Items tagged with Jelly Bean
Terry Myerson, Microsoft's Executive Vice President of Operating Systems, really stuck a knife into Google’s stomach yesterday at the Microsoft Ignite conference. More specifically, Myerson took issue with Google’s reluctance to prod its carrier partners into delivering timely OS updates for devices that run Android. "Google ships a big pile of… code, with no commitment to update your device," Myerson said yesterday when referencing the current state of Android fragmentation. "Google takes no responsibility to update customer devices and refuses to take responsibility to update their devices, leaving end users and businesses increasingly exposed every day they use an Android device." Myerson...
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Samsung Galaxy S4 owners have been hearing for weeks that an Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update is headed to their device, but so far all is pretty quiet in terms of official releases. If, however, you're willing to play with leaked code that may or may not be feature-complete, you have options. Nearly two weeks after the first Android 4.3 build for the Galaxy S4 leaked to the web, there's now a second version available. The folks at SamMobile are floating the leaked code, which it claims is "one of the final builds," meaning that no more features will be added or taken away in future releases. All that will be adjusted in future releases are bug fixes and other minor tweaks. Citing unnamed sources,...
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It's been a little over a year since Google's original Nexus 7 tablet introduced Jelly Bean to the market, and though it was initially slow to roll out to more device, it's now found on nearly half of all Android devices around the world, according to Google's Developers Dashboard. Unfortunately, the bulk of those installations are Android 4.1.x, the original version of Jelly Bean that's now found on 36.5 percent of Android devices, versus the latest build, Android 4.3, which is found on only 1.5 percent of Android gadgets. Sitting in between is Android 4.2.x with a 10.6 percent share of the Android market. That means that the vast majority of Android users, including those on Jelly Bean, are...
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Google made a brilliant decision last year to take the bull by the horns and deliver its own brand Android tablet to the masses. Built by ASUS to Google's specifications, the original Nexus 7 awarded a patient (and eager) audience with a stock Android experience wrapped in an affordable package that was high on value and low on feature concessions. It was precisely the kind of tablet the Android camp had been clamoring for, because for whatever reason, most third-party manufacturers were tying to push larger, overpriced slates onto an audience that simply wanted a solid tablet without paying a premium. Up until the Nexus 7 arrived, the only viable alternatives were Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes...
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Google made a brilliant decision last year to take the bull by the horns and deliver its own brand Android tablet to the masses. Built by ASUS to Google's specifications, the original Nexus 7 awarded a patient (and eager) audience with a stock Android experience wrapped in an affordable package that was high on value and low on feature concessions. It was precisely the kind of tablet the Android camp had been clamoring for, because for whatever reason, most third-party manufacturers were tying to push larger, overpriced slates onto an audience that simply wanted a solid tablet without paying a premium. Up until the Nexus 7 arrived, the only viable alternatives, other than cheap off-brands with...
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Google's developer dashboard for Android reveals that Jelly Bean is now the most popular version of the company's open source operating system, finally eclipsing Gingerbread to take the top spot. Jelly Bean is installed on more than a third of all Android devices (37.9 percent for versions 4.1.x and 4.2.x combined), and so is Gingerbread (Android 2.3.3 - 2.3.7) at 34.1 percent, though the two OSes are moving in opposite directions. The data is based on the number of devices that visited Google Play in the past 14 days so it's not 100 percent accurate, though it's the best representation of the Android market available. Source: Google Jelly Bean has found its stride, and that's great news for...
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Android has been stuck at Jelly Bean since Google I/O 2012, and while Key Lime Pie is feeling more like a distant dream than anything, we aren't ones to complain about new version numbers when it comes to operating systems. LG may have jumped the gun on reporting such a number, as a product listing for the company's Optimus L7 II Dual proudly proclaims that the handset is (or would be, once it ships) shipping with Android 4.3, Jelly Bean. That's 0.1 higher than the official build available now, and it certainly begs the question: what's new about v4.3? Of course, this could just be a misunderstanding, or even a typographical error. That said, v4.3 is listed twice on the page, so it stands to...
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At the beginning the year, it was easy to complain about Jelly Bean's slow roll into the Android market, which at the time was still being dominated by Gingerbread (Android 2.3.x), an aging version of Google's open source operating system found on 47.6 percent of all Android devices. Now here we are at the halfway mark and things are looking up for Jelly Bean, though Gingerbread still rules the roost. Pulling data from the Android Developers Dashboard, which looks at devices that have visited the Google Play Store in the past 14 days, Gingerbread is still in the lead, though its share of Android devices has fallen to 38.5 percent. Jelly Bean has picked up the slack, and then some, by climbing...
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There are some interesting things happening in the tablet world. Perhaps the biggest development of all is that Apple's iPad family is finally starting to yield market share to the competition, and that's primarily due to the increasing number of affordable Android slates being pumped out by name brand manufactures. At first, pedestrian price tags were only attached to Android tablets in the 7-inch range, but more recently we've started seeing large slates come down in cost. One of the more intriguing options is the Asus MeMO Pad Smart 10, a 10.1-inch slate that streets for as little as $280, or about half the price of a regular sized iPad. Given that it's one of the least expensive 10.1-inch...
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There are some interesting things happening in the tablet world. Perhaps the biggest development of all is that Apple's iPad family is finally starting to yield market share to the competition, and that's primarily due to the increasing number of affordable Android slates being pumped out by name brand manufactures. At first, pedestrian price tags were only attached to Android tablets in the 7-inch range, but more recently we've started seeing large slates come down in cost. One of the more intriguing options is the Asus MeMO Pad Smart 10, a 10.1-inch slate that streets for as little as $280, or about half the price of a regular sized iPad. Given that it's one of the least expensive 10.1-inch...
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Salivating for a slice of delicious Key Lime Pie to go with your Android device? So are we, but unfortunately Google may be preoccupied with another Jelly Bean build before it launches another major version of its open source Android software. The evidence is in Google's server logs, some of which show references to Android 4.3. It's not difficult to spoof server logs, but the detectives at Android Police claim to have traced the IP range of the logs in question right back to Google itself. "In fact, two different IP ranges, both corresponding to Google employees. Employees that have a lot to do with Android. It's the same IP range that had previously clued us in to some of the unreleased versions...
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I'm a big fan of the LG Optimus G, particularly the Sprint version that wields a 13MP rear camera (versus the version on AT&T, which touts an 8MP camera). It's a solid phone with high end specs, like a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB internal storage, and a 4.7-inch True HD IPS Plus display. One of the knocks against it, however, is that it's stuck on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, or at least it was. Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean is slowly but surely finding its way onto LG's flagship device, particularly in Canada. According to Android Geeks, the Jelly Bean update is being pushed out by three big Canadian carriers, including Bell, Rogers, and Telus. What about...
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AT&T, the largest wireless carrier in the U.S., has begun doling out Android 4.1 Jelly Bean over-the-air (OTA) updates to HTC One X owners, the company announced. The long-awaited update comes to a phone that has been on the market for nearly a year and brings with it a bevy of new features native to Jelly Bean, including Google Now, changes to the notification display, and smoother performance. AT&T points out the One X is also Isis capable, allowing users to easily upload payment and loyalty cards to a secure app. They can then use the One X to make payments by tapping their phone at participating retailers. The caveat? The service is currently trialing in Austin and Salt Lake City...
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The researchers at Erlangen University in Germany would like to offer some advice: don't put that Android 4.0+ phone in the freezer. It's been discovered that even on a phone with PIN security and encryption, data can be retrieved from the device via a cold boot attack - that is, the process of turning on the desktop, notebook, smartphone or et cetera and then sucking down the data stored in RAM before it's wiped clean during the boot process. Normally, a "cold boot" attack doesn't actually refer to cold temperatures, but in this case it does. With the help of its "FROST" tool-set, the researchers found that when the Android phone is tossed into a -15°C freezer for up to an hour, it...
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