Android Shift

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Quick Intro

Desperate to know what Android 4.1 Jellybean looks like on an Android Smartphone? The wait is over, Android JB 4.1 is now already rolled out to all the Galaxy Nexus phones out there. Seriously, Android 4.1 Jellybean is a significant update. It’s the fastest, most user-friendly, and visually attractive version of Android I have ever seen. 

For those blessed owners of Galaxy Nexus, there is no need to wait weeks and months for the most recent Android version, as Jelly Bean is available in the form of a custom ROM also.

In general we have discovered Jelly Bean to be a important advancement from the Ice Cream Sandwich, although at first glimpse it seemed to be only a minimal increment. The changes in speed and standard functionality are very welcomed and we are very happy with the state of even the beta version of Jelly Bean, even with the temporary app incompatibilities which was fixed fairly soon once developers started to renew their apps. 

Jelly Bean 4.1 has again proved us that the Galaxy Nexus is an outstanding piece of a device and that it can do terrific things.


And so there you have it! What you have in your grasp, is the most innovative, most advanced, and the fastest version of Android !

Tell us your impression! Like what you see? 

Catch more news about Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on androidfocus.net.


Welcome to Android Shift. Check back with us again on everything new and current about Google's Android OS.

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Nine months after release, Android 4.0 ICS advances to 16 percent install base

As of 2nd August of 2012, the share of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich compared to other Android versions has jumped right up to a 16 percent, based on data gathered during the last two weeks of August by Google. That's more than two times the install base at the beginning of June, suggesting the OS version finally has some momentum.

It's very likely that the boost came from the recent availability of the Samsung S3 phone, from it's launch on May 29, the Galaxy S III has sold ten million units already around the world.

In June, Android 4.0 had come to a modest 7 percent of Android phones seven months after the OS version was launched. Two months before that, it had just a 2.9 percent of Android phones. ICS's grasp is growing more slowly than any of the previous major releases, for example 2.3 Gingerbread, which was right on 40 percent on Android phones ten months after Gingerbread's release.

Manufacturers and carriers have generally been slow and gradual to upgrade phones launched with Gingerbread to ICS.

However ICS is no more the latest version of Android OS, the 4.1 Jelly Bean has now been available for over a month, but has so far mastered only a 0.8 percent share.


More about Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, and more, click here. Read the latest updates about Android 4.0.


Overview of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

Android 4.0 came out together with the new Galaxy Nexus, a return to the Nexus system - and a following visit to Samsung, which had manufactured the first Nexus S in 2011 with the launch of Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Ice Cream Sandwich is, unquestionably, the most significant leap for Android on phones yet - but many of the new functions and design aspects began with Honeycomb, such as virtual buttons, the cross over from green to blue accents, enhanced widget support and real multitasking with a list of thumbnails.

Experienced Android users are certainly familiar with Droid, the custom-designed typeface that's been used since the very first Android 1.0. Ice Cream Sandwich replaces this with another unique font - Roboto - which is said to be developed to take far better advantage of today's higher-resolution screens, and Google has been eager to showcase leading up to the version's release. Android design chief Matias Duarte have mentioned that the old font "had trouble to achieve both the openness and information density we wanted in Ice Cream Sandwich," while Roboto is thought to avoid some anti-aliasing issues ("grey mush," as he calls it) at any level.

The now updated, but kind of an aged notification window is still one of the best implementations today in any mobile platform, and ICS has been improved greatly by making individual notifications removable simply by sliding them off the display. In previous versions, your only choice were to clear all of them which was not always the ideal behavior - or to recognize the notification in question by pressing it, which would normally send you into an application that you did not wish.

Google has silently modified Android's keyboard in essentially every version since it's introduction in Cupcake, and ICS is no different - in fact, it's as big of a jump ahead as Gingerbread were. The design and layout of the keys had no major changes, but the word correction potential has been greatly enhanced, and users are reporting that the benefits are clearly seen. And for the first time, entering text, copy/paste support, and operating soft keyboard feel as they're as good as never before.

As we already pointed out, the home screen in ICS brings many of the changes that Honeycomb introduced, but it adds a few new functions as well. Folders can now be made by dragging one icon onto another, at which point they seem as a three-dimensional bunch of icons expanding out of a black ring . With Ice Cream Sandwich, the home screen also comes with a "favorites bar," which shows the configurable dock feature seen on third-party launchers over the last few years. Unlike Froyo and Gingerbread which had the Phone and Browser apps fixed to the bottom of the screen, the so called favorites bar or tray lets the user choose what shortcuts should sit there (the defaults are Phone, People, Messaging, and Browser, but you can have anything you like there).


Android Beam/NFC. ICS is bringing a totally new feature called the Android Beam. It enables two Beam enabled phones to transfer data just by slightly touching them together. Another feature with this is that you can tap your phone to pay in-store using Google Wallet where MasterCard PayPass is accepted. This works only if the phone has NFC hardware inside, currently an example of this is the Galaxy Nexus phone.

Face unlock. Android 4.0 ICS adds a face unlock feature that uses the phone's front-facing camera to look for a match. It's certainly a novel idea than anything else since it can be overcome with a picture of the person who owns the phone - but for scenarios where only low to medium security is needed, it's an innovative new alternative.

Improved data usage analysis. As the Gingerbread brought information about battery consumption, Android 4.0 brings data usage in detail. You can view total usage separated by any period you prefer, and also set alerts to avoid going over the 3G data limit, and you can see an application-by-application structure and see what's consuming your megabytes the most.

New calendar and mail apps. The Gmail and the usual email experiences on Android 4.0 have been thoroughly renewed with fresh, clearer designs and "action bar" support - a feature brought from Honeycomb. The calendar app has a unified view, it's easy and hassle-free if using several accounts on their device.