Zero Mu Tech Articles

Update your Android G1 to Cupcake without the wait

Posted in Android, Fixes/Hacks, Opinion |

Problem: I got the T-Mobile G1 (Android) because of the open-source engine behind it.  I wanted a phone that would continue to be updated and include features wanted by lots of users, as opposed to those features only allowed by the manufacturer (e.g. Apple’s iPhone). I have been disappointed with T-Mobiles schedule of updates (lots of posts out there say that Cupcake was scheduled for January 2009) and tired of waiting for the Over the Air (OTA) update, so I decided to take the plunge and root my phone so that I could update it with whatever I wanted, whenever.

Quick Solution: Rooting your phone is actually much, much easier than I thought it would be.  The two excellent guides that I used are Android and Me’s G1 rooting article and xda-developer’s G1 rooting article. Once you have rooted your phone, you can manually update to Cupcake (Android 1.5) without waiting for the OTA update.

The Whole Story

From what I have read and experienced, an out-of-the box T-Mobile Android G1 is completely reliant on T-Mobile for updates to the Android Operating System.  The dilemma here for T-Mobile is probably that customers want timely updates, but they want those updates to be high-quality and bug-free.  These two demands are opposing forces in the software development world: a high-quality and bug-free update takes time to build, and then takes lots more time testing for compatibility with millions of users running thousands of different applications in millions of different ways.  A buggy update could be released quickly, but who really wants a buggy application?

An additional speculation of mine is that T-Moblie also has to maintain a reputation as well as remain competitive against the iPhone.  If T-Mobile acts too quickly and releases a buggy update, then news headlines might read something like, “T-Mobile’s Cupcake turns out to be a dry Muffin” (or something more witty).  Apple has a solid reputation of releasing stable updates, so T-Mobile has a high bar.

So, for the OTA updates, I can understand why T-Mobile seems to have shifted the release of Cupcake to the right 6 months.

Accept More Risk, Root your G1

I finally couldn’t wait any more for T-Mobile.  Personally, I would prefer a 95% bug-less update now than a 99% bug-less update a month from now.  But that’s me.  Obviously, the potential risks in updating to a less-stable release of Android include data loss, wasted time, a dead G1, and missing important calls, SMSes, etc.  I have waited long enough that I am betting that the process for rooting a G1 has been thoroughly tested and improved since it was first developed, so I gauge that risk  at very low.

Using the above links, I found that rooting the G1 is very easy.  I was prepared for some fancy commands and quick button pressing.

So I rooted my G1 and updated to the JesusFreke build of Android 1.5 (Cupcake).  As you can see in the linked article, this includes the benefits of the Cupcake branch, plus multi-touch for the browser, an update app so you can always have the latest JF build, and (it seems) support for saving apps to your SD card and tethering.

So that’s that.  It worked for me.  Let me know if it has worked for you, and if so, what are your favorite builds?