android 4.5 (or 5.0) - Lollipop ?
Android 5 release date, news and rumors...
Android 5 is going to be exciting, there's no doubt about that. Google saves the change to a new number for the big things, with both Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwichmaking big alterations to the way we use our Android phones.
We thought it would have been Key Lime Pie that showed off the next level, but on 31 October 2013, Google officially revealed its next minor update, Android 4.4 KitKat, which now clears the road for Android 5.
The dessert-themed code name that we assume will begin with L is anyone's guess at this stage. Android 5.0 Lemon Cheesecake or Android 5.0 Lemon Meringue Pie, anyone? Though there's talk that it might be called Android Lollipop or even Android Moonshine, as it's apparently internally known.
It may not be called Android 5 though, with some rumors suggesting the next major iteration from Google's wheel house could arrive as Android 4.5. That would make sense as we've had 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 in recent years.
That said, it appears Google may have just dropped a hint as to the version number of the next iteration of Android. 5.0 is currently looking favorableafter the time of "5.00" appeared on screenshots posted on Twitter by the search giant - a signal Google has used before.
Android 5.0 release date
Until Android 4.4 was announced we had expected the Android 5.0 release date to be some time in October 2013. We instead saw Android 4.4 KitKatlaunch on 31 October, so now we're expecting to see Android 5.0 shown off in mid-2014, quite possibly at Google IO, Google's annual two-day developer conference in San Francisco.
That's a year on from when we had originally expected to see Android 5.0, which was at Google IO 2013, which took place from May 15 to May 17 2013.
Sundar Pichai, Google's new head of Android told Wired that 2013's IO was "not a time when we have much in the way of launches of new products or a new operating system"," which makes us wonder when the new software will be coming.
Our take: Android updates are still coming too slowly for our liking, as while each 0.1-numbered upgrade is good, it's not enough to make us want the native experience.
We're expecting Google to make Android 5 rather special indeed, which means it can only wait a maximum of 6-7 months after KitKat was announced to show it off - so mid-2014 has to happen, in our opinion.
More recent reports of Android 4.5 being next in line may put a spanner in the major overhaul thinking, so we're not getting too carried away just yet. In any case Google I/O is set for June 25-26, so with any luck we should know just what Android Lollipop will be bringing to the table soon.
Android 5.0 features
Android Geeks reported that Google Babble would debut on Android 5.0. Babble was the code name for Google's cross-platform service and app with the aim of unifying its various chat services which include Talk, Hangout, Voice, Messenger, Chat for Google Drive and Chat on Google+.
A screenshot that we were sent from a Google employee on 8 Aprilconfirmed that not only was this unified chat service on the way, but that it was called Google Babel not Babble. On 10 May, we discovered that Babel would launch as Google Hangouts, and on 15 May we saw it come to life for devices running Android 2.3 and up. So much for it debuting on Android 5.
Android 5.0 phones
The first handset to run Android 5 will either be a Nexus phone or tablet, and given the timing of the announcement we think it might be the latter. The Google Nexus 5 launched Android 4.4 at the tail end of next year, and we reckon the Nexus 10 (2014) will appear soon - meaning a tablet launch for the new OS.
HTC looks like the front runner to bring this tablet to the market, so we're thinking that this could happen mid-2014, which puts it firmly on course to be made soon.
We're also hearing a lot of rumblings about a Nexus 8, a slate which willsupposedly launch with Android 4.5, so maybe that's the device that Android Lollipop will make its debut on.
Will it be known as a Nexus though? The scheme is under threat fromAndroid Silver, but it doesn't look like that's launching yet, so we reckon the Nexus name will be kept for at least the next round of devices.
-mojumohan-