T-Mobile G1 Update Now Expected by End of January

A highly-anticipated system software update to the T-Mobile G1 -- the first smartphone running Google's Android OS -- is now expected to be released before the end of this month.

The most prominent feature in this update will reportedly be an on-screen keyboard. The G1 has a hardware keyboard which requires turning the device to landscape mode and sliding up the screen, but there's no way to enter text with it in portrait mode. An on-screen keyboard would take care of this.

This missing feature will reportedly be added to Android in a software update -- called RC31 but code-named cupcake. T-Mobile originally hoped to have this put by mid-January, but an inside source has told Google and Blog that the new target is supposedly before the end of January.