New features in Android 4.1 JellyBean

Android’s next version Android 4.1 is code named as Jellybean.Google announced the new OS in their annual developer conference Google IO 2012.

The other name that google calls Android Jellybean is ” Project Butter“.It is built right above the base of Icecream sandwich and extremely focused on smartphone performance.

New Features in Android 4.1

Android 4.1 has really focussed on three main features

To make the touch experience fast,fluid and smooth- The speed of the UI lies on the framerate or vsync which is the heartbeat of android device .The vsync of android phone is at 16 millisecond per cycle.It also employs Triple buffering that helps to achieve smooth and fast ui.

Improved touch experience:Android 4.1 has got much improved touch experience by solving out the existing problems.Jellybean will actually predict the position of the finger at the time of screen refresh.This will create a more responsive touch gestures.Android 4.1 introduces a new developer tool called systrace which provides the graphical representation of system activities.

systrace- a hady tool that comes with jellybean sdk

Home screen Widgets

The home screen widgets are now easily reorganized based on their sizes.You can move around the widgets on your homescreen and shuffle it across other screens while the other widgets adjust dynamically based on their sizes.

dynamic homescreen widgets

The widgets are gesture controlled.You can even remove the widgets by just tossing it up on the top side of the screen.

Predictive text input

Android text input is upgraded with predictive input technology which not just predicts the current word but the one which you are going to type.

predictive text

Offline Voice typing

You can use google to predict your voice and convert to text but it needs internet connection to recognize the word spoken but in android 4.1 you can use google voice input without actually needing an internet connection.

offline google voice

Camera

The camera app is retouched with new click/record buttons.The pictures in the gallery can be viewed just by swiping from right to left and you can switch back to live camera view by doing the swipe.While navigating your gallery you can even delete the images by swiping from bottom to top.In case if you deleted the image by accident you can even recover it back.

camera on jellybean

Google plus is integrated in the gallery hence you can share the image to google plus circle right from the camera application.

Notifications

The updates to notification system is really useful.You can perform the actions right from the notification with just a click.When you get a missed call notification you can call the number right from the notification system.If the gmail app notification splashes in you screen you can read the new emails while you can see all other notification on same time.

android jellybean notification

You can also comment the check-in on notifications from the foursquare app without opening the application.

Google search and voice

The search feature for android is redefined with new richer way.If you search for the starbucks then google search will display a card with map embedded on it with nearest store details.

Google also implemented the speak assistant combined with google search.Like you can compare it to siri for iphone.

Google Now

The new intelligence engine that provide information computed autmatically.It reads location history,web history etc to provide information tailored to you.For example:when you are waiting in the bus stop “google now” will provide the timing of when the next bus will arrive.

Google Now

It intelligently computes the places and timing information that helps you to plan for your travel.Say it provide when to start walk to catch a bus to reach the destination.It will also provide how long the bus will take to reach the destination.