Google's showing no signs of slowing its pace of Android
development, with Android 4.0 appearing on the Galaxy Nexus late in 2011,
followed in July of 2012 by the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release that arrived
powering the super Nexus 7.
But, forward-looking, update-obsessed people that we are, we
can't help but imagine how Google's going to maintain the pace of innovation in
its next version of its mobile OS, Android 5.0.
All we know so far is that Google's working away on the K
release of Android, which it's developing under the dessert-related codename of
Key Lime Pie. Regarding the version number, it's likely that the Key Lime Pie
moniker will be given to Android 5.0. We thought we might find out on 29
October 2012 but as yet there is no official word from Google.
So now as we wait on official news of the Android 5.0
release date and features, we can start to pull together the Key Lime Pie
rumours from around the web, with the first sighting of Android 5.0 on a
benchmarking website, apparently running on a Sony smartphone. There has
previously been speculation that Sony is in line to produce the next Nexus phone,
which may lend some credence to this rumour.
Android 5.0 release date
Google has announced that its next developer conference -
Google IO - will take place from May 15 to May 17 2013, a month earlier than
2012's June dates. Given that Google announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at 2012's
IO conference, it's not unreasonable to expect to see Android 5.0 at this
year's event.
Androids out in force at Google IO 2012
On 31 January, a Google IO showing of Android 5.0 looked
more likely when screengrabs of a Qualcomm roadmap were leaked, showing Android
5.0 as breaking cover between April and June 2013.
Android
5.0 phones
Rumours of a new Nexus handset started trickling in during
the third quarter of 2012, as we reported on 1 October 2012. There was
speculation that this phone would be sporting Key Lime Pie, but sources who
spoke to AndroidAndMe correctly claimed that the handset, which turned out to
be the Google Nexus 4 would be running Android Jelly Bean.
While the Nexus 4 didn't appear with a helping of Key Lime
Pie, speculation that we reported on 21 January 2013 suggests that the Motorola
X Phone is the Android 5.0-toting handset that will be revealed at Google IO.
According to a post on the DroidForums website, the phone will also feature a
virtually bezel-free, edge-to-edge, 5-inch display.
The same leaked Qualcomm documents cited above
also made mention of a two new Snapdragon devices, one of which will be,
unsurprisingly, a new Nexus phone.
Android 5.0 features
For 24 hours, it seemed as though the first kinda, sorta
confirmed feature for Android 5.0 was a Google Now widget, which briefly
appeared in a screenshot on the company's support forum before being taken
down. As it was so hurriedly pulled, many people assumed it was slated for the
big five-o and accidentally revealed early.
As it happened, the following day, on 13 February 2013, the
Google Now widget rolled out to Jelly Bean.
On 28 February 2013, we learned from Android Central that
Google is working with the Linux 3.8 kernel, which gives rise to the notion
that this kernel might make it into Android 5. One improvement that the 3.8
kernel brings is lowered RAM usage, which would mean a snappier phone with
better multitasking.
While we wait on Key Lime Pie features to be
revealed and scour the web for more Android 5.0 news, TechRadar writer Gary
Cutlack has been thinking about what we want to see in Android 5.0 Key Lime
Pie. Hopefully the new mobile OS will feature some of these things...
1. Performance Profiles
It's bit of a fuss managing your mobile before bed time.
Switching off the sound, turning off data, activating airplane mode and so on,
so what Android 5.0 really needs is a simple way of managing performance, and
therefore power use, automatically.
We've been given a taste of this with Blocking Mode in
Samsung's Jelly Bean update on the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Note 2 but we'd
like to see the functionality expanded.
Something like a Gaming mode for max power delivery, an
Overnight low-power state for slumbering on minimal power and maybe a Reading
mode for no bothersome data connections and a super-low backlight.
Some hardware makers put their own little automated tools
in, such as the excellent Smart Actions found within Motorola's RAZR interface,
but it'd be great to see Google give us a simple way to manage states.
Another little power strip style widget for phone
performance profiles would be an easy way to do it.
Set telephone to BEDTIME SLEEPY MODE
2. Better multiple device support
Google already does quite a good job of supporting serious
Android nerds who own several phones and tablets, but there are some holes in
its coverage that are rather frustrating.
Take the Videos app which manages your film downloads
through the Play Store. Start watching a film on one Android device and you're
limited to resuming your film session on that same unit, making it impossible
to switch from phone to tablet mid-film.
You can switch between phone and web site players to resume
watching, but surely Google ought to understand its fans often have a couple of
phones and tabs on the go and fix this for Android Key Lime Pie?
3. Enhanced social network support
Android doesn't really do much for social network users out
of the box, with most of the fancy social widgets and features coming from the
hardware makers through their own custom skins.
Sony integrates Facebook brilliantly in its phones, and even
LG makes a great social network aggregator widget that incorporates Facebook
and Twitter - so why are there no cool aggregator apps as part of the standard
Android setup?
Yes, Google does a great job of pushing Google+, but, no
offence, there are many other more widely used networks that ought to be a
little better "baked in" to Android.
4. Line-drawing keyboard options
Another area where the manufacturers have taken a big leap
ahead of Google is in integrating clever alternate text entry options in their
keyboards. HTC and Sony both offer their own takes on the Swype style of
line-drawing text input, which is a nice option to have for getting your words
onto a telephone. Get it into Android 5.0 and give us the choice.
UPDATE: Google heard us and this feature appeared in Android
4.2.
P-U-T T-H-I-S I-N A-N-D-R-O-I-D 5-.-0
5. A video chat app
How odd is it that Google's put a front-facing camera on the
Nexus 7 and most hardware manufacturers do the same on their phones and
tablets, yet most ship without any form of common video chat app?
You have to download Skype and hope it works, or find some
other downloadable app solution. Why isn't there a Google Live See My Face Chat
app of some sort as part of Android? Is it because we're too ugly? Is that what
you're saying, Google?
6. Multi-select in the contacts
The Android contacts section is pretty useful, but it could
be managed a little better. What if you have the idea of emailing or texting a
handful of your friends? The way that's currently done is by emailing one, then
adding the rest individually. Some sort of checkbox system that let users
scroll through names and create a mailing list on the fly through the contacts
listing in Android Key Lime Pie would make this much easier.
Make this a destination, rather than a never-used list
7. Cross-device SMS sync
If you're a constant SIM swapper with more than one phone on
the go, chances are you've lost track of your text messages at some point.
Google stores these on the phone rather than the SIM card, so it'd be nice if
our texts could be either backed up to the SIM, the SD card, or beamed up to
the magical invisible cloud of data, for easy and consistent access across
multiple devices.
8. A "Never Update" option
This would annoy developers so is unlikely to happen, but
it'd be nice if we could refuse app updates permanently in Android 5.0, just in
case we'd rather stick with a current version of a tool than be forced to
upgrade.
Sure, you can set apps to manual update and then just ignore
the update prompt forever, but it'd be nice to know we can keep a favoured
version of an app without accidentally updating it. Some of us are still using
the beta Times app, for example, which has given free access for a year.
Let us keep older versions. Many people fear change
9. App preview/freebie codes
Something Apple's been doing for ages and ages is using a
promo code system to distribute free or review versions of apps. It even makes
doing little competitions to drum up publicity for apps much easier, so why's
there no similar scheme for Android?
It might encourage developers to stop going down the
ad-covered/freemium route if they could charge for an app but still give it
away to friends and fans through a promo code system.
10. Final whinges and requests...
It's be nice to be able to sort the Settings screen by
alphabetical order, too, or by most commonly used or personal preference, as
Android's so packed with a huge list of options these days it's a big old list
to scroll through and pick out what you need.
Plus could we have a percentage count for the
battery in the Notifications bar for Android 5.0? Just so we know a bit more
info than the vague emptying battery icon.
