Google fattens up Android devs with Jelly Bean sauce

Google will release the latest official build of its Android mobile operating system, version 4.1, to developers today. The web giant will parcel up the source code, codenamed Jelly Bean, ahead of the rollout later this month.

Jean-Baptiste Queru, the tech lead on the Android Open Source Project, announced the release on its Google Groups page.

"We're releasing Android 4.1 in AOSP [Android Open Source Project] today," he wrote, adding:

The name of the tagged release is android-4.1.1_r1.

The name of the development branch is jb-dev.

We recommend that you create new clients, even if you're working in the master branch. It'll make your clients smaller and faster to sync.

Proprietary binaries are available for Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus. Nexus S and Xoom will follow.

The new build is described as faster and smoother than 4.0 with a new search feature. Described as having "buttery graphics and silky transitions", 4.1 achieves these effects by synchronising all graphics plotting on the mobile device using a precision timer:

To ensure a consistent framerate, Android 4.1 extends vsync timing across all drawing and animation done by the Android framework. Everything runs in lockstep against a 16 millisecond vsync heartbeat — application rendering, touch events, screen composition, and display refresh — so frames don’t get ahead or behind.

It also includes features such as boosting the CPU performance when you touch the screen, new voice search and "actionable" notifications that can include pictures and other media. ®