The physical details for the new Nexus phone have just about been confirmed in every detail thanks to some leaks at the FCC, but when it will launch and what features Android 4.4 – Kit Kat will bring to the table has not yet been determined. A new tip we’ve received – which we’re taking with a large grain of salt – is advising that the magic date we’re waiting for will be October 14th.
The date certainly fits in with the time frame that most people are expecting of an October announcement of the next version of Android and the new Nexus phone; and if this follows the previous years a November launch of the new Nexus phone could follow. No mention was made of an update to the Nexus 10, but it’s hoped that the successor would also be announced at any event to launch the next Nexus phone.
The tip advises that the phone appearing in the Kit Kat statue raising video is actually a ‘Nexus 5’ and the tip also contains a list of Android 4.4 ‘Kit Kat’ features.
The features apparently to be delivered in Android 4.4 include :
- Firmware availability to older phones
- Fragmentation changes (screen resizing)
- Miracast updates
- New Gallery Visualisation
- New APIs regarding animations
- Change android default blue to other preset palette colours
- New notification widgets
There have been rumours circulating of builds of what was known as ‘Key Lime Pie’ until just recently running on hardware like the Nexus S, so the ‘Firmware availability to older phones’ is an interesting one, it also fits in line with the teaser on the Android KitKat mini-site :
It’s our goal with Android KitKat to make an amazing Android experience available for everybody.
The decision to go from Android 4.3 to Android 4.4 indicates that there will not be a major overhaul to Android as a 5.0 upgrade would indicate, so this tip could be correct. But, rememeber: Large grain of salt until Google actually begins sending out invites to the press for an event. Till then, it’s nice to speculate.
