On June 27, 2012, at the Google I/O
conference, Google announced Android 4.1. Based on Linux
kernel 3.1.10, Jelly Bean is an incremental update with the primary aim
of improving the user interface, both in terms of functionality and
performance. The performance improvement involves "Project Butter",
which uses touch anticipation, triple buffering, extended vsync timing and a fixed frame rate of 60fps to create a fluid and "buttery"-smooth User Interface. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean was released to AOSP on July 9, 2012, and an OTA update for the Sam-sung Galaxy Nexus to Android 4.1.1 was released on July 11, 2012, making it the first device to run Jelly Bean.
Features of Android 4.1:
- V sync timing across all drawing and animation done by the Android framework, including application rendering, touch events, screen composition and display refresh
- Triple buffering in the graphics pipeline
- Enhanced accessibility
- Bi-directional text and other language support
- User-installable keyboard maps
- Expandable notifications
- Ability to turn off notifications on an app specific basis
- Shortcuts and widgets can automatically be re-arranged or re-sized to allow new items to fit on home screens
- Blue-tooth data transfer for Android Beam
- Off-line voice dictation
- New interface layout for tablets with smaller screens (closer resembling that of a phone)
- Improved voice search
- Improved camera app
- Google Wallet (for the Nexus 7)
- High resolution Google+ contact photos[citation needed]
- Google Now
- Multichannel audio[72]
- USB audio (for external sound DAC's).
- Audio chaining (also known as gapless playback)
List of Phones with Android 4.1:
Samsung
The Korean giant is planning to upgrade its Galaxy S3, Galaxy S2
and Galaxy Note to Android Jelly Bean. However, Samsung has not
specified how much time it will take to bring these phones to the latest
version. Samsung Nexus S and Nexus Prime, which are part of Google's Nexus
lineup, are already getting the update, but then Nexus Prime is not
available in India.Other phones in the Samsung line up like the Galaxy R, Galaxy S
Plus and S Advance have the desired specification to support Android
4.1. However, Samsung has not announced any plans to upgrade them. These
devices have not even been updated to Android 4.0.Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 is also likely to get Android 4.1, but there
has been no announcement to that effect till now. Samsung has just
announced that older Galaxy Tabs like the 750 will be getting Android
4.0 shortly.
HTC
HTC has announced that it has started working on the Jelly Bean
update. One X, One XL and One S are likely to be the first HTC devices
to get it. Some of the older phones like the HTC Desire line might not get updates as most of them are stuck at Android 2.3.
Sony
Sony will update its Xperia 2012 lineup, which includes Xperia S,
Xperia P and Xperia Neo etc. It has also backtracked on a statement
that the 2011 line-up is not getting the update and has now informed
that it is still evaluating which of the phones from 2011 will get the
upgrade.
Xperia Arc S is likely to make the cut.
Motorola
Given that Motorola is now owned by Google, updates are expected
to come faster. Motorola is already updating Xoom tablets to Android 4.1
and is soon expected to roll-out updates for its flagship Razr lineup
and the Atrix 2.
LG
LG has been a laggard in terms of updating its devices. According
to some reports, LG Optimus 4X HD will get updated to Android 4.1 but
only in the first months of 2013.
Asus
Asus sells only two tablets in India. While it is confirmed that
its Transformer Prime TF 201 will get Android 4.1 Jelly Bean shortly,
Transformer TF101 is also likely to get the update.
Acer
Acer has also officially announced that it will update some of
its Iconia tablets to Android 4.1. However, it has not specified which
those tablets are. Given that in India only Iconia A500 and A501 are
available and both have high end hardware, they are both likely to get
the update.
Karbonn
Karbonn, with Smarttab 1, became the first one to bring a product
based on Android 4.1 to India. The company also said that the Smarttab 1
already sold with Android 4.0 will be updated shortly, probably before
other manufacturers do so.
What's NEXT?
It’s hopefully not a secret anymore that Google likes to name Android releases after desserts and nd while that wasn’t true right from the beginning, so far we have had Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Frozen Yogurt (FroYo), Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) and the latest released Jelly Bean(4.1). That’s still the latest version of the operating system, yet it’s
quite clear that Google will have a new one out later this year.
But what about the next version of Android? The one after Jelly Bean ? Well, according to a source of The Verge, it will be called Key Lime Pie. This is still an unverified rumor right now, but we’re hard
pressed to come up with another dessert that starts with the letter K –
so Key Lime Pie it may be in the end.
Unfortunately we don’t know whether the version will be major or minor iterations, so it could be Android 5.0 or 4.2, it’s also possible that we’ll still be on the 4.x branch by the time we hit L.
What is fairly clear is that we shouldn’t be seeing Key Lime Pie this year. Google has vowed to slow down Android development and
releases to about one per year, so for 2012 it’s probably just going to be Jelly Bean.
I’ll keep you posted.
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