Future of Android, Google Android 4.3 JB

Some of the statues at Google

Android has came a very long way from its humble beginnings with the T-Mobile G1 back in 2008. From the initial unsightly user interface of Android 1.5 Cupcake to the stylish UI of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. Google will release at least 1 major Android update every six to nine months. With Android 4.2 released last year at a formal Google Event, which was cancelled unfortunately due to Hurricane Sandy, it was released in a press release page on 29 October. This means that there would be an upcoming refresh to the Android ecosystem coming soon. With the upcoming Google Android and Chrome event in a few hours (24 July 2013, 9AM PT/12PM ET), we expect to see a new version of Android as well as the latest device to join the Google Nexus family

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean
It is widely believed and hope that the next major version of Android, 4.3 Jelly Bean, which is an incremental update to the existing Android 4.2 OS, will be announced at this event. Android 4.3, which has been leaked on some devices such as Nexus 4 and the Google Play Samsung Galaxy S4. Android Central has a nice video made on Android 4.3 on the Nexus 4.

And here is a review of Android  4.3 on the Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition

Some of the changes that will be coming in this new version is not really all that evident. Most of them are under-the-hood changes as well as for developers. But there are some pretty cool features arriving for end users.

Phones and Messaging

• By pressing menu in the phone app, you can now add two-second pauses in your dialling string (denoted by a comma) or longer waits (denoted with a semicolon).
• In the settings of the Phone app, you can now enable dial-pad auto complete and change the DTMF (dial tone, multi-frequency) tone lengths.

Developers

• Multiple options under "Monitoring > Profile GPU Rendering" as seen in a Google I/O Video. It lets you view a graphical representation of the time taken to generate a frame, and see whether you're hitting the 60 frames per second target. This will allow developers to create smoother applications
• New debug options for the new non-rectangular clipping feature. This is a new graphical capability for developers in Android API Level 18
• A new option to "Use experimental WebView" - this likely changes the browsing engine used to handle websites within apps, though it is currently unknown what exactly it does
• There is a button that allows you to "Revoke USB debugging authorisation". This deletes the RSA key generated for USB debugging authorisation from the device itself, which is previously done from the computer.

Under the hood

• New feature, "android.hardware.bluetooth_le" listed in the Android System Info application, which suggests that Bluetooth Low Energy support is available in Android 4.3.
• Bluetooth tethering will be available for the Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition.
• New check box under Advanced WiFi settings which allows Google's location service to scan for WiFi networks even when WiFi is turned off and not being used for wireless networking, which is likely part of Google's new approach to battery-friendly location services.

Others

• A new camera app available for all Nexus device that is currently only available on the Google Play edition of the Galaxy S4 and HTC One.
• Long, multi-word SSID names now wraps properly down to a second line in the quick-setting pull down
• When a screen shot is taken and shared via email, the Subject field is automatically populated with the date and time of the shot.

Google 2nd-gen Nexus 7
Another main feature of this event is the highly anticipated refresh of the Google Nexus 7. Its rumoured to come with the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chip (or Snapdragon 600), 7-inch display, a whooping 4GB RAM (holy!), 5MP rear camera, 2MP front facing camera as well as a 3950 MaH battery to power it. More details will come when it is officially released.

And now... Some pics of the Nexus 7 2nd gen:

So... Android users, what do you anticipate and hope for release in this Google Event? How do you feel about these 2 possible releases? Comment and discuss in the comments below!