android 4.1 - 4/5 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jul

XFINITY TV Player App Updated To Support The Nexus 7, Promises A 7" UI Soon Enough

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News, Nexus 7

Leave it to Comcast to be ahead of the curve on keeping up to date with new technology*. The Comcast subsidiary Xfinity has just updated its TV Player app to be compatible with Android 4.1, with special emphasis on supporting the Nexus 7. The app is technically compatible, though the release notes say that the next version of the app will include a UI designed specifically for the 7" form factor.

While Xfinity probably isn't the first company to announce plans for or produce a 7"-specific UI for an app on the Play Store, it does highlight yet again the beginning of the trend we all knew was coming since I/O: 7" form factors are going to be a beast unto themselves.

Jul

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Being Released To AOSP Right Now

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Android OS, Galaxy Nexus, Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Nexus 7, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), XOOM

Jelly Bean was announced at Google I/O just recently, but a posting from Google's Android open source guru, Jean-Baptiste Queru has confirmed that Android 4.1 is hitting the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) repository right now. Time for the developers among you to update your clients to get all the official bits.

This release will be tagged as android-4.1.1_r1 in AOSP. While the source is going live now, the full proprietary binaries for Google-blessed devices won't be rolled out until later. Google plans to directly support the Nexus 7, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, and Xoom through AOSP. Be aware that the addition of the Jelly Bean code to AOSP doesn't mean any OTA updates are on the way.

Jul

[Videos] Extensive Google Now Demo Shows How Powerful It Already Is, Leaves Us Excited About Its Future

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Jelly Bean 4.1, Videos

Last Updated: July 5th, 2012

We non-Jelly Bean plebeians have been envious of those with access to Android 4.1 for some time now, and a recent video from JLishere provides yet another reason to be jealous. The video, a demo of the much-anticipated Google Now, shows off just how accurate JB's voice recognition can be - in fact, it was able to pick up on the subtle differences between words like 'Worcester' and 'Wooster.' It also exemplifies the impressive number of commands Now (in cooperation with the Knowledge Graph) can register - from "call the Drake Hotel" to "do a barrel roll."

Enough balderdash, though - watch the 47-question demo for yourself:

Update: 20 more questions:

One last note: as JLishere notes in the video description, the demo was performed on an early build of Jelly Bean - this, in other words, should be considered a beta feature that will only get better with time.

Jul

Having Trouble Rooting The Galaxy Nexus On Jelly Bean? Here's A Method That Works [How-To]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Galaxy Nexus, Jelly Bean 4.1, Samsung, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: October 3rd, 2012

After upgrading my Galaxy Nexus (GSM) to Jelly Bean last night (I know, I know, I'm a few days late), I unlocked its bootloader (the usual fastboot oem unlock) and commenced rooting, which I thought would only take a minute or two. However, after almost 2 hours of pushing, flashing, rebooting, and trying no less than 5 different root methods, I still didn't have root. Something must have changed under the hood, and no root method I was trying was working (even PaulOBrien's SuperBoot).

Finally, I managed to find a solution that worked, and the familiar root permission prompt finally popped up.

Jun

Google Releases Full Factory OS Image For The Nexus 7 "nakasi" Tablet (Android 4.1, JRN84D)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in ASUS, Development, Google, Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Nexus 7

Google just dropped the full OS image for the recently announced at Google I/O Nexus 7 tablet. The image allows you to restore the tablet back to full stock Android 4.1 (build JRN84D) in case something goes wrong. This way, developers can tweak its internals without fearing a brick and users can always go back to something stable if a flash goes awry.

There are no surprises here - the Nexus 7 is a true Nexus device after all. Great job publishing the image promptly, Google!

It's interesting to note that the page name switched from "Factory Images for Nexus Phones" to "Factory Images for Nexus Devices" which made me realize and allow to sink in yet again just what exactly happened in the last 3 days.

Jun

One Of Jelly Bean's Best Features - Say Goodbye To Notification Spam By Selectively Disabling Notifications For Individual Apps

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Videos

Airpush and similar notification spammers, your days are numbered. The people have spoken - everyone universally hates these types of ads, and Google actually listened to our numerous complaints.

In Jelly Bean, you can not only figure out exactly which app caused a notification by long-pressing it and selecting App Info - you can actually disable notifications on a per-app basis altogether. That, my friends, is not just a slap in Airpush's face - it's a swift kick in its private parts.

This is exactly how it's done, in case you wanted a demonstration:

Awww, yeah!

Jun

[Video] Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Boot Animation (As Seen On A Nexus 7)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in ASUS, Google, Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Nexus 7, Videos

It's kind of a tradition now for the Android team to create different boot animations for every Android release, and Jelly Bean is definitely no exception. Here's the boot animation from the Nexus 7 which is, as you all should know by now, the first device running Android 4.1:

If you need a refresher, here's the one from ICS, for comparison purposes (for science!):

Jun

[Breaking] Jelly Bean Download Available Now, But It Only Works On 'Takju' Galaxy Nexuses From Google I/O - For Now

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Galaxy Nexus, Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Samsung

Well, we now have yet another reason to envy Google I/O attendees - a signed copy of the official Jelly Bean build has just been released on the 'nets, but it seems to only be working on the 'takju' (GSM) Galaxy Nexuses given out at I/O 2012 (or at least those GNs with the IMM30D firmware).

You can grab it for yourself right here, if you're interested in what's inside the 156MB ZIP. Don't worry, GN owners - we're sure with the appropriate modifications from the dev community, you'll be able to flash some version of this soon enough - not to mention the countless other goodies that might emerge.

Jun

Jelly Bean Feature Closer Look: Google Now Can Assist You With Everything From Traffic To Sports Scores

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Jelly Bean 4.1, News

Google Now is a feature we've been eagerly anticipating for what seems like forever now. In fact, we've been seeing hints at something like it since 2010. When Apple announced Siri last year, an official counterpart from Google became not only inevitable, but necessary - iOS' speech service provided direct Apple competition to Google's mobile search engine. Today, in one of the most notable announcements at I/O, the Big G made official its answer to Siri: the aforementioned Google Now.

Google Now uses actions you've performed on your phone in the past (i.e. your locations, calendar appointments, search queries, etc.) to form an idea of your general interests and habits.

Jun

[Updated: Video] Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Now Official: Project Butter, Better Notifications, Google Now, And More

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Jelly Bean 4.1, News, Videos

Over at Google I/O, the news about Android 4.1 - a.k.a. Jelly Bean, if you haven't heard - just broke.

Update: check out the Jelly Bean video:

The first announcement was Project Butter, a new processing framework for Android that should make it run much, much faster - up to 60fps, in fact. The CPU and graphics will now work together in harmony, with the latter being triple-buffered, meaning things like scrolling and transitions should be noticeably faster.

There's also going to be improved voice input, including support for offline voice-to-text, which should be exciting. Speaking of input, there's now going to be 18 more input languages, from Hebrew to improved Arabic support.