What? Remember the last time ‘wolf’ was called, when the Galaxy S4 was temporarily (the image only) for a brief moment, and we didn’t know when this would actually become a thing? Well, it may be sooner than you think, because it showed up again, twice, in the same photo, showing the same interface that we expect form a Google Play Edition device. Where?
Well, surprisingly enough, it’s on the official website for Android, on the home page. A little over half way down the page, you will see a photo, the one from above actually, under the green bar reading “Best of Google Built-in”, so it’s hard to miss. In the photo, we see the obligatory Nexus 5’s strewn orderly everywhere, a few bits of Nexus 7, some HTC One M8 Google Play Edition for good measure, but also a home button-clad white device, which looks an awful lot like the Samsung galaxy S5, and it looks like it has softkeys, the on-screen buttons (back, home, and recent apps) that are normally only found on Motorola Moto devices, Nexus, and certain Google Play editions (though notably, not the Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition).
What does this mean? It could be a mod. Or it could be legitimate, since Google doesn’t have to be the most direct when letting us Android users know about special treats they have laying around, ready to show off at a later date. The Google dialer, originally found in Android Kit Kat 4.4, is also seen in the launcher dock, along with Hangouts, which is likely the SMS app by default, Chrome, and the Google Camera, with the multi-colored ring around the lens, instead of Samsung’s camera app icon, or even Google’s previously-Nexus-exclusive camera, just without the photoshere capability. Google doesn’t have a tendency to lie about its intentions, especially not on a website by them. And especially not on the home and front page of one of said websites. And especially not if the website is for their largest market besides Search, because that would be a criminal sin in the eyes of most Android lovers, and a stone to throw at Google empire for critics.
What will come of the sneaky leaking of the Samsung Galaxy S5 Google Play Edition? We don’t know, but Google does, and they may surprise us in the second day of I/O, or soon after as they also have tradition of doing. Stay tuned for the latest updates on developments.