Android 5.0 Jelly Bean

Ice Cream Sandwich, otherwise known as Android 4.0 has been out for a while. Despite this not many mobile devices currently have this installed as standard. Many are still using Android 2.0, otherwise known as Gingerbread.

It has recently been revealed that only 1.6% of Android Mobile devices come installed with Ice Cream Sandwich as standard. This means there are a lot of Android users out there that are missing out on fantastic features such as Face Unlock and Google Chrome Browser.

Only a few devices have launched with ICS as standard, one of these of course being the popular HTC One Series. It still seems that many are still launching with Gingerbread as standard though, the exact reason of this isn’t quite clear.

It seems that Google aren’t too fussed about many devices being stuck in the past. They are well into the development stages of the latest Android Operating System, Android 5.0, yet again named after a delicious food substance. This time they have opted for Jelly Bean.

Android Jelly Bean Name & Release Date

The name of the new operating system has been banded around the internet since at least September 2011, although it is not clear how the name first popped up. In fact, as of yet Google have not confirmed what the name of their device is going to be. They have given strong hints that this is the name that they intend to use though. Attendees of the Android Mobile World Congress were handed Jelly Beans as a parting gift. Of course it may be assumed that Google were dishing them out as a good will gesture, but then there is no fun in that is there?

There is currently no release date set for Jelly Bean, in fact as mentioned before this isn’t even the confirmed name. Google seem to be keeping their lips very tight although expect it to be launched sometime after autumn 2012. It seems Google have a six monthly update schedule and I don’t expect them to deviate too much from this.

Android Jelly Bean Features

True to most big software releases nowadays we really have absolutely no idea about what will be included in the latest Android Operating System. It’s not like they were handing out in depth feature lists with those Jelly Beans. The internet community has of course tried to guess a number of features that may be present in Jelly Bean; they are pretty much everywhere you turn. Some seem very plausible but others are fairly outlandish.

One of the biggest rumours is that Jelly Bean will run Windows 8, although of course this is very unlikely. The idea is that the devices would operate on a duel booting system and the user would be able to switch between the two operating systems at will. This rumour seems to have been born from the idea that people want the Android Operating System to be their standard ‘on the go’ system, but when they want to engage in a few more in depth tasks they will switch on over to Windows 8. Whilst this idea seems rather juicy it does seem fairly implausible. Although of course, stranger things have happened right? Who expected the Mac to allow Windows to be installed on it? It seems that if this does happen for whatever reason it would be an option as opposed to a feature.

One Operating System that does seem like it would converge with Jelly Bean is Chrome OS. Perhaps as a duel boot option or actually being worked into the system. This rumour was given life by previous Google Chairman Erich Schmidt who stated that the Android and Chrome OS will converge when the time is right. Maybe we can expect to see some Jelly Bean powered netbooks in the future. I for one would be excited to see that happen.

One feature that may actually be in the pipeline in Jelly Bean is a gesture like control scheme. Google have recently filed a patent which makes this technology there. For example, drawing a letter G could be used to boot up the Google Search Engine quickly and easily. I like this rumour, and I would really love to see how this is put into practice. It should be remembered though those companies file patents for all manner of reasons; one of the major reasons is to throw people off the development scent. That is why we should never look at patents as a means for determining what features may be appearing in various pieces of software.

It also believed that Google Chrome will be built into the software rather than an additional extra from Google Play, which of course will get more people using this fantastic internet browser.

Other rumours have surfaced that Google will go head to head with Apple by launching a ‘Siri’ type application, something which most android users seems to be envious of. Android users also seem to hope that there will be a better file management system built into the system as well as an increased battery life.

At the time of writing Google don’t seem to want to give any indications as to what will be included in the Jelly Bean software, expect announcements to be made in the lead up to the release date.