Android 4.2 – What’s New?

Google are keeping their Android updates coming, this release follows on quickly from 4.1 so we shouldn’t expect any drastic changes, but there are a few goodies to get excited about.

In this post we take a look at what’s new in Jelly Bean 4.2.

Android 4.2

Let’s take a look at the expected updates:

Multi user support

I have personally been very keen to see this one added. Tablets are commonly shared between family members so it makes total sense to allow each user to have their own profile.

The exact nature of how this will work is not yet known, but I hope each profile will have an associated google account to keep things nicely distinct. Rumour has it that purchased apps will be accessible across all profiles which is perfect. There will also be a child friendly mode which will provide a restricted sandbox for our littluns to play in, good news as my two year old is already a Nexus tablet fan!

If the implementation is sound, this will be a real coup for Google in my opinion, multi user support is surely a feature that rival tablet owning families will be jealous of and once again shows us that Google is leading the way forward.

If this means we can all now seamlessly register our own individual Facebook, Gmail, twitter accounts in our preferred apps then this will be a real win.

Notifications

The notification bar gets a little upgrade with the inclusion of a quick settings menu.

This allows you speedy access to frequently used settings: brightness, Wi-Fi connection, data usage, battery life, toggling Airplane mode or Bluetooth, and initiating the wireless display (which relates to Miracast functionality).

Smart Screen-Savers

The “Daydream” screensaver comes into play when your tablet is idle, rather than turning off you can have your Nexus display something useful. For example it can be configured to display a photo slideshow, or a news feed from your Currents.

Whilst this additional battery drain won’t be for everyone, if your tablet is left plugged in on your desk at work (as mine is) then this could be a very useful. I can imagine setting up a feed work relevant updates flashing across the screen.

Gesture Typing

I’m a big fan of Swype, since installing it I can’t imagine any other system for typing. However you currently have to side load a beta version to get it running on the Nexus tablets.

All this changes as gesture based typing will be built into the standard Android keyboard from now on. So rather than tapping each letter to spell out each word you can glide your finger over the letters and Android will automagically work out what word you are spelling out!

It will be interesting to compare this to the functionality of Swype and one suspects that it will take some time to mature, however it’s a very welcome enhancement.

Magnification gestures

This is an update to improve accessibility, and we’ve had the question raised on the forum before now – is it possible to zoom in within an email? Well in the past you could only zoom in if the app allowed but now this functionality is built into Android.

With this update, users with impaired vision can rapidly tap on the screen three times to zoom in on any area of the screen.

App updates

Google Now: Introduced in 4.1, Google Now has continued to surprise people by knowing their journey to work and other such magic! This update provides us with revamped Cards, you can find out more here.

Gmail: Gets a few tweaks, nothing revolutionary but continued refinement is always welcome. They’ve added pinch to zoom, easy archiving and coloured labels.

Other updates

There are a couple of other updates that won’t affect Nexus 7 owners, for example a redesign of the UI to support the 10″ tablets (ie the Nexus 10) and the Panoramic Photo Sphere allows camera phones to capture large 360 degree landscape images.

Android 4.2 also builds in Miracast support, however it is worth noting that the Nexus 4 is the only device that will make it available at this stage. No word on whether support for the Nexus 7 or Nexus 10 will come in the future.

When will Android 4.2 hit the Nexus 7?

Google have not many any announcements about release date at this time so we can only speculate. We do know that the new Nexus 4 phone and Nexus 10 tablet will be shipped with 4.2 on the 13th Novemeber, so it seems likely that the OTA updates will start arriving on our Nexus 7 tablets at this time.

We’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything, follow us on twitter for updates, or add our RSS feed to your fave reader app.

Related posts:

1. Android 4.1.2 Released to Nexus 7
2. Nexus 7 leads to Increasing Demand in Android Apps
3. Free Android Development Course
4. 7 Android Apps that Work Offline

Source : nxtab[dot]co[dot]uk