Android 1.5 SDK, Exchange email and set-top box: First signs of robopocalypse

By Flora Graham on 14 April 2009, 11:57am

We think an android should be able to do the dishes at least, if not take over the Earth and subjugate us puny meatbags. The Google Android mobile operating system, which powers the T-Mobile G1, doesn't even load the dishwasher, but it is getting some new features, announced yesterday.

Android has released an 'early-look' version of the SDK for Android 1.5, and it's got some bells and whistles for developers and users alike. These include an on-screen soft keyboard that works in portrait or landscape, stereo Bluetooth, copy and paste in the browser, video recording and a gaggle of Google applications, including uploading to YouTube.

There's still no Microsoft Exchange sync, so enter the third-party apps: Moxier Mail released a free beta version of its push email application yesterday. It works with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and 2007, which should make suits and IT managers happy -- you can grab it from the Android Market.

Android has also made another, very tiny, step to robot domination with the news from Android Guys that Motorola will be using the OS in a TV set-top box in Japan. More Android kit looks likely to appear in October at Japan's largest electronics show, CEATEC, thanks to a gang of Japanese manufactures who have formed the Open Embedded Software Foundation (OESF) in a bid to cram Android into even more gear. We look forward to the day when our Android-powered set-top boxes, netbooks, digital picture frames and karaoke machines join together and crush us in their disk trays for our arrogance.

Update: Motorola has said that its 'au BOX' set-top device will use a proprietary operating system called KreaTV, not Android.