Google has recently announced the new upgraded version of Jellybean, Android 4.2, and there is a growing anticipation among the ever-loyal Android community as to when their new handsets will be able to receive the new Jellybean update. The exciting part about this, for Android users, is the open availability of this update that has been made to a wide range of older and newer devices such as the Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus 7.
Android 4.2 comes with a whole host of an interesting new features and upgrades that are sure to keep Android fans immensely pleased. The camera application, for example, now has an added feature called Photo Sphere which enables its users to snap high-resolution 360-degree photographs on all axes, giving the pictures the same look and feel as Google Street View. Pictures can be shared on any medium, including public ones like Google Maps.
The keyboard now supports gesture-typing, a method of typing made popular by the Swype keyboard by Nuance. This form of typing involves the user sliding his or her finger over the keyboard instead of tapping at the screen, and was commonly found pre-installed in older Samsung devices. New users and even experienced ones are sure to find this a very pleasant and very smooth form of typing. Users can now also build multiple accounts on their tablets, each with their own customized settings and apps to allow for tablet sharing between users without privacy concers. There is also the introduction of Miracast functionality, which allows users to seamlessly display content playing on their screens to a TV, DVD player or any other device that supports Miracast functionality.
Google Now, a service by Google that automatically updates its users on information they may need, has also been updated. With the introduction of Knowledge Graph, a predictive data-mining software so sophisticated that it can identify what the user wants even before the user is aware of what he or she wants, Google Now can accurately predict and display information that the user may want to look up before the user even has to look it up. It is also capable of expanding the scope of web searches by suggesting related searches on the same subject.
While the 4.2 update has only just been made available to certain versions of the Galaxy Nexus, Google has promised quick rollout to other devices as well.
