Android 4.1 Jellybean announced at Google IO Keynote

Vic Gundotra introduced the Key note and then handed over to Dave Burke to show off Project Butter. Basically a better experience in touch response. Android 4.1 is optimized for low touch latency, Jellybean adds triple buffering in the graphics pipeline, syncs touch to vsync timing and anticipates where your finger will be when the screen refreshes. After a no touch input period, Android now does a CPU boost when the screen is touched next to make sure there is no latency. It utilises a new tool called systrace which collects data from the Linux Kernel to get a picture of system activites, this helps to reduce interruptions.

Hugo Barra took over the presentation and showed off Widgets, they now automatically resize to the space on the new home screen, deleting apps or widgets from homescreens is as simply as flinging them off the home screen, you don`t have to wait for the ‘Red X’ to appear to delete them.

Predictive Text is improved on the Keyboard and Google has now made Voice Typing available Offline, Google has shrunk the speech recognition engine down to the point where it can fit on the device, Offline Voice Typing is starting with US English but this will improve to other languages over time.

ICS made it possible to take instant photos, Jellybean allows you to review shots extremely quickly, review your photos, by pinching to go to a film strip view, swiping left and right to scroll through your photos, you can then swipe a photo away to delete which you can also undo if you decide you want to at a later stage.

In Ice Cream Sandwich it introduced the concept of sending photos and video by tapping devices together(Android Beam), now you can instantly pair an NFC enabled Bluetooth device by tapping them together.

Notifications have been improved, they now expand to show much more information, they expand by themselves or you can pinch to zoom in or dismiss notifications with a swipe, this works with things like GMail messages or Calendar Notifications which can be snoozed and if you`re late, you can send pre-programmed texts to meeting attendees in the calendar entry if you need to. Pictures in Google+ can be added to Gallery directly from the Notifications pane. Apps can add up to 3 actions to a notification which are displayed below the notification, I.E Add to Gallery

Search has been redesigned, New UI, Voice Search and a New Feature : Google Now
Last month they introduced Knowledge Graphs to Google Search on the web, Jelly Bean now shows search results from Knowledge Graph in cards. The demo of Voice Search they showed was really fast and responsive with cards popping up with instant information, once you receive your knowledge graph card you can then swipe the card away and it will go back to the traditional web search results.

Google Now can bring up search results based on your previous search results, calendar and more. I.E it knows your favourite sports team based on your previous searches and displays this sort of information automatically. You can tap on the search box, or swipe up from the bottom of the screen to get to it. When going into search it`ll show you entries from your calendar,

The code will be available Mid-July and an OTA rollout to Galaxy Nexus, Motorola Xoom & Nexus S will begin then, the SDK Available today from developer.android.com.

PDKs (Platform Development Kits) will be made available to select partners two to three months before new versions of Android are made available, the kit should contain all the information that is needed by the vendor to get updates out to devices faster and easier.

Google Play Statistics :

• 600K apps.
• 20Billion app installs so far.
• Apps are now sold in132 Countries.
• Free apps are now available in 190 Countries.
• 50% revenue via in app billing.

Movie Purchases are now available in Google Play Movies and Google are now adding TV, you can purchase seasons or individual episodes, launching today in Google Play partnering with companies such as Disney, SyFy and UFC! Magazines are also coming to Google Play, 14 day free trial period so you can try it out. Magazines have tablet optimised versions, you can tap on the cover to access stories inside. Movies and TV shows can be downloaded offline for viewing later.
Widgets provided to find new content, they`re intelligent and will improve accuracy as to what you like over time. They have a ‘what’s this song widget’ like Soundhound built in to help you discover new music.

Chrome shipping as standard browser in Jellybean, Youtube app is completely redesigned for tablets. Maps offline coming as announced earlier this month, you`ll be able to save an entire city offline. Currents is being redesigned as well and Google+ is now getting a Tablet optimised interface as well.

This may seem like a rambling account but it’s 3am, there is more information available at the Google Developer page.