Android 4.3 can be coming as soon as a few weeks from now. Here's what you need to know about the rumored Android operating system update.
Based on recent rumors, Google's mobile development team may be pushing out Android 4.3 - an updated version of Jelly Bean - before they release Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie, the rumored Android OS update that hasn't been confirmed by Google or any Android development team. Here's what you need to know about some up and coming Android updates.
1. Android 4.3 Is A Brand New Update
According to most news reports, Android 4.3 is a brand new operating system update that most never expected would exist. The first reports about Android 4.3 came when leaks indicated that Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie would be delayed (more on that later). But, Android 4.3, at the time, was a brand new term for most people in the tech world. It seems like Google knows that they have to release some sort of update at Google I/O, since most fans and critics are expected something.
2. Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie Is Delayed
It's safe to say at this point that Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie has been delayed by Google for the time being. While many guessed that Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie would be debuting at Google I/O 2013, it seems like that won't be the case. AKAScope says that Android 4.3 shows that Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie is delayed, or else Google would have released it, and we're tempted to agree.
3. Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie May Be Attached To Another Device
However, other think that Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie is getting delayed on purpose and the reason for the delay is because Google wants to pair the Android OS update with a flagship device, like the Motorola X. This makes sense; other companies like Apple have similar tactics: Last summer, Apple unveiled iOS 6 but waited a few months until September 2012 to release the operating system update alongside the iPhone 5.
4. Android 4.3 May Have Bluetooth Low Energy Technology
Android 4.3 may have something called "Bluetooth Low Energy Technology." Mobilenapps.com writes about exactly what Bluetooth Low Energy Technology really means:
"The trio will consist of HTC's developer evangelists Dario Laverde and Lance Nanek and software engineer David Wu.
"Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) on Android has arrived. Dario Laverde will provide an overview of the BLE specification and take us through HTC's APIs and hands-on demos with various devices, heart rate monitors, key finders, and multi-sensor kits (temperature, pressure, humidity, accelerometer). You'll walk away ready with the code to kick start your BLE ideas.
Next, Lance Nanek will tell us about Open GL ES 3.0, the new pipeline, updated shading language, enhanced texturing.... but more importantly, blow us away with some amazing demos!" the report stated."
5. Other Features For Android 4.3 May Have Leaked As Well
In addition, some other rumored features about Android 4.3 have been surfacing as well. Rumored unified messaging service Google Babble may be appearing in Android 4.3, which would make it a relatively big update. Similar to Apple, which has a unified messaging system that works with iPads, iPhones, Mac computers, and iPods, Google will be offering a similar service to Android users. However, according to a forum post on The Verge, an anonymous tipster says that Google Babble will actually be called Google Hangouts instead, similar to the video-messaging service available on Google+.
6. Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie Should Have Some Big Features
Even though Android 5.0 is a little far away, we're expecting some big changes. With new head of Android Sundar Pichai — who used to be the head of Chrome OS development — taking over for Andy Rubin, we may be able to expect some closer integration between Chrome OS and Android devices. It makes sense, considering the close integration between iOS and OS X for Apple devices, Google could do well by following Apple's footsteps.
7. We May See Android 4.3 At Google I/O
The earliest we can see Android 4.3 would be Google I/O 2013. Don't worry, that's only a few days — Google I/O starts on May 15th and ends on the 17th. According to Android Authority, a leaked HTC memo discussing potential Keynote speeches indicates that both Bluetooth Low Energy, or BLE, would be discussed, as well as Open GL ES 3.0 — a graphics specification that alters the UI of the operating system. Seems like Android 4.3 will be a key focus at Google I/O.
8. Google May Be Packing In Features, But They Don't Make That Much Money Off Of Android
Surprisingly, Google doesn't actually make that much money off of its Android. According to Business Insider, Google only generates $543 million from Android devices. Because the Android operating system is open-source, companies like Samsung and Amazon can drastically customize the OS and alter it.
9. Fragmentation Has Been Hurting Android Update Rates Google has been having a lot of issues with the adoption rates for its operating system updates. Many Android users aren't able to upgrade to new updates because of fragmentation. Webopedia defines Android fragmentation as follows:
"The threat or concern that a proliferation of diverging variants of the Android platform will result in the inability of some devices to properly run apps written with the Android SDK. With a large number of custom versions of the Android platform emerging, the concern is that interoperability will be weakened as a result of the potential for applications built specifically for one variant or device not being able to work with others."
10. Android 4.3 May Hurt Android 5.0
Going off of the fragmentation issues, Android 4.3 may hurt the adoption rate of Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie. With Android 4.3 becoming available for older Android devices over the next few weeks and months, by the time Android 5.0 is released, many users will probably just be getting Android 4.3. The delays between Android updates - which can sometimes be as long as months between updates - and fragmentation issues is something Google needs to fix in the Android ecosystem so that future updates could have higher adoption rates, which will undoubtably impress investors.
Webmasters have been watching for Penguin 2.0 to hit the Google search results since Google's Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts first announced that there would be the next generation of Penguin in March. Cutts officially announced that Penguin 2.0 is rolling out late Wednesday afternoon on "This Week in Google".
"It's gonna have a pretty big impact on web spam," Cutts said on the show. "It's a brand new generation of algorithms. The previous iteration of Penguin would essentinally only look at the home page of a site. The newer generation of Penguin goes much deeper and has a really big impact in certain small areas."
In a new blog post, Cutts added more details on Penguin 2.0, saying that the rollout is now complete and affects 2.3 percent of English-U.S. queries, and that it affects non-English queries as well. Cutts wrote:
"We started rolling out the next generation of the Penguin webspam algorithm this afternoon (May 22, 2013), and the rollout is now complete. About 2.3% of English-US queries are affected to the degree that a regular user might notice. The change has also finished rolling out for other languages world-wide. The scope of Penguin varies by language, e.g. languages with more webspam will see more impact.
This is the fourth Penguin-related launch Google has done, but because this is an updated algorithm (not just a data refresh), we’ve been referring to this change as Penguin 2.0 internally. For more information on what SEOs should expect in the coming months, see the video that we recently released."
Webmasters first got a hint that the next generation of Penguin was imminent when back on May 10 Cutts said on Twitter, "we do expect to roll out Penguin 2.0 (next generation of Penguin) sometime in the next few weeks though."
Then in a Google Webmaster Help video, Cutts went into more detail on what Penguin 2.0 would bring, along with what new changes webmasters can expect over the coming months with regards to Google search results.
He detailed that the new Penguin was specifically going to target black hat spam, but would be a significantly larger impact on spam than the original Penguin and subsequent Penguin updates have had.
Google's initial Penguin update originally rolled out in April 2012, and was followed by two data refreshes of the algorithm last year – in May and October.
Twitter is full of people commenting on the new Penguin 2.0, and there should be more information in the coming hours and days as webmasters compare SERPs that have been affected and what kinds of spam specifically got targeted by this new update.
Let us know if you've seen any significant changes, or if the update has helped or hurt your traffic/rankings in the comments.
UPDATE: Google has set up a Penguin Spam Report form.
Sundar Pichai, the new head of Android at Google, shared his views on Google-branded hardware and competitors like Amazon's Kindle Fire, just before the company's big Google I/O developer conference which starts Wednesday.
Pichai, now Senior VP of Android, Chrome and Google Apps, took over from Android's original leader, Andy Rubin, in March.
Asked about Google's own hardware efforts, Pichai said to expect more branded devices, like the Nexus smartphones and tablets.
"You will see a continuation of what we have tried to do with Nexus and Chromebooks," Pichai said in an interviewwith Wired. "Any hardware projects we do will be to push the ecosystem forward."
While there has been a virtual explosion of Android devices, the ecosystem is fragmented with most smartphone owners using earlier versions of Android and companies like Facebook submerging the operating system under its own new "Home" interface.
Amazon used an early version of Android to develop its own variant of the operating system for the Kindle Fire line. Kindle Fire users go to Amazon's own store for apps (instead of Google Play).
Pichai said there are no plans to challenge either.
"Under the rules of the license, Amazon can do that," he said.
Keeping Android open
"In general, we at Google would love everyone to work on one version of Android, because I think it benefits everyone better. But this is not the kind of stuff we're trying to prevent. Our focus is not on Facebook Home or Kindle Fire."
As for Android fragmentation in general, Pichai said Google was working on ways to "handle updates better" but said more time is needed to "figure out the mechanics" of doing this in concert with all its partners.
Apple is able to more effectively keep its users on the latest version of iOS because it only has to address its own product line.
Asked later about challenges ahead Pichai said one of the big ones is to help improve the world's end-user experience without changing the open nature of Android.
"For all your users, no matter where they are, or what phone or tablet they are buying."
It looks like more evidence has been revealed that Android 4.3 Jelly Bean is about to be released, as the guys from Android Authority have spotted a number of Nexus devices with Android 4.3 on their server logs.
The devices that were spotted with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean include the Galaxy nexus, the Google Nexus 4, the Google Nexus 10 and the Google Nexus 7, and there were a number of versions of Android 4.3 spotted including 4.3.1 and 4.3.3.
It looks like Google may launch Android 4.3 Jelly Bean at their Google I/O developer conference later this month, so it doesn’t looks like they will launch Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie at Google I/O after all.
The popular Android information hub could make its way to desktops soon
According to a code found in a Google Chrome extension, Google Now could soon make its way to your computers too. The extension is developed by Google, so the information seems legit. Of course, Google could just be experimenting with the code, but regardless, it's good to see some work being done to bring the popular information hub to desktops as well.
Google Now on desktops would have more users than conventional smartphone owners (Android 4.1 and above). And that's because there are more people using Google on desktops than regular Android users. So the idea seems very novel and one which makes a whole lot of sense.
The exact time frame of the launch hasn't been made clear yet as it's only a leak for now. But since it's already made its way as an extension on Google Chrome, we could see it being launched at next month's Google I/O event.
Google I/O will be host to a bundle of other announcements too, including the introduction of Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie and several other hardware related announcements. Also, we expect Google to shed some light on the future of Google Glass, which was recently given out to early adopters for an outrageous price.
How would the users benefit from Google Now for desktops? Will there be voice integration on board? These are the questions that are currently plaguing us, but we should know more in the coming days.
