Today Google officially announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean during the Google I/O 2012, which makes the latest android experience buttery smooth. The main element of Android 4.1 is that it is lag free, as the developers have addressed the interaction of Android with hardware through a solution called ‘Project Butter’.
Project Butter, allows the CPU and the GPU to work independently without having to wait for each other. This results in smooth interaction with your device, making actions like scrolling and zooming much faster than before.
Android Jelly Bean is capable of anticipating where your fingers are on the screen when you are typing, and makes predictive typing better than ever before.
Android 4.1 also improves power efficiency which is a huge issue on modern smartphones. Jelly Bean lowers the CPU frequency when it is not in user thus lowering the power consumption of your device.
But Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is not only about the hardware, Google has also improved on the software and bring several new improvements and enhancements.
Jelly Bean provides you with improved Android Beam which allows you to tap two NFC enabled devices to share photos and videos. You will also be able to paid those devices with Bluetooth devices in the same simple and secure manner.
Jelly Bean brings updated widgets which automatically resize based on where they are placed on your home-screen. The icons on that screen will automatically align themselves based on your widget.
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean has more language support with 18 new languages and improved Arabic and Hebrew support.
Android Jelly Bean has an enhanced camera app, which makes it easy to switch between the viewfinder and captured photos. You can get to your last photo by simply sweeping across the screen. If you don't like one of the captured photos, you can delete it by just swiping upward. You can even undo accidental deletes.
Unlike with competitors you don't have to be connected to your network or cellular data connection for voice typing. Android Jelly Bean allows offline voice dictation which will initially launch in English with more languages coming.
You can use Google Now to find the optimal routes when you drive, manage appointments based on your current location, and help you manage your air travel with essential info like currency rates. Check out the following video demo of Google Now in action.
The Notifications have been greatly improved in Jelly Bean, allowing you to interact with your events directly from the notification bar. You can expand or collapse notifications and customize them to suite your need.
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean will debut on the Google Nexus 7 and will be available for the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S and Motorola Xoom in July as an OTA (Over-the-Air) update.
You can download the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean SDK Developer Preview right now. Additionally hardware manufacturers will have early access to an Android Platform Development Kit (PDK) months in advance to a public release. This will ensure faster dissemination of Android versions on devices and new form factors and devices in the Android family.
source - Google