Google just announced Android 4.3 and the Nexus 7 a few months ago, but the company is already preparing to outdate the new OS update, currently only running on 1% of devices on the Android platform.
The new Android 4.4 KitKat reveal, alongside the LG Nexus 5 launch, is set to happen next month on October 14. Google is also expected to reveal the new Nexus 10, the larger ten-inch tablet, with a newer display and ASUS as the manufacturer.
The LG Nexus 5 has been leaked to death already, with Google’s official KitKat video showing the smartphone, meaning Googlers are internally testing it out as Motorola did internally with the Moto X, this image was leaked too, by Guy Kawasaki.
We also got a look at it through an FCC filing with a ton of images showing the new smartphone. It has a rubber-polycarbonate design and what looks like a larger sensor, rumors say LG could add OIS on the camera.
This is alongside a 5-inch 1080p screen, quad-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, 16/32GB of internal storage, 2400mAh battery, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, LTE and NFC for wireless charging.
On the software side, Google will be adding support for low-end devices, meaning almost any device can run Android 4.4 no matter the internals, the company will also make updating quicker and make screen size less of an issue.
For the most part this will be a small update and we are not likely to see any Google Now type feature, making it another one of Google’s little updates, instead of a big launch into a new OS.
Since Ice Cream Sandwich, Google has been very small with their updates to Android and the UI has stayed similar. Google Now, the new camera app and some other functions and features have been added, but we are overdue a total revamp of the OS.
In many ways this is due to Google starting to gain huge amounts of traction on Android and the fact the vanilla Android UI is hardly ever seen, buried deep behind a layer of TouchWiz, Sense or some other ROM/skin.