When it comes to rumors nothing is ever set but we do our best to make a calculated judgement based on both our knowledge and trust from the sources we find. However, sometimes things just don’t work out and that’s an inevitable part of the job. This time it looks like Android 4.4.3 won’t be coming to the group of Nexus devices after all and instead, it could be replaced by something even better: Android 4.5 Lollipop.
If you are confused with how much firmware is thrown around the Android ecosystem you are not alone. Most can’t keep up with what is going on for their own devices let alone understanding many Android-based handsets and where they are. Let me fill you in on something.
Android loves to look after the Nexus range because it is solely owned by Google. The big “G” own Android after they bought open source software based off of the Linux kernel. Because many people assumed that 4.4.3 would be going there first before anyone else. However, for the past week many rumors have suggested that 4.4.3 is going to the Galaxy S5 prime — the new flagship for Samsung to try and keep up with the technology Life’s Good company are making with the LG G3. According to reports, today that just might be the case and Sammy could also be seeing it stretched down the line further to the older S5 also. After all, they wouldn’t want to leave that one out in the cold since they just released it a couple of months ago.
But those who know Android well will also know that it wouldn’t come as a huge surprise to see it jump a number completely. In this case 4.4.4 and go straight to 4.5 for the Nexus 4, nexus 7 and Nexus 10 while leaving other devices to pick up the pieces and run the 4.4.3 and potentially 4.4.4 if there is such a software. There’s also the chance that is skips the 4 completely and goes straight from 4.4.3 to 4.5.
Of course, the word Lollipop is not yet confirmed either. The green robot guys love to name their software after treats and this time we are up to the letter L in the alphabet. We know for a fact that it will start with L. However, what we don’t know is the exact word until it gets released. We learned our lesson from last time when we all thought it would be Key Lime Pie and that turned out to be KitKat. Every time we learn from our mistakes though and in this case Google representatives said that they went with KitKat because Key Lime Pie is only more of an American snack and the rest of the world didn’t know it. We can safely say that the entire world knows what a Lollipop is, but is that good enough of a name? I’m personally not sold on it as what the Mountain View guys will choose but right now that is what the others are referring to it as.
Other reports are suggesting that we could see nothing else coming before Android 4.5 Lollipop and that 4.4.3 will be cancelled altogether. The thought here is that we are ready for a big jump up that brings in lots of new features and not just smaller updates that happen to come with some bug fixes. Again, I’m not quite buying that perfectly either because we saw with KitKat we don’t need to see a rise in the build number to get a new name and feature included.
Anyhow, that is the news for today on the latest software front and hopefully before too long we can come up with some solid glue tips about what is happening. For now, it is fun to try and guess and if the past is anything to go by that is likely all we will be doing until it becomes official anyhow. What I’m interested to know is have you managed to come up with a better word than Lollipop that starts with L that might be a real word used as the next food-based software version? If they want to stay on the chocolate theme there is Lindt and Lindor that are both world renown names. The other popular answer has been Lemon Meringue Pie and it has several direct ties to being a favorite choice among bloggers. Others suggest home grown names such as Laffy Taffy and the Lion bar, but these are not known on a world-wide basis so I doubt they happen.