Android 5.0 Update Release Date: What We Know So Far About Name and Possible Features

By Shawn Schuster
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 (Photo: Android)

Android's 4.4 Kitkat update is still fresh on our devices and we're already looking forward to what 5.0 may bring. What will it be named? How will it improve our lives? Will it even improve our lives?

Name

As you probably already know, Google has a thing for naming its Android software updates after confectioneries. What started with Android 1.5 Cupcake has seen an alphabetical naming order with each subsequent upgrade. Since Kitkat is the most recent name for the 4.4 patch, it only makes sense that the next one would start with an L.

Lollipop seems the most popular choice, but other suggestions include Licorice, Lemon Meringue, Lassi, Lamington or Lime Pie. Since Kitkat was originally thought to be named Key Lime Pie, the name change took several tech bloggers by surprise, but the Kitkat name came with peculiar product placement for the Hershey's treat, according to the advertising plastered all over the Android site.

So does that mean the next L-word will be a candy product name? Lifesavers? Lemonheads, perhaps?

Release Date

The usual suspect, Google I/O, has already been ruled out as the company says that the June event will focus on services and apps. Google's new head of Android, Sundar Pichai, has already said that I/O is "not a time when we have much in the way of launches of new products or a new operating system," so that's pretty much confirmed.

Since speculation is already pinning the new big product launches to happen in October, it would make sense that the Android team would reveal the OS to the world before that. But there's also speculation that the next biggest update will be 4.5 as Google stretches out that magic 5.0 number a bit longer.

Features

With the usual user interface and shiny new visual enhancements we see with most Android updates, Android 5.0 is rumored to include more features for the fitness-minded. Sensors included in smartphones and smartwatches (and possibly even Google Glass) will better monitor fitness data, according to the speculation experts.

In August of last year, Engadget discovered a new patent for pattern-based unlocks for certain apps. In theorym, this would mean that you could draw different shapes on your device's screen to open the camera app verses the phone dialer.

Whether we see these changes with Android 4.5 or 5.0, only time will tell, but we do know the continuing rivalry between Apple and Google will certainly spawn some amazing innovation in the handheld market for 2014 into 2015.

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