A man once told me that I could not have my Cupcake and eat it too. He was obviously dead wrong. Today’s big buzz on the Android front is that the official OTA install package for Android 1.5 (lovingly known around the internets as ‘Cupcake’ update) is now available for direct download and manual patching. For those of us who have waited patiently for the official patch but just can’t wait another day for it to come over-the-air, it is our day of rejoicing. At long last, we get to sink our teeth in to that green sugar-coated muffin, complete with video recording, on-screen keyboard, an expanding library of widgets, and stereo bluetooth support (to name a few additions).

Four months of discovery and hearsay later, the Android build that we’ve all been waiting for is nigh. Run inside, everyone – run inside and charge your G1s, for Cupcake (Firmware v1.5) is nearly upon us. (Actually, it’s still a few weeks away. But you should charge your G1 anyway, seeing as it’s a G1 and the day is halfway over, so the battery’s probably almost dead.)

We’re in good ol’ Sin City, fresh out of a pre-CTIA 2009 meeting with HTC. While most of the hardware they brought to the party were things we’d seen at Mobile World Congress last month, they had one thing on the software end that was just out of the oven: the latest build of the Android “Cupcake” release.

The firmware build number we were playing with was 1.5/CRA79. We didn’t spot any major new features in this build – but we did see a good number of things we’d heard about previously get their first implementations. Oddly, we also noticed at least one thing missing since last time.

With the HTC Magic launching in April, we probably could have guessed that the Cupcake update would be ready to ship to the G1 at the same time. But now we don’t need to guess – a T-Mobile rep has gone and confirmed it.

As work on the Android “Cupcake” build (Firmware 1.5) continues, the developers continue to slip more little features in under the radar. We spotted a small little bit of newness while we were poking around the HTC Magic – check it out after the jump.

As 2008 came to a close, we saw the first hints of a new developmental branch of Android called “Cupcake“. Promising video recording, copy and paste, stereo bluetooth and more, an endless clamor has rang from the userbase ever since. There’s still no word as to when we can expect it to drop onto devices, nor are they making promises that any specific feature will make it on to any given handset (be it the G1 or a future release) – but with the Cupcake branch at a reasonably stable point and beginning to show some of its new tricks, we thought we’d do a video run-through of everything that has made it in so far.

The T-Mobile G1 has an update in the works. When the firmware will be available to owners is the main question after most of the details leaked out of the kitchen. Cupcake, as it’s been dubbed, should improve the look and the feel of the OS. The buttons should pop a bit more, there is a new transition when opening and closing apps, but most importantly is the new virtual keyboard. That particular new feature doesn’t seem to provide much function in the physical keyboard-equipped G1, but hopefully the G2 or the upcoming Huawei handset will take full advantage of it. Early screenshots after the jump.