Android 4.1 New Features
Jellybean is here! And with it comes a lot of enhancements to Google’s Android operating system. To save you from having to scroll through liveblogs all day to figure out what’s new, here are the key new features.
New Features
Much smoother, faster UI – Jellybean boosts the device CPU instantly when a touch is felt which makes responsiveness and reaction much more instant.
Widgets now automatically move other icons/shortcuts out of the way when you enlarge them – no more having to adjust everything before putting a widget on a screen.
Viewing and sharing camera images has been made faster – Swipe over to the camerastrip after taking a picture to instantly view them, also swipe them away to delete them.
Improved dictionary when typing – Now it even adapts the language to you; guessing words you normally type after other ones to make typing faster.
Voice typing now works without an internet connection – Means they downloaded the dictionary to the phone, but I’d say that’s worth the benefit of not having to wait forever for ICS to connect to the internet, don’t you?
New accessibility options – Added gestures and voice output to help navigate the UI.
Android Beam improvements – They essentially just made it work. work better.
Google Search has been improved using Knowledge Graph – Brings you information directly for certain things without you having to go to a website for that info.
Voice Search searches the web and speaks back now – It even uses the Knowledge Graph I mentioned above to give you answers directly if it knows the answer (knocking on Siri’s door slightly?)
Google Now – Automatic weather reports before you start your day, traffic reports before you leave, train schedule before you get into the station, etc.
Excited? Yeah, me too. We’ll have a walkthrough video in our Android 101 section ASAP so check that out later.
Oh and the update is schedule to go out over the air to Galaxy Nexus, Motorola Xoom, and Nexus S mid-July. Don’t worry though, I’m sure the developers over at XDA etc will get us a custom ROM on it sooner than that and we’ll show you how in our How To section when that happens.
