Android Cupcake is the third major release of the Android operating system, developed by

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

, being the successor to Android 1.1. It was released on April 27, 2009 and succeeded by

Android Donut Android 1.6 Donut is the fourth version of the open source Android mobile operating system developed by Google. Among the more prominent features introduced with this update were added support for CDMA smartphones, additional screen sizes, a ...

on September 15, 2009. Android Cupcake introduces a new

virtual keyboard A virtual keyboard is a software component that allows the input of characters without the need for physical keys. The interaction with the virtual keyboard happens mostly via a touchscreen interface, but can also take place in a different form ...

, marking a departure from the physical keyboard present on the

HTC Dream The HTC Dream (also known as the T-Mobile G1 in the United States and parts of Europe, and as the Era G1 in Poland) is a smartphone developed by HTC. First released in September 2008, the Dream was the first commercially released device to use th ...

and support for stereo

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

. Cupcake improved features to its in-built apps; videos can be directly uploaded to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

, as can photos to

Picasa Picasa was a cross-platform image organizer and image viewer for organizing and editing digital photos, integrated with a now defunct photo-sharing website, originally created by a company named Lifescape (which at that time was incubated by ...

, the

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app supports batch actions, and the web browser was updated to include a new JavaScript engine and copy and pasting. Android Cupcake was the first major release of Android to use a confectionary-themed naming scheme, a scheme that continued until the release of Android 10 in 2019. By July 2010, Android Cupcake constituted less than a quarter of active devices running Android. User adoption of Android Cupcake began to decrease in the following months, with 4.7% of devices using Android Cupcake by January 2011. On June 30, 2017, Google ceased support for Android Market on Cupcake.

History

In December 2008, the Android source was updated, making the "cupcake"

branch A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term ''twig'' usually ...

public. The branch included support for stereo

and fixed various issues with Android's email client. Around this time, reports emerged that the

would receive an update for Android Cupcake. The cupcake branch was continuously updated in the months following its release, with an on-screen keyboard and notepad app being added in January 2009. The

HTC Magic HTC Magic (marketed as T-Mobile myTouch 3G in the United States, and as NTT DoCoMo HT-03A in Japan) is an Android smartphone designed and manufactured by HTC. It is HTC's second Android phone after HTC Dream, HTC's first touch-only flagship An ...

was unveiled in February as the first device to launch with Cupcake, notably lacking a physical keyboard. Android Cupcake was officially released on April 27, 2009. In the days following Cupcake's release, select HTC Dreams began receiving an over-the-air update for Android Cupcake.

System features

Bluetooth

Stereo

was added, and Bluetooth support for in-car kits was fixed. Auto-pairing was added in Android Cupcake. The Advanced Audio Distribution and Audio/Video Remote Control

Bluetooth profiles In order to use Bluetooth, a device must be compatible with the subset of Bluetooth ''profiles'' (often called services or functions) necessary to use the desired services. A Bluetooth profile is a specification regarding an aspect of Bluetooth-b ...

were also added.

Keyboard

was added, similar to the iPhone. The virtual keyboard feature is necessary for devices lacking a physical keyboard, such as the

. The virtual keyboard supports

autocorrect Autocorrection, also known as text replacement, replace-as-you-type or simply autocorrect, is an automatic data validation function commonly found in word processors and text editing interfaces for smartphones and tablet computers. Its principal ...

predictive text Predictive text is an input technology used where one key or button represents many letters, such as on the numeric keypads of mobile phones and in accessibility technologies. Each key press results in a ''prediction'' rather than repeatedly ...

, custom dictionaries, and third-party keyboard layouts.

User interface

Slight adjustments to Android Cupcake's user interface were made, including the inclusion of transparency.

Widgets

Widgets can now be added to the home screen. Built-in widgets include a calendar and music player, although developers can create their own widgets.

Other features

Other features added in Android Cupcake include the saving of MMS attachments, support for pausing and resuming of downloads, support for MPEG-4 and 3GP videos, and

SD card Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDis ...

filesystem checking. The underlying

kernel Kernel may refer to: Computing * Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems * Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution * Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming * Kernel method, in machine learn ...

of the Android operating system, the Linux kernel, was updated to 2.6.27.

App features

Android Market

Browsing categories and filters were added to Android Market, Android Cupcake's app store.

Camera

Users can upload videos from the camera directly to

. Photos can also be directly uploaded to

. Startup times for the camera app were improved.

Contacts

User pictures can now be added to contacts. Google Talk integration was added to the contacts app. Similarly, the call log shows specific date and time stamps for events.

Gmail

The

app was updated to allow batch operations, such as deleting or archiving multiple emails at once.

Web browser

Android Cupcake's web browser uses the

Squirrelfish Holocentrinae is a subfamily of Holocentridae containing 40 recognized species and one proposed species. Its members are typically known as squirrelfish and all are nocturnal. All three genera in the subfamily are found in the Atlantic and ''Ho ...

JavaScript engine, and supports searching within a page and copy and pasting. Other features added include tabbed bookmarks and history features.

Developer APIs

Android Cupcake provides

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

s for developers to use. Between Android 1.1 and Cupcake, there were over 1,000 changes to the Android API between Android 1.1 and Cupcake. Developers can: * Create home screen widgets * Use APIs for recording and playing back audio and video. * Create replacement keyboards. Android Cupcake also added support for the OpenGL graphics API.

References

External links

* * Android (operating system) 2009 software {{Google-stub