Inside Jelly Bean, Android’s Latest OS

By Rob Boggan

Android keeps the ecosystem progressing along at a machine gun pace, and today we were treated to the latest incarnation of Android, 4.1 or Jelly Bean. While Jelly Bean isn’t a massive update by any means, it definitely adds some major cool factor features, as well as improves on some weak points from previous OS versions. Here, we take a brief look at what’s new, what’s changed, and how they work. Read on for our brief overview of Google’s Jelly Bean Android OS.

Right from jump, it appears that Google is aiming at streamlining how we use our Android devices and making multitasking even easier than it is now. With Jelly Bean and the new Project Butter running underneath, operations run super smooth(almost butter smooth) and things tend to glide around with little lag. The biggest change here is the notification bar which was already nice, but has been transformed into amazing. Users now have the ability to control specific apps and app functions right from the notification bar. So now, when you receive a text message, instead of tapping on the message to be taken into the messaging app, you can launch the keyboard right from the notification bar and respond. Email has also been beefed up from within the Notification bar as emails can now be expanded or collapsed with a pinch gesture to expose subject lines for greater message detail.

One of the most frustrating thing about the Android OS is when you want to add a new widget and yo have to completely rearrange a certain home page to make your widget fit into the designated screen space. With Jelly Bean, those days are long gone thanks to a new re-sizing feature for widgets. Instead of running into the aforementioned problem with widgets Jelly Bean actually automatically re-sizes and rearranges the widget and any on screen icons for a perfect fit.

Google Now is essentially the biggest edition to Android, as it empowers your smartphone with the ability to literally get to know you and how you use your phone. With Google Now, your phone will keep track of your location, searches your perform and more in order to provide a better experience for users. For example, with the data collected, Google Now will recommend specific restaurants based on numbers you’ve searched for, display local weather, and even provide sports scores and results based on your geo location. That’s not the end however, as Google Now has the ability to record a specific commute, and provide you with estimated travel time, traffic photos, and alternate routes. Searching for a restaurant not only wields the number, but also location, and store hours based on where you’re at. Amazing. Google has also improved the keyboard experience by having the keyboard essentially learn how you type, and uses that information to expedite typing. For example, if you’re one who likes tom complain about how crappy your job is, simply begin typing “I Hate” and Google’s intelligent typing interface will assume you want to finish that sentence with “my job” and suggest those two words as the next in line.

Finally, Google has stepped up to the plate and updated their Google Voice Search app with near Siri-like functionality. Instead of getting redirected to a Google search page, users will now get an actual voice delegated response with an answer to whatever query was asked.

We can’t wait to get our hands on a device actually running Jelly Bean so we can give it a full fledged once over. Make sure you check back with Nerd News for a total breakdown of Android’s Jelly Bean OS, and let us know how you feel about Jelly Beans in the comment section below!