What’s New in Android 4.2 Jelly Bean?

Android 4.2 is out there with the sweet project code code name Jelly Bean. Previously I posted a Android 4.2 rumors round up and expect the project code name to be Key Lime Pie. But Google decided to keep it for next major update.

Most of the previous rumored features are there and few more details to share. If you have a device from New Nexus Family or Galaxy Nexus you must be already enjoying this. Let’s take a closer look and see what is has to offer.

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New Features

Sphere Camera

This is one of the most anticipated features in Android 4.2. I tried taking few 360 degrees images and they worked fine. All you have to do is align the camera to start recording and follow the dots. However sometimes it’s making mistakes when stitching images together.

The gallery is also updated to view sphere images. If it’s a sphere image you are getting a new icon below that. Once you click it will take you to Google street view live image viewer. Good improvement and major competitive advantage over other mobile OS.

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Quick Settings Panel

Previously it had only one notification panel which you can drop down from the top edge. Now you have two panels and you have two different methods to access that. Pull down the notification bar and click on quick settings icon or pull down notification bar with 2 fingers. There you can see some commonly used controllers such as screen brightness, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, battery power etc.

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Lock Screen Widgets

Previously you could unlock the phone to Google Now or to camera. Now they have taken it to next step. You can slide the screen left to access the camera and right to see any customized widgets. You have a separate button to access Google Now below the lock icon.

According to my personal point of view, this is an unnecessary complexity. Previously I could do all these stuff with one controller and now I have several. A lock screen widget consuming a whole page and I have to go through several pages to see them. I’d rather put all of them in my home screen and unlock the phone to see them.

Gesture Typing

This is my most favorite feature here. I have used swipe keyboard before, but this is embedded right in to OS and very polished. Previously I used to be a ‘viewer’ in mobile social media because I was too lazy to comment back and engage with on screen keyboard. Gesture typing changed my world and my social engagement level has gone up overnight.

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Clock

Most of the people are talking about all the new android goodness, but I didn’t hear much about new and improved clock. You will notice this right there in lock screen. Now it’s not only a clock, a fully functional stopwatch and countdown timer have been embedded right into it. Slide to left and right to check out these clock features.

In stopwatch you can records laps and share the result in social media. You can add multiple countdown timers and manage them easily for different purposes. Good idea for a kitchen timer.

World clock is another majorly important feature. Here you can add new clock displaying time in another city. All you have to do is click on location icon and check in the cities you need.

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Others

Google Now came in to action with android 4.1 and now it’s giving you more information and features. Project butter is still here so interfaces are buttery smooth, for me it’s seems even smoother than before. If you like to mirror your Smartphone display with your HD TV now you have Air Play like feature.

If you are using Nexus 10, there you have multi-user support. So you can share your tablet with many other people and it remembers the setting for each profile, even the progress in games.

Daydream is a new fancy feature. With that you can play an animation or display clock when your phone is in sleep mode. Try this but keep your eye on battery life.

You have new Gmail with new features such as pinch to zoom and swipe to delete.

Wrapping Up

The best thing ever happened to Android so far is sweet Jelly bean. Now it’s in the next level. You have whole lot of new features. This made all the other mobile OS looks like antique and dwarfs them in competition. Sphere camera, sphere viewer, gesture typing, new clock and overall completeness blew my mind.

I was expecting Google engineers to introduce something to improve battery life. There was a rumor about project roadrunner. But I could not find anything about this so far. Previously I ran a battery life test for Android 4.1 and going to do the same for 4.2 as well. See you soon with the results and subscribe to our email newsletter to not to miss it.

Tags: #Android #Jelly Bean