Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie - It's raining rumors

There’s no reason why Google should slow down its reigning Android development, with Android 4.0 laying its spellbound cast on Galaxy Nexus late in 2011, followed by mid 2012 by Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release that arrived ruling over the super Nexus 7.

But, quick-jaded group of helpless techies that we are imagine how Google's going to sustain the tempo of advance in its next edition of its dessert related Android OS 5.0 code named The Key Lime Pie. Being no official status from Google yet on the release date and features, it’s likely that the Key Lime Pie autograph will be given to Android 5.0; we can start pulling together the strings of Key Lime Pie rumors from around the web and tie them up for the curious update-obsessed people that you are. With Sony preparing to produce the next Nexus, may lend some credence to this rumor being another rumor.

Google has proclaimed its next developer conference - Google IO - to take place in mid May this year. Given that Google publicized Jelly Bean at 2012's IO conference, it's not irrational to anticipate a fresh slice of Android 5.0 be served at this year's episode.

On 31 January, a perception of Google IO demonstrating of Android 5.0 looked more probable when screen grabs of a Qualcomm roadmap were leaked, showing the fresh cadre as breaking cover in the mid season edition.

Android 5.0 phones

Rumors of a Nexus handset started seeping in during the third quarter of 2012. There was hearsay that this phone would be sporting Key Lime Pie, but sources who spoke to AndroidAndMe acceptably 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, a rumor suggests that the Motorola X Phone is the Android 5.0 ruling handset that will be revealed at Google IO. The same dripped Qualcomm docs quoted above also made mention of a two new Snapdragon gears, one of which will be, predictably, a new Nexus handset.

If the accompanying specs, leaked along with the photo by the unsigned source, are factual, then the Nexus 5 will mark a 5.2-inch, 1920 x 1080 OLED display, 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and 3GB of RAM.

Samsung's Android 5.0 upgrades

Although Samsung is yet to authoritatively confirm its Android 5.0 agenda, a SamMobile source is claiming to be acquainted with which phones and tabs will be getting the Key Lime Pie upgrade. According to the source, the devices set to receive the upgrade are the Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 2,Galaxy Note 8.0 and Galaxy Note 10.1.

Features

For 24 hours, it seemed as though the first 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 hastily pulled, many people assumed it was lined up for the big 5.0 and, out of the blue, revealed early. As it happened, the following day, the Google Now widget rolled out to Jelly Bean.

While we wait on Key Lime Pie features to be revealed and scour the web for more Android 5.0 news, we can hopefully hope with TechRadar writer Gary Cutlack, the new mobile OS to feature some of these features

(Source: TechRadar)

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 back light. 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.

 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 aggregation widget that incorporates Facebook and Twitter - so why are there no cool aggregation 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.

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.

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 favored 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.

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/free route if they could charge for an app but still give it away to friends and fans through a promo code system.

10. Final whines 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.

Voyager-1 bids adieu

NASA issued a statement that Voyager-1 is still within the Solar System; in a region called “the magnetic highway” ever since the story of its farewell was published. The debate on some foremost subjects is still on blaze related to whether Voyager-1 has left us on its course into farther space and thus whether the magnetic highway lies within the solar structure. The panorama is as under:

35 years after its commencement on September 5 1977, NASA’s Voyager-1 spacecraft will finally leave the Solar System — the first ever man-made article to do so. It will now persist on a track that, in about 4,000 decades, will take it within 1.7 light years of a star, primarily called the AC+793888 — the first man-made article to go by, so close to another star, and apparently other planets. In the due tracked course, Voyager-1 is expected to reach the heart of our native galaxy millions of years from now.

Voyager-1 was launched with an approximated trail that would take it past Jupiter and Saturn, snapping the planets and its moons over a decade long mission, whereas Voyager-1′s sister, Voyager-2, visited Uranus and Neptune. After reaching Saturn, Voyager-1 was re-positioned on a course that took it towards the heliosphere, also known as the rim of the Solar System. The heliosphere is basically a effervesce of charged specks that are blown into space by the Sun’s solar storm, with the heliopause being the expanse where the solar wind, in due course, runs out of steam and is conquered by the force of the interstellar medium. A few days back, reports from NASA assert that Voyager-1 has traversed the heliopause — the boundary between the heliosphere and interstellar space.

It’s worth taking a look at the remarkable time-lapse video that Voyager 1 taped during its descent to Jupiter casing the roiling, daunting mass and its unblinking eye...

 NASA arrived at this conclusion by recording an amplified sum of high-energy cosmic waves impending towards the spacecraft from interstellar space, while analyzing a brisk refuse in cosmic rays from the Sun.”Within just a few days, the heliospheric strength of trapped radiation decreased, and the cosmic ray intensity went up as you would expect if it departed the heliosphere,” says Bill Webber, Professor Emeritus of astronomy at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.

Voyager-1 will now keep on its flight through space, exploring the absolute frontier, possibly seeking out novel life and new culture, and boldly going where no one has ever gone before. While the spacecraft itself is expected to last for an indefinite period, the chance of it being battered by interstellar debris is very lean; it only has a sufficient amount power to maintain connections with Earth for another 10 years or so. Voyager-1 should still be capable to fling us ample of remarkable scientific specifics before it runs out of fluid, though. If either of the Voyager spacecraft are ever singled out by any alien life wherever, they both enclose a Voyager Golden Record (pictured below) which is a gold disc premeditated by Carl Sagan and associates that is predestined to aid extra terrestrials comprehend human existence and civilization.

Google Glass - The Latest Concern

Thee potential of sci-fi eye gear may not seem outlying with the latest intrusion, or most appropriately termed as Google's operation to craft glasses appear cool again, alas fading glumly in their premiere.

Google Glass is an endeavor to make eye level wearable computing, and it's effectively a modish duo of glasses with an included display and a battery concealed within the casing. Wearable computing is not a fresh initiative, but Google's mammoth bank credit and will-to--do approach connotes it to be the foremost artifact to do momentous figures.

Project Glass, a venture at Google's extremely enigmatic Google X lab, let out images and posted a flick to YouTube to foretaste the long believed expedition into building an improved twosome of spectacles.

The capture, portentously tagged as "One Day …" depicts what a day in the being of a Google Glass client would be like. He checks into his almanac and the weather conditions, chats and shares photos with acquaintances in his circles and listens to his favorite play lists.

So what does Google Glass simply do?

The nucleus of Google Glass is its petite prism exhibit which sits a little above your eye contour. You can perceive whatever is on the display by peeking up. The glasses furthermore have a rooted camera, GPS, microphone and, purportedly, use bone stimulation to bestow you resonance.

Voice management is used to direct the tool; as you grow up with the habit to say 'ok glass' to get an array of options including capturing videos, clicking pictures, drive messages using speech to content, 'hang out' with natives or catch directions to anywhere. You access these options by saying them out loud.

The majority of this functionality is self expounding. To ‘hang out’ is Google's video conferencing technology that allows you to have a discussion to people over web cam (or without), and stream them what you are seeing and when you are lost hanging out long, the Google Maps and the inbuilt GPS will help you find your way back or anywhere further.

Developers and explorers all around the globe and mainly inside Google secretive X Labs, are already budding quite creepy apps for Google Glass - together with one that permits you to spot your friends in a mob, and another that lets you say aloud an email. The results are displayed on the exhibit, effectively putting the information into your scrutiny like in a HUD (Head up Display).

So, are we right in taking the next step forward?

A group known as ‘StoptheCyborgs’ instigated lately with the adage “Fighting the algorithmic future one bit at a time” to beat up the dispute about Glass, Google’s much-hyped Internet-powered glasses.

The head gear, which does everything from snap pictures and capture video to offer directions and send mails for its users, raises sober unease about privacy as there is no way to know when someone is recording, the group cautions on its website.

More roughly, the crusaders squabble that Glass intimidates to disband the peculiarity between the “digital world” and the “real world”. “Users will make conclusions and interrelate with other beings in the real world in a manner which progressively depends more on information that Glass acquaints them with,” comprehends another snatch on the site.