Android 4.1, Jelly Bean Upgrade Release Set for July

By Vincent Funaro, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Google unveiled its new Android 4.1, Jelly Bean OS during the Google I/O keynote earlier today.

The software has received a number of enhancements that improve touch responsiveness and the overall smoothness of animations and the UI. The frame rate has also been accelerated to 60 frames per second.

Google displayed demos of the redesigned widgets in the software that scale intelligently around other UI elements along with a new Predictive Keyboard that takes voice commands.

Android 4.1, also features redesigned notifications that Google has now made fully customizable, expandable, and collapsible.

Google execs also presented a demo during the event that displayed the new notifications expanding to provide more information as they reached the top of the list and how they also can be expanded and collapsed at any time with gestures.

Jelly Bean will also have an improved voice search that is very similar to Apple's Siri voice navigation system featured on the iPhone 4S.

A new feature called "Google Now" also debuted at the event.

"Google Now" functions as a search product that utilizes customizable cards such as "Sports" or "Flights" that will keep users up to date on data that is important to them. It also provides users with personal assistant-like features.

For example, the cards feature gives up to date information based on a user's personal preference and location. It also updates travel information for people running late and give sports scores for teams that the user likes.

Android 4.1, Jelly Bean will begin rolling out as an OTA upgrade for the Galaxy Nexus, Motorola XOOM and Nexus S in mid-July with the developer SDK launching today.

The software is the first major update made to Android 4.0, which launched on the Galaxy Nexus in November of last year.