Step by step instructions on how to root Android 4.3 Jelly Bean running on Nexus 4, Nexus 7, Nexus 10 and Galaxy Nexus.
Linux enthusiasts rejoiced at the news that Canonical would be bringing Ubuntu to the mobile realm, and although it was promised a developer preview would be available for the Galaxy Nexus at some point early this year, it now looks as though the Nexus 4 will be joining it. From 21st of February, anybody in ownership of either device will be able to get a first look at the OS, which is set to release at some point in October, and although developers may not be leaping out their seats in excitement, it's hard not to take at least a fleeting interest in its progress.
It hasn’t been very long since the world saw Android 4.2 Jelly Bean come to light, with all its fancy new feature enhancements, some of which have been welcomed across the globe with great enthusiasm. Whether you’ve tried the latest Android flavor on your device yet or not depends solely on what smartphone or tablet you are carrying, or if you’re using a custom ROM or prefer stock ones, but Google is on a roll already, having let out Android 4.2.1 just a while back, carrying, among various others, a bug fix that’s more obvious than all the others – the missing “December” in the original 4.2 release, which rendered people with birthdays and anniversaries in the last month of the year, well, without a reminder of sorts.
When Google announced Android 4.2 last month, a lot of people were left unimpressed, mainly because it was an incremental update and not really something that would cause a lot of bells and whistles. Nevertheless, the update did bring a few fresh additions to the Android ecosphere, including the likes of Notification Quick Settings, Gesture typing (trust me, it’s not Swype), Photo Sphere, improvements to Google Now, Miracast support, multiple user accounts for tablets, and more.
Yesterday, we showed you how you could implement a feature somewhere representative of Android Jelly Bean (4.2)'s gesture-based keyboard, provided you were running a device on Ice Cream Sandwich or newer. As exciting as that was, it was only a going to be a matter of time before more of the new firmware's key features and exclusives were ported through to those wielding older devices, and just a day later, here we are with the Android 4.2 camera and gallery, both of which have been successfully ported to a Galaxy Nexus running Jelly Bean 4.1.1.
The Galaxy Nexus may now be a bit of a relic in comparison to the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II, but it still generates quite a bit of discussion amongst Android fans. The recent Jelly Bean 4.1.2 update, which has slowly but surely been trickling through to a large portion of Galaxy Nexus owners, has seen the once Ice Cream Sandwich-inclined smartphone thrust back into the news, and in the latest, those running "takju" iterations of the handset can now get their fill of 4.1.2.
It may not have been on the radar that much in the last few weeks due to everything that has been going on with both companies, but the differences that exist between Apple and Samsung relating to various infringements on held patents is still well and truly going on. Although, Apple has largely had the upper-hand in the dispute, a United States Court of Appeals has overturned the preliminary injunction that had earlier been placed on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone.
The smartphone world may be dominated by Android, iOS and Windows Phone at the minute, but it wasn't always that way. There was a time when webOS was around and was deemed to be probably one of the best and most accomplished mobile operating systems available to users. Unfortunately, those days are long gone, and when HP acquired the software from Palm, its end was somewhat inevitable. Let's not try to get sad over the long gone days, and all is not lost, since the source code of webOS is now available for all to have and consume.
The last few weeks have been dominated by the announcement of new hardware from Apple and Nokia in the form of the iPhone 5 and the rather gorgeous looking Lumia 920, respectively. Media events held by Nokia and Apple concentrated on introducing the world to the two new pieces of kit and have succeeded in raising excitement levels for the future of the industry. Apple's new iPhone and the Lumia 920 are sure to be extremely successful in their own right, but it's also worth paying some attention to what the world's largest smartphone vendor - Samsung - has in store for us.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with what is going on with Apple and Samsung as they continue to battle it out with each other over the alleged infringement of various patents. We've already had the major trial and verdict in San Jose, with Samsung being told they are liable to the tune of $1.05 billion for breaching a number of Apple patents, as well as a Japanese court ruling in Samsung's favor in a separate case regarding a utility patent that centers around transferring data between two devices. Court rulings and alleged infringements in different markets all over the world make this a difficult one to get your head around.
