Android 4.2 announcement is just around the corner if rumours circling around the web are to be believed. While many Android devices lag behind in getting the latest OS updates (Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) and Jelly Bean are still not available on a huge majority of devices), Google is going to reveal a new version of Android very soon.
Rumoured new features in Android 4.2 include a Customisation Center, improved Google Now, Project Roadrunner for improved battery life, Google Play updates and a completely revamped video player. Check out the details of each feature after the break!
Rumored Android 4.2 Features:
Customisation Center: There could be a new Customisation Center in Android 4.2 to allow users to change the look of their Android device with ease. If this feature is included, it would be helpful for OEM’s too as they can build their skins in and publish them on the device via Customisation Center without touching the stock UI. So in case users are not happy with custom manufacturer UI, they can simply revert to stock UI. Although, it is highly likely that the skins would still be locked to the OEM devices – e.g. HTC wouldn’t want users to use Sense UI on non-HTC devices for obvious reasons.
Improved Google Now: Google Now is expected to get a major update to allow users better control of their Android devices. In Android 4.2, users might be able to instruct Now to control brightness, turn on and off system functions and do much more to make life easy for newbie users.
Project Roadrunner: Google is reportedly working on a new feature called Project Roadrunner to enable better battery life. We have seen Google introducing Project Butter in Android 4.1 to increase the speed Android devices and the results have been amazing to say the least. It has given a whole new level of performance boost that users didn’t have before on their hardware. So, expect something similar from Project Roadrunner as well.
Improved Google Play: Google Play might also get a major update in Android 4.2 by giving users bundle of new features like personalised search, notification center integration, more billing options and easier in-app purchases.
Improved Video Player: The build in Android video player might be getting a complete overhaul and is expected to provide new API’s to let other services hook in. This might allow developers to create codec packs to enabled video playback of any file type out there if the rumours are correct.
These are some of the rumoured features which folks over at AndroidandMe expect to be included in upcoming Android 4.2. If these rumours are true, Google has plenty of changes lined up for next version of their mobile OS making it a very serious update despite the point difference in version number.
It is worth mentioning that LG Nexus might be the first Android device to run Android 4.2. You can find more details about LG Nexus here.
3 comments