Unlocked Google phone receives first patch

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 10 Mar 2009 at 16:46

Google has pushed out the first update for the unlocked version of the G1, which is aimed at developers.

The 1.1 patch was rolled out to the commercial version of the phone, the T-Mobile G1, a couple of weeks ago and features numerous bug fixes addressing issues with the alarm clock, Gmail, pop3 email accounts, mail notifications, device sleep and maps. It also adds the ability to save MMS attachments and support for voice search, allowing the development of new voice-based apps.

The update also offers a compromise in the apps store wrangle. Because the Android Developer Phone 1 is intended to allow developers to test their apps and fiddle around with the Android operating system, owners are given full read/write access to all system folders.

This means that owners of the G1 can copy and distribute applications downloaded from the Android Market apps store - a significant problem when it comes to paid-for applications.

Google's original solution to this problem was to prevent owners of the Android Dev Phone 1 from accessing the store. This swiftly proved controversial, especially given that these users had paid around $400 to get their hands on the device.

The compromise, introduced with the patch, will allow owners to download any apps that don't contain copy protection.

"Many developers are concerned about the unauthorised redistribution of their applications, so they make use of the copy-protection feature (known as 'forward locking') which prevents applications from being copied off devices," says Dan Morrill, Developer Advocate for Android.

"If you choose to add copy protection when you upload your application to the Android Market, then you won't be able to test it on the ADP1's Android market client."