Android Jelly Bean (4.1) has enjoyed a much warmer welcome into mobile space than its predecessor Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0), which took an age to trickle through to many Android devices, leaving quite a few consumers feeling somewhat disillusioned with the update process in general. Google has clearly regrouped and revaluated its battle plan this time around though, and as well as being arguably the best release of Android to date, the Big G isn't hanging around with its OTA updates.
Unveiled late last month at Google I/O 2012, the Nexus 7 is one of the most well received tablets since the iPad 2. Critics are absolutely loving the Nexus 7 because it offers the features of a $500 tablet – quad core processor, a gig of RAM, HD display, long lasting battery life, powerful graphics etc. etc. – at just $199. Combine all that with the latest version of Android, 4.1 Jelly Bean, and you get the best in Android tablet experiences today.
Google Glass, despite being shrouded in mystery, is one of the most exciting-looking gizmos around. Various video clips have surfaced which showcase its abilities, with the Project Glass team flirting with every possibility in a bid to turn their sci-fi-esque gadget into a real-life, marketable product. Hitherto, we haven't been offered much information with regards to how everything works, and nobody outside the development team has had a chance to try them out, but a patent application made by Google offers us something of an insight as to the frameworks of its secretive Project Glass.
As avid followers of the mobile industry here at Redmond Pie, we've grown used to seeing how casually Apple dishes out lawsuits to competitors, berating patent infringement here and there, and our favorite: blatant plagiarism. Of course, it's not all one way traffic, and the likes of Samsung and HTC have dealt with their fair share of suits from Cupertino, California; but these seem more in retaliation than anything, and it does appear Apple's rivals will do anything to avoid the fruit company's wrath.
Apple and Google follow very different principles with their mobile platforms. Apple maintains a tightly closed system where they put their software on their own hardware whereas Google has a much more open policy. Google licenses Android to companies like Samsung, HTC and Motorola which manufacture their own hardware and run it on customized versions of Android. While Apple’s way has plenty of advantages there is one area where it lags behind Google: sheer units sold and total market share. Android smartphones as a whole have been dominating the iPhone in USA for quite some time now. In a latest report, its dominance has been reaffirmed. Check out the details after the jump.
The YouTube Ninja Unboxing videos have become a trademark of any new Nexus release, and the trend which started out all the way back in 2010 with the Nexus One has carried through to Google's newest Nexus outlet, the Nexus 7 tablet.
Although Google+ has sat around in a somewhat dormant state since arriving last year, Google has continued to maintain it has big plans for its social network. The mobile market, a field in which Facebook has continued to disappoint, will obviously be a key area to corner if Google+ is to be a success, and the official iOS app has just been given a pretty significant update, taking the version number up to 3.0.
Google's I/O conference brought little in the way of surprise, but still presented aficionados of the Big G with plenty to get excited about. As well as the Nexus 7 tablet, which has seen an uprising in talk of a smaller iPad (a device which, as yet, hasn't been proved to be in development), Google also announced Android Jelly Bean (4.1), the successor to the rather tasty Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) operating system.
Seeing that Google announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean last week during its Google I/O conference - where it also announced its home entertainment device, the Nexus Q, among a few other things - Android users are surly antsy to get the latest version of the OS onto their devices. Well, Nexus S and Nexus S 4G owners are in luck; two guys from the XDA forums - DeXmax and CooLoserTech - have ported Jelly Bean 4.1 to the Nexus S and Nexus S 4G, respectively.
Always eager to add little treats for their intrepid user-base, Google appears to have added an Easter egg to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean that goes beyond the norm. Fans of Android smartphones and tablets will no doubt already be aware that Google's engineers like to add a little something for them to find when playing around with their new toys. The most famous amongst these Easter eggs is something that is found inside the Settings app of Android smartphones.
