So with Google I/O comes the announcement of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. We all knew it was coming but what we didn’t see coming was the ton of changes they have now implemented that keeps the Android we know and love keep getting better and better.
Jelly Bean will be smoother than any other Android version before it thanks to Project Butter. Google were throwing out terms like, triple buffering, synchronizing touch, CPU input boost and anticipating where your finger will actually touch the screen. What this means to us? This will be the fastest and smoothest Android yet.
While watching the stream on YouTube, I watched Google use a high speed camera to film the animations on a Galaxy Nexus running stock Ice Cream Sandwich and stock Jelly Bean. The results were as clear as day, just proving how much they have refined Android so far.
The Notification bar was another main highlight of the day. As well as it showing more richer notifications, the ability to use a swipe gesture to bring down even more detail even bringing in photo’s in some cases. Developers can now also add custom actions. One of the examples shown was a missed call, with a quick call back action positioned just underneath.
New language support, including left-to-right or right-to-left scripts and support for offline Voice Input just adds to the already daunting list of improvements they are bringing.
Google Now and the new Jelly Bean flavored enhanced Google search is hands down the most exciting feature to come out of I/O so far, I think this one deserves a post of its own though.
Google will be releasing Jelly Bean mid-July to the Galaxy Nexus, Motorola Xoom and Nexus S
