Android™ Medical Applications- Is it the future?

 Android 1.5 ‘Cupcake’ update has been available for Android Developer Phone(ADP) 1 for past couple of days. In earlier post, I had mentioned about it and it’s availability at HTC site.

Please note, that the update available on HTC site  is only for Android Developer Phone(ADP) 1 – HTC Dream hardware platform only and device should also have original factory bootloader (hboot 0.95.3000) or a development bootloader that supports fastboot. The update for Tmobile G1 has been rumored to be available OTA and some users have claimed to received it yesterday. But as of today, it hasn’t been confirmed to be available for all users.

 There are two ways of updating developer phone 1 to android 1.5 (as described on HTC site):-

1. Flashing the device using an updated recovery image (recovery-image method): This method is recommended by HTC for android application developers. It is straightforward method which requires the use of adb tool (available with Android SDK) along with device with original factory bootloader (hboot 0.95.3000)

2. Flashing the device using fastboot commands (fastboot method): This method is slightly more complicated than the first one. It requires the use of adb tool (available with Android SDK) and fastboot tool. To use this method, your device must have a fastboot-compatible bootloader. Having the original factory bootloader included on ADP devices is not required.

I used the the first method to update my dev phone (ADP) and it was piece of cake (or should I say piece of ‘Cupcake’ ) . Surprisingly, it was easier than some of the OS updates I have done over the years.

Below, are the steps I followed to update my Android Developer Phone(ADP) 1 to Android 1.5 ‘Cupcake’.

Please note, these steps worked for me and it is not necessary that they will work for you. Please follow the steps at your own risk and I should not be held liable for any damages/injuries caused while following them. These steps are based on the instructions provided on HTC site.

Also, since I recently got my phone, I did not have any need to backup data. But, it is advisable to backup data before upgrading your phone.

Environment: Android 1.5 SDK, Windows XP SP3.

Step 1: Downloaded the radio image (ota-radio-2_22_19_26I.zip) and recovery image (signed-dream_devphone-ota-147201.zip) to folder 1.5images in root of C drive.( The images can be downloaded to any folder/drive as long as they are accessible).

Step 2: Connected my dev phone to my laptop using USB cable(i prefer using USB cable as method of connecting my dev phone to the laptop) and started Command prompt. At command prompt , I changed current directory to directory where I stored downloaded images (C:\1.5images). Then to make sure my dev phone was connected properly and available for update, I typed “adb devices” command to make sure the dev phone shows up in the list of devices. (If dev phone does not show, then connectivity needs to be checked between phone and laptop)

Step 3: Copied radio image from laptop to phone. Please note , it is important to copy radio image and update the phone with it before updating the phone with recovery image as mentioned in HTC site. I typed “adb push” command to radio image from laptop to phone.

adb push ota-radio-2_22_19_26I.zip /sdcard/update.zip

The command pointed out the number of bytes copies along with time taken. I found it to be in weird format.

To make sure that the entire radio image was copied, I used “adb shell sync” command.

When sync returns, all of the data has been copied to the device.

 

Step 4: Rebooted the phone into recovery mode by holding “Home” key while phone reboots. If the phone enters recovery mode, it displays a “!” icon.

     

Step 5: After entering recovery mode, opened the sliding keyboard and pressed ALT + I key combination to enable log output in the recovery console. Then pressed down the ALT+s key combination to install the update. An “installing update” icon and progress bar (or a similar status message) were displayed. The progress bar completion indicated the completion of installation.

                 

Step 6: Pressed HOME-BACK key combination to write the radio image, update the firmware, and automatically reboot the phone. Please note, this key combination is not pressed after the successful writing of radio image, the phone will show a “updating firmware” icon for few seconds then automatically reboot in normal mode.

Step 7: After successful reboot, I followed Steps 3-6 using recovery image instead of radio image to successfully install recovery image to my dev phone.

    

Below are the some of the new features available with Android 1.5 Cupcake update:-

1) Voice Dialer and Voice Search

2)Home screen Widgets

                

3) On screen keyboard