Many people have been asking me recently about what’s new in the new version (not the latest as 4.2 is already available on a few devices) of Android – Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

I thought I would write a blog post to explain some of the new features.

There are many new fantastic features in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and I will explain just some of them. Before you get excited about the new features, check if your phone or tablet can get an update to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean as many of them are not getting an update, at least not in the near future.

Here are some of the fantastic new features in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean:

• Faster switching between applications and home screens.
• Improved performance within the operating system: faster changing of the screen orientation and faster responses when switching between applications.
• More reactive and uniform touch responses, so that your device is even more responsive instantly when you touch the screen, and turns it down when you don’t need it to improve battery life.
• Blind users can use ‘Gesture Mode’ to reliably navigate the user interface using touch and swipe gestures in combination with speech output.
• Android Beam – Instantly pair your phone or tablet to Bluetooth® devices like headsets or speakers that support the Simple Secure Pairing standard by just tapping them together.
• Browser has improved performance, CPU and memory efficiency.
• When viewing photos in Gallery, you can pinch to zoom out to enter “filmstrip mode” and rapidly review photos. When viewing photos in filmstrip mode, you can swipe up or down to delete an individual photo. You can also undo the delete with a single tap.
• You now get an image preview in notifications after taking a screenshot. You can quickly share the screenshot directly from the notification.
• When you miss a call, a new notification lets you return the call or reply by SMS with a single touch.
• A new embedded speech recognizer lets you use Voice Typing even when you don’t have an Internet connection.

Enjoy Android 4.1 Jelly Bean! 😉