Latest Android OS: “Jelly Bean”

Android Operating System is a Linux-based operating system that was developed by Google in conjunction with the Open Handset Alliance. Google also lead Android Open Source Project i.e (AOSP) and development team that handle all the task of maintenance and further development of Android.

Initially, Android OS was only limited to touch screen devices - smartphones and tablet computers but now, it is widely used for other electronics too due to its open and customizable nature. Now, it is used for wide variety of hardware including laptops, netbooks, eBook reader’s smart books and smart TVs (Google TV) etc.

It is also opted for alcove applications like apps in wristwatches, headphones, car CD and DVD players, automation systems, games consoles, cameras and a lot more.

Interim updates are made by AOSP in the Android OS; you can easily see the rapid releases and incremental updates in android OS for a gradual improvement in the functionalities.The first version of Android OS was Version1.5 (Cupcake) that was released on 30th April in 2009.The latest version of android is Android 4.1(Jelly Bean), the API level Distribution for Android 4.1.x (Jelly Bean) was done on 4th September, 2012.

Android 4.1(Jelly Bean) is an improvement of the previous version of Android i.e. Android 4.0 and it is  the fastest and smoothest version of Android among all the previous versions.

Prominent features of Android 4.1(Jelly Bean) Jelly Bean:

• Fast & smooth touch functionality that provides much better, reactive and uniform response for moving across the screen.
• Expandable and actionable notifications that let you have a better experience while viewing notifications on Google+.
• Widgets personalization features (widgets resizing, automatic positioning, interactive interface for the apps and widgets) let you customize and personalize your home screen in an easier manner.
• Superfast photo taking and sharing feature let you instantly view and swipe over the photos from camera to filmstrip view.
• A smarter keyboard with text-to-speech capabilities, auto keyboard guessing for the next word to be typed and more accurate and relevant dictionaries makes your typing process easier and better than before.
• Added features for Better Accessibility
• 'Gesture Mode' that lets the blind users have a reliable navigation over the UI with the help of touch and swipe gestures in combination with speech output.
• Support for accessibility plugins that lets the blind users enable external Braille input and output devices (such as USB and Bluetooth).
• NFC-enabled Android Beam
• It lets you share photos, contacts, web pages, YouTube videos, directions, and apps. Between two NFC-enabled Android devices just by touching the devices back to back and then, tapping to beam whatever's on the screen.
• It lets you instantly pair your android device (phone or tablet) to Bluetooth devices just by tapping them together, thus it omits the need for “search and synchronization” process.To enjoy this feature the Bluetooth device must support the Simple Secure Pairing standard.
• Improved Google Search
• The superfast ”Voice Search” feature that  provides you much faster and accurate information just by speaking your search query ,before you even ask and thus, makes your search experience enjoyable.
• Knowledge Graph that lets you quickly explores and browses search results in lesser time.
• Automatic information Cards by Google that tells you the daily weather, traffic updates, train timings, live match score and a lot more information throughout the day, whenever you need.

I am sure after reading the improved features of Jelly Bean you will surely think of it. We can easily conclude that Jelly Bean provides a much better and charismatic experience to the users than, the previous Android versions. Well, As the Android versions are being updated each 6 to 9 months, we are going to enjoy the simplicity and beauty of Android, even more with the updates and new techniques coming in the forthcoming years. It’s not the end here, it’s a beginning.