Jelly Bean may not be the same huge leap forward as Ice Cream Sandwich, but it still brings a lot of new features and functionality to the operating system.
Many
of these are improvements to the smoothness of rendering on the device -
it even briefly boosts the CPU when the screen's turned on to make
things super slick and speedy. Google dubs these little performance and
software improvements as being "buttery", assumedly referring to some
nice spreadable Lurpak rather than a solidified hunk of congealed milk.
The other big addition here is Google Now.
This adds personalised recommendations and information based on your
browsing history. Some people love its perceptive usefulness, others
hate its pervy, intrusive nature.
One thing's for sure though: the Siri-like voice search feature is awesome.
As ever, these tips are based on the vanilla installation of Android, so
your mileage may vary depending on how many layers of extra "features"
have been added by your phone or tablet's manufacturer.
1. Say "Google" to search
If you're in America, you can open Google Now and say "Google" followed
by your query to search the net. If you're not in America, you can trick
Android into thinking you are. Open the settings on your device, choose
"Language and input", then switch Google Voice Typing's language from
"Automatic" to "English (US)". Next go to Google Now's settings and
again change the language to "English (US)". You should see "Search or
say Google" in Now's search bar. Faking an American accent: optional.
2. Now settings
You can open now in two ways - either swipe up from the Home icon, or
swipe the lock icon up when the screen is locked. When you first start
it, Now will run through the basics of what it does, and even show you
some example cards. In Now's settings, you'll find each card has its own
notifications settings, which apply to both the Now homescreen and the
Notification shade. Standard means that new cards are accompanied by a
ringtone and vibration, Low priority places them at the bottom of the
list without any notification, and off, well, turns them off altogether.
3. Talk to Google Now
Google Now also includes Siri-like functionality, supplying spoken
answers to your inane questions. Try things like, "what time is it in
Kuala Lumpur?", "when's Tom Cruise's birthday I want to send him a
card?", "how do I get home?" or "will it be sunny tomorrow?" and Now
will speak the answer back at you or search the web for relevant pages.
4. Get more Google Now cards
Google Now presents relevant information such as weather and places on
"cards". To begin with it may be a little sparse, but searching the web
from any device will give you more. Just make sure your web history is
enabled: visit history.google.com, hit the settings cog and ensure that
Web History is on and not paused. Next, search Google for favourite
football teams, planned flights and destinations and the relevant cards
will pop up automatically.
5. Notification Shade
We previously referred to it as the
"pully-down menu thing", but apparently it's officially called the
"Notification Shade". Niftily, certain notifications in the shade can be
expanded by sliding two fingers outwards on them, giving you an
overview of the subject headers in your email inbox, for example. Moving
two fingers inwards on a notification neatly contracts them, too.
6. Rotation lock
You're sitting on a plane watching a vid in
horizontal orientation. Suddenly, the plane banks sharply to the left
and - oh no! - the video changes orientation. This worst-case-scenario
can be avoided by tapping the rotation lock in the Notification Shade,
which keeps the screen in its current orientation. Tap it again to
unlock the rotation.
7. Turn notifications off
Install enough apps and the
notification bar at the top of your Android device becomes the digital
equivalent of an unending stream of ticker tape. In fact, Airpush is an
entire advertising company that makes money in this way. Fortunately,
each and every app you install in Jelly Bean has the option to turn this
off. Go to its info page under Apps, uncheck the box labelled "Show
notifications" and enjoy your empty notifications bar.
8. Equalize your music
The ability to adjust those
all-important bass and treble settings has been sorely missed on Android
devices - so much so that a bunch of apps have been made to enable it.
It's fixed in Android's stock music player, though. Open a music file in
the stock player, hit Settings then choose Equaliser. Here you'll find
manual sliders, a load of presets and bass and 3D effects. Unfortunately
it doesn't work for the whole device, but it will give your tunes a
little more oomph.
9. Rearrange your home screens
Long-press on any icon or
widget on your homescreen and you can move it around, and other icons
and widgets will shift out of the way to fit it in. Bigger widgets can
also be resized by long-pressing and releasing them, and then dragging
the circles that appear on the edges. It's actually quite fun and
satisfying. We just spent three hours doing nothing but this.
10. Fling to remove
Homescreen app clutter (surely the worst
of all types of clutter) can be quickly and easily defeated. Long-press
an icon or widget, then fling it upwards and it'll ascend into shortcut
heaven. This won't uninstall the app, though - it'll still reside in
your app drawer.
11. Owner info
Wait! Put down that blunt rock you were about
to use to chisel your contact details into the back of your Android
device! Jelly Bean includes the ability to display a few lines of
contact details on the lock screen, such as your email address, name and
phone number. You'll need to enable a screen lock from Security, and
then you'll see the Owner info option appear. This information is
mirrored across all Jelly Bean devices, too.
12. Access App info
The all-important App info screen - which
allows you to uninstall, stop and disable apps - can be accessed in a
completely new way with Jelly Bean. Pull down the notification shade,
long-press on an open task and you'll be taken straight to the settings
page for the relevant app. It's handy if you don't know which app
displayed the notification.
13. Volume controls
You can now set the volume for all the
noisiest bits of your Android device individually. Press the volume up
or down key and you'll the familiar little slider with a settings icon
to the right of this. Tap this and you'll see separate sliders for
media, and notifications and ringtones. Bonus tip: each of these sliders
can be, er, slid, with your finger.
14. Talkback
Designed for blind and low-vision users,
Talkback provides an ongoing narration of what's displayed on your phone
or tablet. You can turn it on via Accessibility, and then you'll be
taken through a tutorial of its functions. It's a very different way of
navigating your device, and quite interesting to experience. It also
supports braille input and output devices via USB and Bluetooth.
15. Blink to unlock
While face unlock is smart and quick,
more paranoid users may worry that a ne'er-do-weller could somehow steal
an image of their face - or their actual face - and use it to access
the device. Android's Liveness check requires the user to blink before
the device is unlocked, preventing access if a quick eye-shut isn't
detected.
