Android Jelly Bean Unveiled at Google I/O 2012

By Tech Wire Asia | 28 June, 2012

The latest upgrade to Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS or Android 4.0) will be available for the Nexus 7 tablet, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S and XOOM in a few weeks’ time. Contrary to speculation, Jelly Bean isn’t Android 5.0, it’s 4.1. Hugo Barra, Product Management Director for Android, showed off Jelly Bean at Google I/O 2012 yesterday. Here are a few highlights from the unveiling at Moscone West in San Francisco.

Android 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean (Image: Google)

Android 4.1 promises faster framerates and zero lag. Jelly Bean boasts a 60 FPS framerate, vsync timing, triple buffering and “intuitive” synchronised touch. Everything will look and work as smooth as butter. Notifications will be more dynamic, the keyboard more intelligent. Voice commands will be more accurate — even without a data connection.

Voice Search is more natural, and the search engine is amped up with Knowledge Graph. The whole system will be more attuned to the user, with Google Now offering relevant weather, traffic and news at the start of the day. The usual suspects are still hanging around, with Google Play listing over 600,000 apps, games, widgets and tools. The latest iteration brings magazines, TV shows and movies on Google Play.

With Jelly Bean giving you so much to do on your smart devices, it’s a good idea to invest in backup battery packs, extra batteries and fast chargers. For those of you who still haven’t gotten ICS on your devices, here’s one more thing you have to wait for. Google I/O 2012 is going to run until the 29th, (the Philippine satellite wrapped up today) and there are a lot of new stuff coming out from the Google skunkworks. Stay tuned.