Cast your mind back to late 2008, when the first
Android-powered handset saw the light of day. Obama
won his first Presidential election, Apple launched its App
Store (the iPhone had appeared the year before),
Google announced its own Chrome browser and we got
our first look at the company's new mobile OS on the T-
Mobile G1 .

The Android of 2016 is a world away from that 2008
version, where the Android Market was in its infancy,
there were no native video playback capabilities embedded
and the G1 had no multi-touch support. In short, it was a
phone that sat very happily on the pile of 'might make it
big one day if the stars align' moonshots that companies
were throwing out at that time.

But Google did make a success of Android, seeing it grow
to the most dominant operating system in the smartphone
world - but it will need to keep innovating and improving
its mobile OS to keep that lion's share.

We've re-tooled this article to take a peek into the
future with our new knowledge, helping us see what
Android might look like in the year 2020.

With new Android monikers now appearing about once a
year ( Android N expected around October), its codename
should start with an "R" - Rhubarb Pie, Rocky Road or
Rice Pudding, perhaps? Or maybe even Rolos, giving
Google another chocolate brand tie-up?
Here are the four key features we think could play the
biggest part in Android's ongoing evolution over the next
seven years:

Maps in Android in 2020

Apple's Maps app may not have set the world alight
when it launched, but it's now growing in use (to the
point where the brand is claiming it's the dominant
mapping platform on iPhones) and that means Google
needs to keep enriching its mapping app to stay ahead.
Recent Google Maps refreshes have brought with them
a greater level of customisation based on your personal
searches, and this will only increase in the future.

With Google Now tracking your every move, you might
already be seeing directions to your favourite watering
hole appear on-screen every Friday lunchtime or to the
football field every Monday evening, all handled
automatically.

Richard Jones, Principal Lecturer in Computing at
Buckinghamshire New University thinks this knowledge of
your habits could be key to the future of how we
interact with our phones and may alter how much we
depend on our phones.

He believes that what will drive innovation is what he
calls "Ambient Intelligence". He told us that "In essence
this will see people functioning naturally in digitally
enabled/enhanced environments using presence-
responsive devices that are tailored to their personalised
requirements and anticipatory of their behaviour."

So, for example, in 2020, if the bar in question has an
Android-friendly program installed, you might even find
your tipple of choice waiting for you when you arrive,
because Android will have been able to figure out where
you're going, what you're doing, and what you want to
drink.

The question of whether this will actually happen isn't as
clear - many people won't like to have their movements
predicted to such a degree, so it will likely be strictly opt-
in and have to involve some kind of credit - after all, no
bar is going to pour drinks on the off-chance you
appear, no matter how likely that is.

As for all of the services hanging off Maps, Google is
already hiring out the Street View cameras and enabling
you to peek inside buildings - you can expect Android
2020 to offer better imagery of most public buildings, as
well as tappable info as you move around.

Google augments its own data with user-generated
content to provide an even more up-to-date view of the
world, and once initiatives such as Jump (Google's own -
expensive - 360-degree VR rig) become more established
you'll be able to see most parts of the world in stunning
detail and from the comfort of your own home with the
rise of Cardboard... or whatever Google is up to next in
VR.

More broadly, with the rise of the Internet of Things,
we can expect mapping data to get even better. As
more gadgets come online that can provide real-time
updates on traffic, weather and more, directions are
going to get even better and more accurate, saving us
more time when travelling.

Perhaps one of the most interesting potential mapping
innovations could come out Google's Project Tango. This is
a real-time 3D mapping technology that uses phones with
two cameras on recreate your view in 3D - a bit like
Microsoft's Kinect.

This technology could be used not just to create cool-
looking 3D maps (imagine a 3D Streetview you could zoom
around like Grand Theft Auto), but could have practical
applications too such as helping the blind and partially
sighted navigate more easily - all using the power of your
phone.

Multiple brands are launching Tango-enabled phones this
year, so by 2020 this should have become an
established part of the Android ecosystem.

Researchers at the University of Califogrnia, Riverside have

developed a new, more computationally efficient way to

process data from the Global Positioning System (GPS), to

enhance location accuracy from the meter-level down to a

few centimeters.

The optimization will be used in the development of

autonomous vehicles, improved aviation and naval navigation

systems, and precision technologies. It will also enable users

to access centimeter-level accuracy location data through

their mobile phones and wearable technologies, without

increasing the demand for processing power.

The research, led by Jay Farrell, professor and chair of

electrical and computer engineering in UCR's Bourns College

of Engineering, was published recently in IEEE's

Transactions on Control Systems Technology. The approach

involves reformulating a series of equations that are used

to determine a GPS receiver's position, resulting in reduced

computational effort being required to attain centimeter

accuracy.

First conceptualized in the early 1960s, GPS is a space-

based navigation system that allows a receiver to compute

its location and velocity by measuring the time it takes to

receive radio signals from four or more overhead satellites.

Due to various error sources, standard GPS yields position

measurements accurate to approximately 10 meters.

Differential GPS (DGPS), which enhances the system

through a network of fixed, ground-based reference

stations, has improved accuracy to about one meter. But

meter-level accuracy isn't sufficient to support emerging

technologies like autonomous vehicles, precision farming, and

related applications.

"To fulfill both the automation and safety needs of

driverless cars, some applications need to know not only

which lane a car is in, but also where it is in that lane--

and need to know it continuously at high rates and high

bandwidth for the duration of the trip," said Farrell, whose

research focuses on developing advanced navigation and

control methods for autonomous vehicles.

Farrell said these requirements can be achieved by

combining GPS measurements with data from an inertial

measurement unit (IMU) through an internal navigation

system (INS). In the combined system, the GPS provides

data to achieve high accuracy, while the IMU provides data

to achieve high sample rates and high bandwidth

continuously.

Achieving centimeter accuracy requires "GPS carrier phase

integer ambiguity resolution." Until now, combining GPS and

IMU data to solve for the integers has been computationally

expensive, limiting its use in real-world applications. The UCR

team has changed that, developing a new approach that

results in highly accurate positioning information with

several orders of magnitude fewer computations.

"Achieving this level of accuracy with computational loads

that are suitable for real-time applications on low-power

processors will not only advance the capabilities of highly

specialized navigation systems, like those used in driverless

cars and precision agriculture, but it will also improve

location services accessed through mobile phones and other

personal devices, without increasing their cost," Farrell said.

Technology

Description : Ukrainian designer Herman Haidin
investigates the possibility of a fully waterproof iPhone

Concept sketches for upcoming iPhones tend to come in
two distinct flavours: those that try to imagine what the
next generation will actually be and those that simply
investigate what it could potentially be.

Designer Herman Haidin's drawings definitely fall into the
latter category.

In a series of sketches published on Behance.ne t, the
Ukrainian imagines an iPhone constructed from "liquidmetal"
– for which Apple acquired the patent in 2010 and could
potentially make the handset completely waterproof.


So what is liquidmetal? Many of us already own a piece of
it - every iPhone box sold today comes with a small piece of
the material in it: the small prong SIM ejector.

Liquidmetal is an alloy with "an amorphous atomic structure
and a multi-component chemical composition", tech site BGR
says. "The special metal has high tensile strength, corrosion
resistance, water resistance and better elasticity."

In his concept sketch, Haidin imagines the iPhone 7 with a
layer of liquidmetal incorporated just beneath the screen to
act as the cooling system for the new handset and help its
internal components stay dry.

Samsung has officially announced an event believed to be the

unveiling of the Galaxy S7 and its stable-mates, the firm

posted a video to its YouTube channel revealing the Samsung

Unpacked 2016 event for February 21 - it'll take place in

Barcelona just a day before CES, and kicks off at 18:00

GMT. As we've mentioned before, Samsung has brought new

Galaxy S flagship hardware to such Unpacked events before

MWC for the last few years, so we're pretty certain

(considering other rumours also support this) that the new

devices will be at the event. Not only that but the firm

hashtagged the video with #TheNextGalaxy and the tagline

"get ready to rethink what a phone can do." It's worth noting

the GearVR headset features prominently in the promo, so

there'll probably be some tie-in involved.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Rocks Up In AnTuTu

Wearing Snapdragon 820