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It’s seems like only yesterday we were all crowded around our laptops, watching a live stream and getting amped for Ice Cream Sandwich. Truth is, that was six months ago now and, while most of the Android running public still hasn’t been blessed with 4.0, it’s already time to make the leap to 4.1. Today Google officially took the wraps off Jelly Bean, the next evolution of its mobile platform and while its not quite the revolutionary shift that was Gingerbread to ICS, it still marks an important improvement for the ecosystem. One of the biggest features is Project Butter, a deep diving effort to improve performance and response time. The whole system hums along at 60fps now, and while the difference of a few miliseconds might sound like small potatoes, it becomes glaringly apparently the moment you run Jelly Bean next to an ICS device. Animations are smoother and quicker. The CPU immediately ramps up the moment a touch is detected to ensure speedy response.
Gallery: Android Jelly Bean 4.1
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The home screen has also been tweaked, adding some nice features like dynamically resizing widgets, so you no longer have to place it, resize it then move it to where you want if there isn’t enough room. If there is room, but you app icons are merely in the way, the widget will automatically push them to the side. And, in a nice slick touch, apps and widgets can be removed by flicking them off the screen. Another extremely welcome touch is the addition of offline voice input. Now you can tap the microphone and dictate a message even with the phone in airplane mode.
Developing…
Jelly Bean, Android 4.1 revealed by Google originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 12:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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