Google Announces Android 4.1

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At its recent Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco, California, Google announced the next update to its Android mobile operating system, version 4.1 ‘Jelly Bean’. Jelly Bean was initially rumoured to be version 5.0; however, this is not the case.

This latest version of Android is set to roll out starting mid-July and will come first to Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S and the Motorola Xoom.

Project Butter
If you’ve been reading our column for a while now, you’d have occasionally come across a complaint of ours about the lack of smoothness in the Android user interface when compared to iOS and Windows Phone 7.5. Although things got better going from Android 2.3 to 4.0 (version 3.x was only for tablets), Jelly Bean makes further improvements by rendering the interface at 60 fps and prioritising the devices response to user interaction.

UI Tweaks and Accessibility
Goggle’s made the home screen easier to manage by allowing automatic resizing of widgets and icons. If you use your phone for taking pictures, the camera app has been improved so that you’ll find reviewing recently clicked photos much easier.
Language support has increased, with 18 new languages including Hindi, Persian and Arabic. Visually-impaired users will be able to use gesture control and audio cues. Braille input devices are also supported.
If you want to dictate messages and emails instead of typing, you’ll find it great that it's now supported offline, and won’t require an Internet connection like before.

Expandable Interactive Notifications
Got a missed call? Now just tap the notification in the notification centre to call back. Want to express agreement with your friend’s comment on Facebook? “Like” the notification and it’ll do that on FB. You’ll also be able to read snippets of the mails and messages you receive in the notification centre.

Google Voice Search
In some ways rivalling Apple’s Siri, you’ll be able to use speech to search the net in Jelly Bean. Results will be read out by the device. You won’t be able to issue voice commands for any other function, however.

Google Now
Google’s great at data mining, and it's taking targeted services to a new level. Its new service, Google Now will combine your search and navigation history, calendar entries and other relevant information to create a customised task listing. It’ll remind you about appointments and the best ways of getting there, give you recommendations on hangout places, update the score of that match you missed, etc.

All in all…
Jelly Bean’s a solid update to Ice Cream Sandwich, and perhaps more meaningful than what Apple’s done with iOS 6. While Jelly Bean is great, it only makes sense if a majority of people actually get to use it before the end of the year.