There's been plenty of talk centered around iOS and Windows Phone 8 of late, but today seems to be the turn of Google and their fabulous Android OS as the Android Open Source Project is seeing the release of 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. The 4.1.2 incremental update is only a minor improvement over the previous 4.1.1 release, but will definitely bring some notable improvements to Nexus 7 owners.
We’ve been hearing this rumor for a long time now, that LG is working on a super high-end smartphone in collaboration with Google. After consistent rumors, we are finally seeing first leaks of the actual device out in the wild. Thankfully, the photos aren’t blurry. Check them out after the jump.
The Nexus 7 tablet, which was the brainchild of a collaborative effort between Google and ASUS, proved to be a huge hit with consumers thanks largely to its low starting price and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean implementation. Talk has been rife recently regarding a 32GB model - offering a little more storage for folk who find 8 and 16GB configurations as requiring too space management - and to throw a little more weight behind the murmurings, a 32GB Nexus 7 looks to have made an appearance in Japan.
While only a very tiny fraction of Android smartphones are running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, rumors and reports of the next version of Google’s popular mobile platform are starting to emerge online.
Google is the undisputed champion of mapping solutions today. MapQuest, Nokia, Bing, Waze and all these other map services are good, but only in limited regions; Google Maps covers more area and in greater detail.
Google is expected to drop a handful of Nexus series devices this fall, and according to an alleged mobile retailer database listing, the Samsung-manufactured Nexus 2 will be one of those handsets, along with a 32GB iteration of the ASUS-made Nexus 7 tablet.
Fans of Android who have been patiently waiting for Google to announce some hard details on their next Nexus smartphone could be in for some good news, as the latest speculation is suggesting that we could be seeing some moves from the company during the month of October. The chatter doesn't extend as far as specifying whether or not Google will treat us to an announcement of the purported device, or go one step ahead and actually launch the product the next month, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.
Although it may have, regrettably, lost its place among Apple's native iOS apps, Google has been working tirelessly in updating and improving its Maps service, which is one of the strongest and most polished services available. Since announcing a bunch of improvements back in June, including dramatic enhancements to the quality of 3D images, much work and development has been going on behind the scenes, and the next large update looks finally ready to roll out to consumers.
Google will be bringing Street View to its mobile web app within two weeks, according to The New York Times’ David Pogue. The note was plucked from a report in which Pogue spoke of Apple's problematic new Maps offering, and although the mobile web app hasn't been such a hot topic in the past (mainly because the two main mobile ecosystems had native apps), Apple's poor first attempt in the Maps game has left Apple scrambling to remedy the problem.
It shouldn't really come as a great shock to anyone by now that any device running iOS 6 no longer comes with Google Maps installed as the default mapping platform. In fact, it doesn't come as part of iOS 6 in any shape or form. The removal of the tried and tested Maps app as well as Apple's decision to roll their own vector-based mapping solution has been the discussion of the week so far due to the fact that users have managed to find some rather large inadequacies with Apple's own creation.
