Android 4.2 Update Review

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Yeah, just looking at the header can describe my purpose on writing this article. It's about the latest update of Android, version 4.2 still using codename Jellybean. Google released in 13^th November 2012, it's a really quick update made by Google (they released 4.1 in July 2012). That's why I just love Android so much, you can't get it from Apple. The updates included are:

• Multiple users (only available on tablets)
• Daydream
• Magnification gestures
• Photo sphere camera
• New keyboard with gesture typing
• New lockscreen with widget support
• Brand new notification bar with quick settings
• Brand new clock app with world clock, stopwatch and timer integration
• Wireless display
• Premium SMS confirmation
• Google apps updates like Gmail, Google Now, etc
• And many more

Those updates were great, but not all. Not all people like them, some of the changes were made caused by Apple's patents (they are such a pain in the ass). That's why this article was made, to make a review on this updates on "my point of view". I'll review them one by one, and I'm now using a custom ROM called FNV (thanks to DaXmax on XDA), that means some pictures posted by me may not be the same like you seen on stock Android ROM (another thing that won't be happening on Iphone). Please feel free to comment here.

Multiple Users

This update can only be used on tablets, it's because of Google wants to avoid Nokia's patent (they already got multiple attacks from Apple, so they learned from experience lol). And because I don't own any tablet, so I can't give any review here. But I believe we will all get this feature on phones by custom roms, some developers already working on it, you can see it on XDA (this is why I love Android even more and Apple sucks).

Daydream

One of my favorite update, this update brings some visual magics on your phone. You can activate it by going to Settings>Display>Daydream. Activating it makes your phone display something like BeanFlinger, Clock, Photo Frame, Photo Table (maybe will have something else in the future on custom ROMs) when your phone is charging or docked. But this feature got some bugs right now, like clicking setting button on Clock will give a force close, fixed by Cyanogenmod devs already but they haven't release their CM10.1 yet.

Magnification Gesture

This update adds another option in Accessibility Settings, enabling it gives you gesture feature everywhere on your screen (except on keyboard and nav bar). Triple-tapping the screen to zoom in and out, etc (see it in the screenshot below).

Photo-Sphere Camera

Yeah, this is my most favorite feature ever. It lets you take a 3D picture with your camera (people said it's a clone on Microsoft's Photosynth that I don't ever know what that is lol). Besides that, the new camera app also have some changes like new UI, auto focus without clicking on the screen, pinch to zoom, etc.

It's a 3D view but I can't make a screenshot on the whole image, just a part of it :)

The new settings come out when u slide your finger a little on the screen, also you can pinch to zoom in or out

New Keyboard

The newest keyboard from Android now can act just like Swype on Samsung's devices, but I find it better than Swype (I used it only for 10 minutes of testing lol). I never used any keyboard from stock anyway, can't stop using custom keyboard that supports autotext and theme. So this update does nothing for me. (another Android strength that Iphone users can't experience).

It's typed by using gesture, but I can't screenshot the way it gesture :)

New Lockscreen

Another new lockscreen from Google to avoid Apple's patent "unlocking the device with a predefined pattern". So, the newest lockscreen now using something like Android v3.0 Honeycomb (you can unlock by swiping anywhere in the circle). And to avoid Android users getting mad (maybe), Google adds another feature to the lockscreen, “widgets on lockscreen”. You can swipe your lockscreen to the right to get the widget picker. Currently supported widgets are Calendar, Clock, Gmail, and Messaging. Some apps already implement this feature in their apps. Because of that Apple's patent thing, the camera shortcut changed to the right (swiping lockscreen to the left brings it). And the “Google Now” shortcut is now in the bottom of the unlock circle. The “JoJo” in the screenshot below is from the custom ROM I use, I don't know if stock ROM has this setting or not as I haven't tried it).

Lockscreen widgets, Falcon Widget is from a custom apps

New Notification Bar

On Android 4.1, Google had some changes in the notification bar and added support for actionable notifications on it (pinching out the notification brings some options without having to open the app). And now on 4.2, Google has improved this feature, now with even more apps. And that's not all, it also include quick settings (something we used to have from custom ROMs and apps that Android never support it before). This is really a good update, but they done it not so good. Those toggles are not even toggles like we used to have in custom ROMs out there. For example, clicking at the wifi take you to the wifi settings instead of toggling wifi on and off. But, developers from XDA already made the “fixes” that you can see it here.

New Notification Bar

Quick Settings in the notification drawer

New Clock

The new clock now has some new UI changes that I feel quite good. And it also add home timezone options that will show you two clocks when you are away from your timezone. Swiping to the right brings in the countdown timer and to the left brings the stopwatch.

New clock UI

Wireless Display

Android 4.2 allows devices to enable wireless display. You can share movies, YouTube videos, and anything that’s on your screen on an HDTV. Just connect a wireless display adapter to any HDMI-enabled TV to mirror what’s on your screen quickly and easily. (copy it from Android website, don't know what this is as I don't own any hi-tech TV lol)

Premium SMS Notification

This is just a minor feature that asks you whether you want to send a message that may cost you money or not.

Google Apps updates

Gmail now supports pinch to zoom, improvement on Google Now, etc. I don't really care about these.

And Many More

New recents apps now has different UI, displaying all apps including your currently used app (don't know if 4.1 has it because I used custom ROMs too much lol), new camera sound, new screenshot sound, etc.

That's all I know about the newest update, also there are some bugs found in this update, like the missing December in Contacts app (Google promised there will be a quick update to 4.2.1 to fix this bug), some apps force closing issues, battery drain (something I noticed), slow charging (this one really bothering me so much), custom reboots (lots of people experienced it but I don't), etc. People from XDA also said that this release is the most buggy release ever since Honeycomb. But I believe the fixes will come soon, so I don't really worried it so much

No December after November bug

This review is made based on my experience from using it for a week on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus. That's all and thank you, also please forgive me if I'm wrong in some of my words and leave comments below before leaving this article. :)