Feb

Weird: Google Changes The Nexus 7's Estimated Battery Life From 8 Hours To 10 - Android 4.2.2 The Reason? [Updated]

Posted by David Ruddock in Jelly Bean 4.2, News, Nexus 7

Last Updated: February 13th, 2013

So this is interesting, Google just updated the product page for every Nexus 7 model on the Play Store, and the change on every one is the same: estimated battery life. Previously, the Nexus 7 was listed as having "Up to 8 hours of active use," but now the figure has been revised to 10 hours - within a day's time of the release of the Android 4.2.2 update (manual update download here).

Update 2/13/13: Google just reverted all the Nexus 7 pages back to 8 hours. Why must you toy with our feelings like that?

We've been digging for new features and changes in Android 4.2.2 (see here, here, and here), but we've yet to see anything specific about improved battery life.

Feb

New Android 4.2.2 Features: Toggle From Quick Settings, Better App Download Notifications, and Some New Sounds!

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Jelly Bean 4.2, News

Last Updated: February 20th, 2013

Android 4.2.2 is out, and while an OCD-fueled 4.2.2 edition of Getting To Know Android is on the way, we figured it would be a good idea to highlight the big user facing changes that came with this release. We already covered the new ADB Whitelist and posted the raw developer changelog, so this should be the last of the important stuff.

New Download Notifications

First up is the new notification for in-progress app downloads, which now shows the percentage and an estimated time remaining for your app downloads while they are happening. Or, if you want to be technical about it:

Calculate speed of in-progress downloads and estimate time remaining
until completion. Uses a moving average that is weighted 1:1 with
the most recent 500ms sample. Funnels timing data to notifications
through DownloadHandler.

Feb

[Developer Changelog] Here's What's New In Android 4.2.2 (JDQ39)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Android OS, Development, Galaxy Nexus, Jelly Bean 4.2, News, Nexus 10, Nexus 4, Nexus 7

Following yesterday's Android 4.2.2 OTAs to various Nexus devices, Google today followed up with the push of all 4.2.2 open source code changes to AOSP. There is a lot here to parse through this time around compared to the minor 4.2.1_r1.2 commit from 10 days ago.

We've already identified some obvious user-facing changes, which we'll post about separately soon to keep it clean and organized. The purpose of this post is, as before, to find the low-level changes that may not be obvious. So move the beard out of the way and dig in.

Update: Ron detailed some new things here: New Android 4.2.2 Features: Toggle From Quick Settings, Better App Download Notifications, and Some New Sounds!

Feb

New Android 4.2.2 Feature: USB Debug Whitelist Prevents ADB-Savvy Thieves From Stealing Your Data (In Some Situations)

Posted by David Ruddock in Jelly Bean 4.2, News

Worried about an ADB-savvy thief stealing the precious data off your stolen phone or tablet? Well, Android 4.2.2 makes doing that a little harder now, with the addition of a USB debugging whitelist feature into the OS. The way it works is pretty simple - when you connect your PC to your Android device via USB, Android gets your PC's RSA key (an identifier token). In Android 4.2.2, when you have USB debugging enabled, this now causes a prompt to appear on connection, seen below.

The prompt asks you to confirm that you wish to allow USB debugging from the connecting PC, and allows you to add it to a whitelist such that the prompt won't ask you to confirm for that computer again.

Feb

Android 4.2.2 (JDQ39) Source Has Started Pushing To AOSP [Updated]

Posted by David Ruddock in Development, Device Updates, Jelly Bean 4.2, News

It's begun - the newest version of Android, 4.2.2, is being pushed to AOSP right now. We saw the accompanying Nexus OTA rollout start last night, with update files slowly springing up thereafter. Right now, 4.2.2 builds can be downloaded for the Takju Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 7 (Wi-Fi), and Nexus 10.

The build number is JDQ39 and the tag in AOSP is android-4.2.2_r1. Here are a few of the many directories that have been updated:

While the push has just started this morning, source will likely continue to show up throughout the day, and we'll update this page as that happens.

Feb

Download The Android 4.2.2 Update (JDQ39) For The Nexus 7 And Nexus 10 Right Now

Posted by David Ruddock in Device Updates, Jelly Bean 4.2, News, Nexus 10, Nexus 7

Last Updated: February 14th, 2013

While the official OTA update to Android 4.2.2 began rolling out to the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, 7, and 10 last night, you may not have received it yet. We already posted a link for the Galaxy Nexus takju build, but now we've got a couple more to share.

Update: JDQ39 from JOP40F for the Nexus 10 added.

Nexus 7: Android 4.2.2 update (JDQ39 from JOP40D, 47.7MB) (Note: Wi-Fi model only, aka grouper/nakasi)
Nexus 10:

Android 4.2.2 update (JDQ39 from JOP40D, 47.6MB)
Android 4.2.2 update (JDQ39 from JOP40F, 47.6MB)

Your device needs to be running the JOP40D build in order to flash the updates, doing so from another build will probably just fail, but we wouldn't attempt it either way.

Feb

Here's The Android 4.2.2 JDQ39 Update For The Takju GSM Galaxy Nexus [Manual Installation Instructions]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Galaxy Nexus, Google, Jelly Bean 4.2, News

Last Updated: February 13th, 2013

A couple of hours ago, Google started rolling out the Android 4.2.2 update to a very limited subset of Nexus devices (build JDQ39). At this point, almost nobody can get the OTA pulled by going through the Settings screen, but don't worry - one of our loyal readers extracted the OTA url for the Galaxy Nexus and sent it over to us (great work, Daniel Koch!).

For now, we only have the link for the takju Galaxy Nexus variant, i.e. GNex handsets bought from the Play Store. Once we get the yakju build, we'll update this post.

If you're not sure whether you have a takju or yakju variant, download Nexus Update Checker from the Play Store and see what it says.

Feb

Breaking: Android 4.2.2 (Build JDQ39) Update Rolling Out To GSM Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 7, Nexus 10

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Galaxy Nexus, Jelly Bean 4.2, News, Nexus 10, Nexus 7, Rumors

Nexus owners may have a reason to stay up tonight, as a couple of Reddit users report that Android 4.2.2 has begun rolling out to the GSM Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus 7.

There's not much word regarding what the update (which carries build JDQ39) includes just yet, but readers may remember that Google promised a Bluetooth A2DP audio streaming fix in the "next release" of 4.2 after 4.2.1.

Update: Here's The Android 4.2.2 JDQ39 Update For The GSM Galaxy Nexus [Manual Installation Instructions]

Feb

Google Now Update: NCAA Basketball Teams Can Be Manually Added To Sports Card

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Android OS, Jelly Bean 4.1, Jelly Bean 4.2, News

Good news, basketball fans. Google has been gradually upgrading the Now service to include a wider range of sports teams, and today Division I NCAA basketball teams from all over the US can be manually added to your personal Now results. Go into the Google Now settings page, tap "Sports," and search for your favorite school. Only basketball is supported at the moment - here's hoping that football teams are added before the season starts.

Previously, a few NCAA teams were showing up in the Sports card dynamically, if you searched for them enough. Now you can make sure that you'll be alerted whenever your guys hit the boards.

Feb

Stock Android Isn't Perfect: Jelly Bean 4.2 Edition

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Features, Jelly Bean 4.2, Stock Android Isn't Perfect

Last Updated: February 7th, 2013

A few months ago I wrote "Stock Android Isn't Perfect," an article where I turned my usual harsh UX critique on stock Android, instead of just picking on TouchWiz and Sense all the time in my reviews. The article went over pretty well, and even got a few responses from Googlers! I didn't cover everything that was wrong with Android, though, and there have been a bunch of updates since the original article, so it's about time I wrote a sequel.

So we're officially making this a series now, and it'll serve two purposes: One, there's a new version of Android out, and more things to complain about; and two, to give credit where it's due, because, since I wrote that article, a lot of things have been fixed.