Google unveils Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

So in short:

  • Siri like Voice search which will also include offline Voice recognition for use on things like dictation.
  • Smoother UI + widget arrangement (Needed this long ago).
  • New Notifications that also allow for Images and grouping-expanding.
  • Smart app updates that only download changes and not the entire application.
  • New Camera app that allow you swipe history and remove images from within the app itself.

What Looks cool, but have me kind of worried is Google Now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPqliPzHYyc
Location aware notification and information system that depends on where you are + time of day. 4kb and smaller gets pushed, larger can be pulled at users request.

Love the API aka Google’s New Cloud Messaging System
Allowing you to make a sports app that can push data to the apps among other updates.
 
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Meanwhile, back at the ranch, some of us are still waiting for our ICS updates.

**** you, Motorola.
 
nadimm said:
Hopefully this doesn't totally derail OEM update plans.
I'm waiting on CM9, I guess now cm10?
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Well my devices are on 4 Thanx to XDA as I given up on OEM's ages ago.

Tablet = 4.0.3
Phone = 4.0.4

So I am ready and waiting

To be honest 4.1 is the 1st version that yells UPDATE me please, because of the voice features. All the ones before this was mostly cosmetic, and the features was covered by applications.
 
I like the App updates, would save us hundreds of R's here ZA. Google Now is very creepy.
 
Elimentals said:
Oh the irony!!!!
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nadimm said:
Hopefully this doesn't totally derail OEM update plans.
I'm waiting on CM9, I guess now cm10?
Click to expand...

Maybe the ones not on ICS yet will go straight to Jellybean. But yes that will man more delays....

That's what happened the last time a manufacturer was that pathetic with updates, Sony Ericsson skipped Froyo and went straight to Gingerbread on the X10, after making customers wait more than a year iirc..

Fortunately I'm going Galactic on Monday and Samsung is pretty good with updates...
 
The next major version of Android is here. Carrying the name Jelly Bean, Android 4.1 puts plenty of new features and performance updates to the table.

Project Butter

Firstly, Jelly Bean focuses on performance. More specifically, improving UI responsiveness. Google has dedicated a whole project codenamed Butter to improving Android performance.

By making the vsync of the screen at a constant 60 frames per second, it makes the UI smooth as, you've guessed it, butter. It even goes as far as to anticipating where your finger is and start drawing from that point to make the UI appear even smoother.

Google showed two Galaxy Nexus smartphones, one running Ice Cream Sandwich and the other Jelly Bean to demonstrate the huge difference that Project Butter makes. It's really quite impressive.

Keyboard and voice input

The keyboard typing is also improved, with better and more accurate predictive input and extended dictionary.
On top of that, Voice Typing in now available offline. This means that it no longer requires data connection to work and its performance won't be affected by its slow speed.

On the demo it worked pretty well by fixing a misheard word (from Known to Though. Accessibility has also been improved adding new gestures and external support for Brail input.

Camera

Taking photos got more intuitive as well. Jelly Bean brings new UI and gestures, so you can swipe sideways to access the gallery (yes, just like on the WP smartphones). You can then quickly delete images by swiping them off the screen.

Notifications

The notification bar has also seen its fair share of changes. It shows you a more prominent looking clock and allows notifications from various apps like Music, Pulse and Gmail to be expanded to give you more details without having to open the app.

Google Search

The Google search has been significantly altered too. Natural language commands are now supported as Google is obviously ready to mount a serious challenge to Siri.

When you initiate a search you get a minimalist design card. What’s really cool is when you swipe to the left it shows you a list of Google Search results.
Google Now is another new part of Google Search, which can show you public transport listings, flight information as well as sports results.

Availability

Jelly Bean will be available mid-July with a developer SDK preview available right now on the Android Developers website.
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Source
 
mercurial said:
Source
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Google showed two Galaxy Nexus smartphones, one running Ice Cream Sandwich and the other Jelly Bean to demonstrate the huge difference that Project Butter makes. It's really quite impressive.
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Always ironic that a manufacturer (and its legions of fanboyz) admit to a problem only when there's a fix.

The one thing that constantly forces me back to my iPhone is the slight hesitation when scrolling on Android. Hopefully that's now sorted.
 
BeVonk! said:
I demand it now!
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Well go download the SDK and play with the emulator :p

jannievanzyl said:
Always ironic that a manufacturer (and its legions of fanboyz) admit to a problem only when there's a fix.
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What are you talking about, everyone knew it was there hell if you search you will even see me mentioning it loads of times in the past, I do think you mistaking "It doesn't bother me" with "It doesn't exist."

Still does not bother me, but I would like to know how they addressed some of it as Android unlike iOS did not place prime CPU allocation to the UI. (Did they remove this)
 
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wonder how soon Jelly Bean will be coming to the Galaxy S3, Gizmodo "You will be able to get this new graphics engine in a phone like the Galaxy Nexus, Motorola Xoom, or the Galaxy S in mid-July—" Hopefully that means Galaxy S3
 
Elimentals said:
Well go download the SDK and play with the emulator :p



What are you talking about, everyone knew it was there hell if you search you will even see me mentioning it loads of times in the past, I do think you mistaking "It doesn't bother me" with "It doesn't exist."
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Go read the posts where I got shot down in flames for stating IOS is smoother than Android. ;)
 
jannievanzyl said:
Go read the posts where I got shot down in flames for stating IOS is smoother than Android. ;)
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That is probably because you made a mountain out of a mole hill. Yes Android would sometimes drop frames when you swap from one page to the next, it would also be more apparent if you ran more applications but that was the cost of how scheduling works on the OS's.

Android gave all applications equal weight when it came to CPU schedules, iOS prioritized UI at the cost of background applications. This is also why I am concerned at how they addressed the issue. If they went the iOS route I can see some people having fits but I guess we will have just have to live with it.

My Xperia S right now have 48 background processes vs iPhone that only have 7.

Edit: K nevermind, they fixed the UI by a combination of pre-loading, triple buffer and extended vsync timing, so not going to be at the cost of other applications CPU schedules. <-- Glad to find that out, but I have to wonder how effective it will be in the long run. Also gave us developers a new tool "systrace" to better problem solve.
 
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Anyone else notice that the new camera filmstrip is from WP7?
 
Oooh look just for South Africans :)

Network Bandwidth Management

Android 4.1 helps apps manage data usage appropriately when the device is connected to a metered network, including tethering to a mobile hotspot. Apps can query whether the current network is metered before beginning a large download that might otherwise be relatively expensive to the user. Through the API, you can now get a clear picture of which networks are sensitive to data usage and manage your network activity accordingly.
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No more need for a Firewall app to tell apps to stay away from 3G and stick to a WiFi diet, its now done from within the OS.

Works wonders with the Smart App Updates mentioned earlier.

Smart app updates is a new feature of Google Play that introduces a better way of delivering app updates to devices. When developers publish an update, Google Play now delivers only the bits that have changed to devices, rather than the entire APK. This makes the updates much lighter-weight in most cases, so they are faster to download, save the device’s battery, and conserve bandwidth usage on users’ mobile data plan. On average, a smart app update is about 1/3 the size of a full APK update.
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Source, plus all the new features can be found http://developer.android.com/about/versions/jelly-bean.html
 
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