Google has today announced the long awaited Jelly Bean update 4.3. It will be Shipped with the new Nexus 7 and brings a number of fresh new features.
Google is starting us off with a new set of multi-user settings, including restricted profiles for the junior members of your family. That means you can restrict app content at a user level — the example offered by Hugo Barra is to allow only a select number of puzzles within a game to his son’s profile, preventing the younger Barra from making ill-advised app purchases or accessing content his father doesn’t deem suitable. This looks to provide essentially the same functionality as Microsoft’s Kid’s Corner in Windows Phone.
Another feature is Bluetooth Smart, aka Bluetooth Low Energy, which is joined by OpenGL ES 3.0 support, which Hugo Barra rightly identifies as “a big deal for game developers.” Lens flares, reflections, much more sophisticated shadows than we’ve previously seen in Android games — Google’s demo of the new OpenGL promises to finally capitalize on all the powerful multicore processors cropping up in Android devices lately.
Android 4.3 Jelly Bean will be rolled out to the Nexus 4, Nexus 10, first-gen Nexus 7, and the Galaxy Nexus starting today, with the HTC One and Galaxy S4 Google Editions getting it ASAP.
