iPad mini 3: What we want to see

Our review of the iPad mini 2, or to stick with Apple's naming strategy, the iPad mini with Retina Display, found it to be a really capable little device.

Somewhat surprisingly it shares most of the cutting edge technology of its bigger brother, the iPad Air, and finally adds the Retina display which it had been lacking so sorely.

But it's not perfect. It's still too expensive, has no Touch ID sensor and the base 16GB capacity is rapidly becoming too small for many users.

So far there's been little in the way of rumors about the iPad mini 3. Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst for KGI claims that the iPad mini 3 will come out towards the end of the third quarter and that disappointingly it will have the same form factor as the iPad mini 2, which is thicker than the original iPad mini (athough only by 0.3mm).

In fact it doesn't sound like Kuo thinks the iPad mini 3 will be a big product for Apple at all, as he reckons it will be sold in limited quantities while the iPad mini 2 will remain on sale at a reduced price. This is one occasion where we hope the rumours are wrong, but thankfully that's all they are.

More positively he predicts that the iPad mini 3 will get upgraded to an A8 chip and come with an 8 megapixel camera (up from 5 megapixels on the iPad Mini 2) and Apple's Touch ID fingerprint scanner.

Adding credence to that last rumor, fragments of code from the Biometric Kit included in iOS 7.1 reference the iPad and there's also a couple of images of what is supposedly the iPad mini 3 doing the rounds.

The first is as blurry as early images often seem to be and it was anonymously sent to Nowhereelse.fr, so it's impossible to say how reliable the source is, but it appears to show a Touch ID fingerprint scanner built into the home button.

Though it's also worth noting that this is apparently a prototype of the device, so even if it is legitimate it's possible that Apple could ditch the scanner before it finalizes the hardware.

But a more recent rumor also mentions that Touch ID will indeed be coming to the iPad mini 3 (as well as the iPad Air 2) and that Apple is currently working hard to make the sensor more durable than it is in the iPhone 5S. But even with these few rumors there's still so much that we've heard nothing about yet.

However we can take an educated guess that it will have the same 7.9 inch 1536 x 2048 display as the iPad mini 2 and that it will run iOS 8 on a new Apple A8 processor.

The second leaked shot is clearer and appeared on the web via AppleClub.tw with the posters claiming it not only shows the iPad Mini 3, but also the upcoming iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2.

The iPad Mini 3, Air 2 and iPhone 6? (credit: AppleClub)

It appears that the trio all have the TouchID ring we're now familiar with thanks to the iPhone 5S.

But with so little set in stone, what do we want to see in the next model?

• Read our in-depth iPad mini 2 review

Touch ID

You end up entering passwords just as much on an iPad as you do on an iPhone, so it's surprising that the newest iPads didn't get the same Touch ID fingerprint sensor as the iPhone 5S got.

We'd really like to see these included in the iPad mini 3, not least because they would allow multiuser interaction - just touch to switch to your personal iPad account. Of course Apple would also have to build multi user support into iOS first, and it's arguable they'd rather sell you two iPads instead but the few rumors that have emerged so far suggest Touch ID may in fact be in the works.

• What is Touch ID?

More storage in the base model

16GB of storage in the cheapest iPad used to sound like a lot but now it's really starting to look a bit stingy, with apps like GarageBand and iMovie going free, some iOS games starting to take up over a gigabyte of space and Retina screens making high resolution movies worth loading onto your iPad.

The steep price jumps for the higher capacity models look cynical, especially when flash memory itself is not expensive and Apple offers no way to add storage via card slots. Starting the new models at 32GB would be more reasonable.

Cheaper cellular option

Adding a cellular option to an iPad mini currently adds £100/$130/AU$150 to the price, and of course you have to pay for data on top of that.

Given that the only difference between the innards of a Wi-Fi only and a cellular iPad is the addition of some mass-produced radio circuitry, it would be nice to bring the additional cost premium down a bit so that more people would opt for the cellular option and be able to use their iPads on the move. This is especially true of the supremely portable mini.

Wireless charging

A bit of a pipe dream perhaps, but wireless charging technology already exists and is used by some phone and tablet manufacturers, such as in the Google Nexus 7.

Being able to place your device on a charging slab rather than having to plug it in might sound like only a small timesaver but just think about how many times over the life of a device you have to recharge it.

It also reduces the possibility of wear and tear or damage resulting from physically plugging cables in over and over again.

• iPad mini vs iPad mini 2

Pressure sensitive screen

The addition of the M7 motion co-processor to the iPad mini 2 was somewhat unexpected but will be handy as more apps start to make use of it.

Haptic or pressure sensitive screens already exist, and make for more accurate and flexible interaction with your device, especially for games, music or art apps where you want your finger to do more than just register a touch.

Apple might not think the technology is up to it yet, but this could be one to watch for the future. Current rumors have pointed more overtly to Apple picking up the technology with the view to doing a lot more with it, and, like the iPad Air 2, would allow for better reception of prods from your digits and even that much-fabled iStylus that could do everything but make the tea for you.

Android 5 release date, news and rumors

Android 5 is going to be exciting, there's no doubt about that. Google saves the change to a new number for the big things, with both Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich making big alterations to the way we use our Android phones.

We thought it would have been Key Lime Pie that showed off the next level, but on 31 October 2013, Google officially revealed its next minor update, Android 4.4 KitKat, which now clears the road for Android 5.

The dessert-themed code name that we assume will begin with L is anyone's guess at this stage. Android 5.0 Lemon Cheesecake or Android 5.0 Lemon Meringue Pie, anyone? Though there's talk that it might be called Android Lollipop or even Android Moonshine, as it's apparently internally known. While the latest leaks point simply to Android L.

It may not be called Android 5 though, with some rumors suggesting the next major iteration from Google's wheel house could arrive as Android 4.5. That would make sense as we've had 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 in recent years.

That said, it appears Google may have just dropped a hint as to the version number of the next iteration of Android. 5.0 is currently looking favorable after the time of "5.00" appeared on screenshots posted on Twitter by the search giant - a signal Google has used before.

Is Android 5.0 next in line? (credit: @Google)

As we wait on official news of that name, we're constantly combing the web to see what's going to be happening with this L-powered update, so check back to see what we've uncovered and the level of likelihood each rumor brings.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? The next major upgrade for Android, to follow on from Android 4.4
• When is it out? We're thinking mid-2014
• What will it cost? Nothing, it'll be a free upgrade

Android 5.0 release date

Until Android 4.4 was announced we had expected the Android 5.0 release date to be some time in October 2013. We instead saw Android 4.4 KitKat launch on 31 October, so now we're expecting to see Android 5.0 shown off in mid-2014, quite possibly at Google IO, Google's annual two-day developer conference in San Francisco.

That's a year on from when we had originally expected to see Android 5.0, which was at Google IO 2013, which took place from May 15 to May 17 2013.

Sundar Pichai, Google's new head of Android told Wired that 2013's IO was "not a time when we have much in the way of launches of new products or a new operating system"," which makes us wonder when the new software will be coming.

Our take: Android updates are still coming too slowly for our liking, as while each 0.1-numbered upgrade is good, it's not enough to make us want the native experience.

We're expecting Google to make Android 5 rather special indeed, which means it can only wait a maximum of 6-7 months after KitKat was announced to show it off - so mid-2014 has to happen, in our opinion.

More recent reports of Android 4.5 being next in line may put a spanner in the major overhaul thinking, so we're not getting too carried away just yet. In any case Google I/O is set for June 25-26, so with any luck we should know just what Android Lollipop will be bringing to the table soon.

Android 5.0 phones

The first handset to run Android 5 will either be a Nexus phone or tablet, and given the timing of the announcement we think it might be the latter. The Google Nexus 5 launched Android 4.4 at the tail end of next year, and we reckon the Nexus 10 (2014) will appear soon - meaning a tablet launch for the new OS.

HTC looks like the front runner to bring this tablet to the market, so we're thinking that this could happen mid-2014, which puts it firmly on course to be made soon.

We're also hearing a lot of rumblings about a Nexus 8, a slate which will supposedly launch with Android 4.5, so maybe that's the device that Android Lollipop will make its debut on.

Will it be known as a Nexus though? The scheme is under threat from Android Silver, but it doesn't look like that's launching yet, so we reckon the Nexus name will be kept for at least the next round of devices.

Androids out in force at Google IO 2012

Samsung's Android 5.0 upgrades

Although Samsung is yet to officially confirm its Android 5.0 schedule, a SamMobile source is claiming to know which phones and tablets will be getting the upgrade. According to the source, the devices set to receive the upgrade are the Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy Note 8.0 and Galaxy Note 10.1. Do note that this claim was made before Google announced Android 4.4, so if it was ever correct, it's probably a lot less correct now.

As you'd expect, the S4 will be getting an Android update, but to which version?

Android 5.0 features

Android Geeks reported that Google Babble would debut on Android 5.0. Babble was the code name for Google's cross-platform service and app with the aim of unifying its various chat services which include Talk, Hangout, Voice, Messenger, Chat for Google Drive and Chat on Google+.

A screenshot that we were sent from a Google employee on 8 April confirmed that not only was this unified chat service on the way, but that it was called Google Babel not Babble. On 10 May, we discovered that Babel would launch as Google Hangouts, and on 15 May we saw it come to life for devices running Android 2.3 and up. So much for it debuting on Android 5.

We've been fishing for info on Babel

A more recent idea is that Google's next version of Android will have more fitness smarts built in - and this is an idea we think has legs, if you'll pardon the sort-of pun.

Apple is set to go big in this area with the iWatch and iOS 8, and other brands, such as Samsung and LG, are making strides too.

The idea is future versions of Android will allow the software to harness "fitness data from sensors on your Android device."

These could be built into future Android phones and tablets, but it's also likely that the API will play nicely with Android-based smartwatches and even Google Glass.

It also looks like Android 5 may add support for 64-bit processors, as the Nexus 8 is rumored to have one and to be running the new version of Android. That in turn would allow for more than 4GB of RAM in devices, opening the floodgates to enormous increases in power.

Some have speculated that Android 5.0 will be actually Chrome OS, Google's high power operating system for its Chromebooks - that it would use Android for low- to mid-level handsets and put Chrome on the high end.

However, this makes little sense given the effort that would be needed for app integration, so like Microsoft and Windows Phone the mobile OS will very likely continue as is.

A recent image of 'Android L' (which is presumably Android 4.5 / 5) appears to show the browser floating in the middle of the screen, which may mean we'll be getting split screen apps. That would certainly be a useful feature, particularly on larger devices. Samsung and Sony already do this but if the functionality is baked into Android then all devices potentially could.

Android 5.0 interface

While little is known about the potential interface changes for the next iteration of Google's mobile platform, be it Android 5.0 or Android 4.5, a screenshot has appeared online claiming to reveal the upcoming version.

The screenshot shows new icons apparently destined for Android 4.5

There's a clear visual overhaul present in the screenshot, and according to the leak the new design is being referred to as "Moonshine" internally at Google.

We've also caught a glimpse of how the dialer might look in Android 4.5 / Android 5, courtesy of an image leaked by Google itself. It's not in for a radical redesign but if the image is to be believed then it will be going blue, rather than sticking with the current light gray colour.

The next version of Android will be revealed Wednesday

Google IO 2014 kicks off tomorrow and we can expect some exciting announcements from the company's annual developer conference. How big are we talking here? Try the next version of Android big.

In a long form Bloomberg Businessweek profile on Sundar Pichai, the Android chief said he plans to preview the "L" release of Android during the conference's opening day Wednesday.

The move would be a significant shift towards greater transparency; the search giant has classically withheld its annual operating system updates until fall.

In the interview, Pichai said he wants, "the world to understand what [Google is] doing sooner." More importantly, he remarked that manufactures have complained the latest versions of Android have always been revealed too late for device makers to implement.

Up until now, Nexus phones were often the only handsets to get the latest software first. With this year's early preview, we could see the latest versions of Android land on all devices sooner.

Goodbye, Google TV

Alongside an early look at Android "L," Google IO may include an introduction to Android TV. Leaked on April 6, the new entertainment platform will purportedly include Netflix, YouTube, and other video streaming service apps arranged in easy-to-navigate cards similar to the PGEgaHJlZj0iaHR0cDovL2hvc3RpbmdraXRhLmNvbQ0iIHRhcmdldD0iX2JsYW5rIiByZWw9Im5vZm9sbG93Ij5BcHBsZSA8L2E+TV set-top box.

To help prevent repeating the same mistakes that plagued Google TV into obsolescence, Pichai has supposedly brought everyone working on the TV software into one team to create a single, consistent experience.

Given the company's recent success with Chromecast, Google should have an easier time attracting content providers. Additionally, it should have a cache of streaming apps that already work with the new entertainment platform.

Don't forget Android Wear

In a brief mention, Pichai said he would announce new manufacturing partners and devices utilizing Google's wearable platform, Android Wear.

Health tracking was on the Android point man's tongue, which means we will likely see fitness trackers and biosensor-equipped wearable computers.

• Google's wearable line up could include the Motorola Moto 360 and LG G Watch