Google – Android Jelly Bean 4.3 Announced

In recent days some screenshots and information have filtered in and finally after a very long wait, Google has officially announced Android Jelly Bean 4.3. As the number suggests, it is a minor evolution however, as expected, it brings a lot of novelties.

The presentation was made by Sundar Pichai, the new head of development of Android and Chrome. For individuals, in terms of new system, there is support of the Open GL ES 3.0, the multi-user management with a restricted profile that limits the degree of access of some applications and allows the management of visible or hidden content on a Jelly Bean 4.3 device. This last feature will find its use in homes where Android’s devices are used by several people and particularly those within reach of children, so it will permit the lock of in-app purchases.

We also note the support of AVRCP 1.3 profile, for the remote control of multimedia devices. Jelly Bean 4.3 also enhances the integration of Digital Rights Management (DRM) for streaming protocols, and applications can now use an integrated VP8 encoder. As for visible changes, we note the possibility for applications to interact with notifications flow, and now, this flow can be deported to another device via Bluetooth.

For developers, improvements are more about performance. Thus there is a reduction in the latency of tactile, the boost of CPU inputs, and 2D rendering is hardware accelerated, with an improved rendering and text for greater readability. On the professional side, Android Jelly Bean 4.3 supports WiFi connections with WPA2 protection and strengthens its own protection by using SELinux sandbox mode. An internal KeyChain API that better protects system keys and makes them more difficult to recover by root or kernel access.

Google has also announced the availability of Android 4.3 natively on the new Nexus 7 (also announced during the event). The challenge is huge, when you consider that Apple has released a few weeks ago iOS 6, and both Blackberry OS and Windows Phone continues to nibble on the heels of these two giants. Hopefully this will be enough, or at worst will keep users afloat whilst waiting for Key Lime Pie, which is due at the end of 2013.