THE ANDROID ERA

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is rolling out,and soon Google will spill the beans on Jelly Bean.Carrying the version number 4.1,the new Android Jelly Bean is supposed to come as more of a polish to Ice Cream Sandwich,than a major game changer.Well..here I am to discuss how far the Android O.S has come and where is it going.

Google's first  Android phone, the HTC made T-Mobile G1, wasn't much to look at when it debuted in October 2008, with its trough for a keyboard and its bizarrely jutting chin. HTC was hardly a known brand, and we weren't even sure if we were getting a single Google Phone or an entire operating system. Yet the humble G1, with its ugly design and few apps, kicked off an Android avalanche just the same.

Fast forward to 2012,when the now mature Android operating system is neck and neck with
the iPhone,Android is everywhere.Yet for all the platform's success, Android is still plagued by fragmentation, by too many versions of the operating system available at the same time across handsets and carriers. Developers and the press will once again raise the hue and cry this week when Google spills the beans on its Jelly Bean OS at Google I/O. As of today, many existing Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphones are still waiting for their Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich updates, eight months after the SDK became available.

ANDROID VERSION	SDK RELEASE	NOTABLE UPDATES
1.0 (G1)	February 2008	GPS and Bluetooth (but not stereo Bluetooth)Multitasking Tight integration with Google services like Gmail, Google Maps  (with Street View), and Google Calendar Apps: Amazon MP3 Store; YouTube No Microsoft Exchange Server; no camcorder 35 apps at launch)

1.5 (Cupcake)	April 2009	Universal search box (search had been limited to the Web) Revamped Android Market: Browsing categories (Apps, Games, Downloads) and filters (Top Free, Top Paid, Just In) Camera: Toggle between camera and video modes; integrated photo gallery and camera with bulk photo deleting SDK expands support for gestures, voice-to-text
1.6 (Donut)	September 2009	Virtual onscreen keyboard Camcorder mode for recording (and watching) video Stereo Bluetooth Home screen widgets and folders Copy/paste and search within the browser Direct upload to YouTube and Picasa

2.0 (Eclair)	October 2009	Multiple user accounts Exchange support; universal e-mail inbox Quick Contact pop-up widget to launch communications with friends in the address book Search saved SMS and MMS messages Camera improvements include support for flash and digital zoom Bluetooth 2.1 Keyboard improvements: Adaptive dictionary that includes contact names in suggestions
2.1 (Eclair, second helping)	January 2010	Live wallpaper; five home screens Speech-to-text added to any text field; microphone icon for voice dictation in e-mails, texts, and so on
2.2 (Froyo)	May 2010	Speedier OS USB tethering and hot-spot support Android Market update: Batch and automatic updates; installing apps to the SD card Adobe Flash 10.1 File uploading in the browser Improved Microsoft Exchange support: security policies, global address lookup, calendar sync, remote wipe Bluetooth support for voice dialing and contact sharing

2.3 (Gingerbread)	December 2010	Redesigned copy/paste WebM video compression support NFC (near field communication) support Switch to front-facing camera from camera app Virtual keyboard shortcuts
3.0 (Honeycomb)	February 2011	3D graphics support Side-by-side browser tabs; private browsing Dual-pane modes for address book, e-mail

3.1-3.2.6 (Honeycomb)	May 2011-February 2012	Support for peripherals like keyboards and game pads Resizable widgets "Pay as you go" support for 3G, 4G tablets Various bug-fixes and enhancements
4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)	October 2011	Support for virtual buttons in addition to touch-sensitive buttons Create folders by dragging apps on top of each other A new app tray tab for thumbing through widgets Calendar app now supports pinch-to-zoom Gmail gets offline search, swiping between conversations Revamped Gmail user interface New Chrome browser syncs with your bookmarks, saves pages offline, supports 16 browser tabs More keyboard error correction, inline spell check Customizable lock screen, launcher Recent applications icon "Roboto" typeface New swipe/delete behavior Improved voice integration and copy and paste Face Unlock security feature Data Usage tracking Hide unwanted app icons Shut down apps that are using background data Native camera features include zero shutter lag, continuous focus, zoom while recording, taking a still photo while recording, panorama photos, time lapse settings 1080p recording Face detection in the camera Integrated photo editor New gallery layout, organized by location and person Phone app lets you swipe between favorite friends with integrated visual voice mail Speed up and slow down voice mails Quick message sends canned response text message when you decline a call Android Beam, an NFC feature for exchanging information between two phones by tapping them Wi-Fi Direct support

Jelly Bean (Android 4.1)

Less than a year after the Ice Cream Sandwich release, Jelly Bean -- now known to be Android 4.1 after Google ruined its own surprise -- will surely build off of Android 4.0 with incremental additions, rather than an overhaul on Ice Cream Sandwich's scale.

Rumors point to Google Chrome as the default browser, replacing the unbranded WebKit-built browser expanded on since the earliest Android days. There are also whispers of a new Google Play experience, and possibly behind-the-scenes battery management tweaks.

That was some news update about the latest developing Android OS which has been upgraded to be "Fast,flowing & Smooth" with the new version.

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