Early Look Android v1.5 'Cupcake' SDK Released

Android excites us on so many theoretical levels, could it about to become a genuine real world treat too...?

Four months on from news of the hugely exciting Cupcake update it is finally being pushed to developers in advance of a mass consumer launch. For those who have forgotten why Cupcake - or Android v1.5 as it will officially be known - is a big deal take a seat, prepare a deep breath and read:

* System-wide:

• Refinement of all core UI elements
  
• Animated window transitions (off by default)
  
• Accelerometer-based application rotations
  
  UI polish for:
  
• In-call experience
  
• Contacts, Call log, and Favorites
  
• SMS & MMS
  
• Browser
  
• Gmail
  
• Calendar
  
• Email
  
• Camera & Gallery
  
• Application management
  
  Performance improvements
  
• Faster Camera start-up and image capture
  
• Much faster acquisition of GPS location (powered by SUPL AGPS)
  
• Smoother page scrolling in Browser
  
• Speedier GMail conversation list scrolling
  
  New features
  
• On-screen soft keyboard
  
• Works in both portrait and landscape orientation
  
• Support for user installation of 3rd party keyboards
  
• User dictionary for custom words
  
• Home screen
  
• Widgets
  + Bundled home screen widgets include: analog clock, calendar, music player, picture frame, and search
  
• Live folders
  
• Camera & Gallery
  
• Video recording
  
• Video playback (MPEG-4 & 3GP formats)
  
• Bluetooth
  
• Stereo Bluetooth support (A2DP and AVCRP profiles)
  
• Auto-pairing
  
• Improved handsfree experience
  
• Browser
  
• Updated with latest Webkit browser & Squirrelfish Javascript engines
  
• Copy 'n paste in browser
  
• Search within a page
  
• User-selectable text-encoding
  
• UI changes include:
  
• Unified Go and Search box
  + Tabbed bookmarks/history/most-visited screen
  
  Contacts
  
• Shows user picture for Favorites
  
• Specific date/time stamp for events in call log
  
• One-touch access to a contact card from call log event
  
• System
  
• New Linux kernel (version 2.6.27)
  
• SD card filesystem auto-checking and repair
  
• SIM Application Toolkit 1.0
  
  Google applications:
  
• View Google Talk friends' status in Contacts, SMS, MMS, GMail, and Email applications
  
• Batch actions such as archive, delete, and label on Gmail messages
  
• Upload videos to Youtube
  
• Upload photos on Picasa

Yep, this is Google's answer to iPhone OS 3.0 and the Palm Pre which means it really needs to be on the money and with a list like this is looks like it will be...

Link:
Android 1.5 Developer Page