A letter written by a concerned Android customer highlights the frustrations with the new Google Android Cupcake update and deprecitation of APIs. Read more…

Dear Google,

I never thought I’d be one of those guys who would complain about major updates like cupcake, but now I have to complain, even before it is out.

The reason for this is that the cupcake update will – as you know – make some API’s private and break a few others that weren’t officially public yet. This will disable some features that I have come to love. With cupcake:

• The API’s for GPS & Wireless Location will become private
• The API’s for Bluetooth & Screen Brightness will break

From now on, I’ll have to change all of these settings manually!

I don’t understand the reason behind these changes either. If there are applications that misbehave or crash, then – according to the principles of android – they will sink to the bottom of the list through 1-star ratings. Also, after the first Android Developer Challenge you’ve awarded Locale $275.000 because it allowed users to create situations where settings could be changed automatically when conditions were met. This meant that certain battery consuming features could be disabled automatically when battery life was getting low or when they weren’t required. The ability to automatically change these features offered substantial fixes for the G1’s poor battery life, but are now being removed.

The obvious ’solution’ for me would be to keep my Screen Brightness on 0% and disable GPS, Wireless Location and Bluetooth all together. Then again, people don’t buy smart-phones to look at a dimmed screen and just receive calls. People buy a G1, because it has a great open operating system that allows applications to interact with all parts of the phone. Closing previously public API’s is a very strange and disappointing move.

Therefore I recommend that you don’t go through with these changes and instead, expand the list of settings that applications can change. A few examples of useful additional public API’s would be the ability to let applications toggle the 2G/3G setting, activate/deactivate parts of Auto-synch and manage the keyguard. These API’s would allow people to use applications to conserve battery life even better and honor Androids ‘openness’.

Thank you for listening to my complaints,

A concerned customer

Do you share the same concerns? If so, post your Comments Below:

This content was originally posted at AndroidTapp.com

According to an announcement by T-Mobile’s Product Development and Public Relations departments, a message approved by Google sent via email to Will (T-Mobile Forums Administrator), the Cupcake update will not be released to the general public and T-Mobile will keep us posted when software updates will be released. Below is an excerpt of the email:

According to the Android team, “Cupcake,” which is the code name for an Android software build, is still a work in progress that is considered to be a development branch and not for general availability.

We will update you as T-Mobile G1 software updates are made available to T-Mobile customers.

For those who aren’t familiar with the “Cupcake” Update… it’s a branch of software updates and improvements for the Android operating system that were merged into the main operating system build. The Android community much anticipated these updates because it included some of the following:

What are your thoughts on this announcement? Comment Below

[Source: Official T-Mobile Forums]

This content was originally posted at AndroidTapp.com