Google has introduced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the next version of the company’s mobile operating system. It features improved search, voice search, text input, and camera features and the software development kit will be available today.
Starting in mid-July Google will release the source code for Android 4.1, and the company will also release over-the-air updates for the latest flagship Android devices including the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S smartphones and the Motorola XOOM tablet.
Here are a few of the new features in Android 4.1:
Search Android 4. includes the new Google Knowledge Graph, which shows appropriate search results for the type of query. For instance if you’re searching for a place, you might get a map in the result. Search for a celebrity and see photos.
Voice Search Google has long supported a search-by-voice feature that lets you talk to your phone to conduct a search. But now your phone or tablet can speak back to you.
When you combine Knowledge Graph with Voice Search, this is basically Google’s answer to Apple’s Siri. You can ask your phone a question and it will answer you.
Text Input Google is adding predictive text and recommendations to the on-screen keyboard. But the company has also reduced the size of its voice recognition engine so that it can fit on a mobile device.
In other words, you no longer need an internet connection to enter text by voice.
Project Butter Google has worked to speed up animations and other effect so that devices feel faster when opening or closing apps, swiping between home screens, or performing other activites.
Moving Widgets When you move a widget from one home screen to another, other widgets and icons will automatically move aside to make room. If the widget is too large to fit, it will automatically be resized.
Camera You can view multiple photos at once from a new film strip just by pinching the screen and then swiping back and forth.
Android 4.1 also now lets you delete a photo simply by dragging it up to the top of the screen. This is a lot like the way you close apps on a webOS device.
If you accidentally delete an image you meant to keep, there’s an undo option.
Notifications There’s now support for notifications that can do more. You can view photos shared by your Google+ contacts right in the notification bar, for instance.
You can also email a reply to email notifications, view your latest Gmail message headlines in an expanding widget, or tap a call-back button from a phone notification.
This has the potential to greatly clutter the notification area, but you can expand or shrink any notification widget so that it doesn’t have to take up any more space than an old fashioned notice.
