source tree being hopefully eventually close (or identical) to the underlying platform of the stuff that ends up on consumer devices.
The part that’s straightforward: it makes sense not to take a specific version of Android — namely the one built for the G1 — and put it back into the ‘main build’ of the core of Android. The question, then, is will the changes in Cupcake filter back out to the G1 branch? Robert feels that the answer is likely “No.” We’re less sure — it sort of depends on how much support T-Mobile and HTC want to throw at a device that is, perhaps, more of a first effort than a sign of what Android will look like in a year.
If nothing else, take this post as a reminder that we’re not at all sure yet what the update scenario is for Android on the G1. If it will be the iPhone-style “everybody gets it all the time” kind of scenario or the BlackBerry-style “You get it when the carrier gets around to it, but meanwhile feel free to try to hack it on yourself” kind of scenario
In other cupcake-related news, it has been merged into the master branch for Android, so it’s now ‘canon’ code.
Update: Engadget confirms: it’s coming to the G1!