T-Mobile to roll out Android update

From February 5 to February 15, G1 users will be receiving an over-the-air update to the Android operating system. This release, known as RC33, adds a number of new features, including Google Voice Search.

In November, Google made its Voice Search available to iPhone users, leaving some G1 owners scratching their heads and asking "Why?!"

Now that the ability is more or less official from T-Mobile, users are complaining that it's not the Cupcake update they were expecting.

The world of open source operating systems was never so whiney.

Rather than giving it a version number, this update is classed a Release Candidate (hence the "RC" in the name), which makes every user effectively a tester. It's a novel concept from our seats here at Betanews, especially when considering the device's highly mixed user base. Illustrative instances of this user disparity can be seen almost daily in the Android Market. For example, An ActionScript reference application recently appeared there, and a "rating war" ensued. USER 1: "I hate when a developer puts a flash player symbol on the app just to get people to check it out. Pretty Misleading." [one star rating], USER 2: What's misleading about ActionScript reference? Why would you downvote an app just because you can't watch "All Your Base" in native .swf!?" [five star rating].

In addition to the voice-activated Google search function which will receive its own desktop icon, RC33 will reportedly allow pictures and files sent in MMS messages to be saved directly to the memory card with a long press on the screen. A number of bugs will be fixed as well, such as the text message thread error which randomly says it is not responding and prompts the user to force close the app or wait. Fixes for Comcast e-mail, missed calendar reminders, and inadvertent IM logouts are also expected to come with the release candidate.