Ultra-rugged tablet, with CAC reader, ready for the field

Most government agencies don’t require their tablets to be especially durable or tough, since the
day-to-day use of them doesn’t involve being outdoors, or in any environment where ruggedness would be necessary. But there are exceptions. First responders and other emergency personnel, such as the New York City Fire Department, need tablets that can withstand all of the abuse that their jobs will dish out.
The iX104C5-M2 from Xplore Technologies is a rugged tablet with an integrated Common Access Card (CAC) reader, so it’s set up for Defense Department authentication. With this module it measures 11.2 inches by 8.25 inches by 1.6 inches and weighs 7 pounds. Although this is significantly bigger and heavier than a typical tablet, the extra material is what makes the iX104C5-M2 as tough as it is.
We found the 10.4-inch XGA capacitive touch display to be very bright and clear. The screen could be used with either a finger or the provided pen. We were able to see what was on the screen in all but direct sunlight, and even then we were able to make things out pretty well. The Intel Core i7 processor and 4G of memory runs the Windows 7 operating system with agility, letting users run several applications at once. It has all of the expected communications and peripheral ports: two USB 2.0, VGA, RJ-45 Ethernet port, speaker/microphone and a microSD slot.
The iX104C5-M2 is one of the most rugged tablets we have reviewed. It has passed more Military Standard (MIL-STD) 810G specifications than we have seen in any device. It went the distance in the following test methods: Transit Drop, Vibration, High and Low Temperature, Thermal Shock, Blowing Rain, Blowing Sand & Dust, Humidity, Salt Fog Spray, Functional Shock, Crash Shock, Bench Shock, Altitude, Contamination by Fluids, Fungus and Solar Radiation.

It actually exceeds the specification for a few tests – for example, this tablet will withstand drops up to seven feet onto plywood and to four feet over bare concrete. In addition, it has an Ingress Protection rating of IP67, which means it is tight against any dust and can handle being submerged in a meter of water for up to 30 minutes. Although we were unable to duplicate every single MIL-STD 810G test, the iX104C5-M2 passed the ones we performed with flying colors.
Of course, what will interest agencies the most are the security features of the iX104C5-M2. Off to one side of the front of the tablet is a biometric fingerprint reader, which is a rarity in the tablet form factor. But what makes this tablet unique is the CAC reader integrated into the back. The tablet can be set up to require a swipe of the appropriate CAC before allowing access to the machine. We have seen this technology coupled with larger PCs, but it’s still pretty rare with tablets.
Xplore Technologies has set a retail price for the iX104C5-M2 of $5,299. That’s a higher price than other rugged tablets out there, but for a tablet this durable and with these security features, it is in the range of what we would consider to be the right price. This tablet would do well for any job where equipment is exposed to extremely harsh environments and DOD credentials are required.
 http://gcn.com

Mobile Hotspot

Mobile hotspots are a recent technology that allows you to connect your Internet-capable devices to the Internet through a wireless, portable device. The hotspot forms an on-the-spot Wi-Fi network, and you can connect a number of computers or gadgets to the network for simple, fast Internet access.

Mobile Hotspots: Internet On-the-Go

Hotspots can find Internet connections throughout most of the United States by using the 3G and 4G networks set up by major providers. You can use any Wi-Fi capable device with a mobile hotspot, including most laptop computers, tablets and Smartphones. To use your hotspot, you will power it on and use your computer's Wi-Fi adapter to find the network, although some providers offer small USB hotspots that connect directly to your computer.
Mobile hotspots and smart phones use the same types of data networks. 4G mobile hotspots are an especially popular option, since they offer connection speeds roughly equivalent to home broadband connections.
If you are considering a buying a 4G mobile hotspot for your next trip or vacation, here are a few important things to know before making your purchase.

Types of Mobile Data Connections

All mobile hotspots offer broadband Internet, which means that they provide a relatively fast and consistent connection. There are several types of wireless mobile network technologies, but the two most common are 3G and 4G.
These terms stand for "third generation" and "fourth generation" respectively, and they are important terms to understand when choosing a mobile hotspot. The two technologies vary in terms of speed and coverage area.
3G networks provide a consistent connection to the Internet with a minimum speed of 144 kilobits per second (Kbps). This means that you could download 18 kilobytes of information per second, equivalent to a small image or a simple web page. Most 3G networks are significantly faster, however; 144Kbps is simply a baseline for the technology.
The standards of 4G networks are a bit confusing, but on any given network, 4G speeds are generally at least twice as fast as 3G. However, it is important to note that network speeds vary from one carrier to the next. If you use AT&T, for instance, you will notice a major difference between 4G and 3G connections, but the speeds are not necessarily in line with the speeds of other providers.
4G networks are less common than 3G networks. However, wireless providers are rapidly expanding the reach of their networks, and all 4G mobile hotspot products can also access 3G. If you are interested in a 4G mobile hotspot, you should find out about average connection speeds on different networks before choosing a provider.

What is the Cost of a Mobile Hotspot?

Mobile hotspots are generally quite affordable. The basic hardware usually costs less than $150.
As for the 4G or 3G network access, pricing plans vary from one provider to the next. Generally, you will pay for a steady plan that allots a certain number of gigabytes per month. You can track your mobile data usage online to avoid going over your data limits, which could result in an overage charge. Estimate how big of a data plan you may need to support the mobile hotspot.
Several wireless providers offer pay-as-you-go wireless plans. While these generally cost more per gigabyte than monthly plans, they are better for people who will only use 4G mobile hotspots for a few days or weeks at a time.
If you work or play on-the-go or if you want an easy way to connect all of your Wi-Fi capable devices to the Internet during road trips, you should check out a few mobile hotspots. Remember to check on network technology and access speeds before you buy for the best possible results.

2G, 3G, 4G, 4G LTE – What are They

Quite simply, the “G” stands for Generation, as in the next generation of wireless technologies.  Each generation is supposedly faster, more secure and more reliable.  The reliability factor is the hardest obstacle to overcome.  1G was not used to identify wireless technology until 2G, or the second generation, was released.  That was a major jump in the technology when the wireless networks went from analog to digital.  It’s all uphill from there.  3G came along and offered faster data transfer speeds, at least 200 kilobits per second, for multi-media use and is still the standard for wireless transmissions regardless of what you here on all those commercials.  It is still a challenge to get a true 4G connection, which promises upwards of a 1Gps, Gigabit per second, transfer rate if you are standing still and in the perfect spot.  True 4G on a wide spread basis may not be available until the next generation arrives. 5G?

What are the Standards of the G's

Each of the Generations has standards that must be met to officially use the G terminology.  Those standards are set by, you know, those people that set standards.  The standards themselves are quite confusing but the advertisers sure know how to manipulate them.  I will try to simplify the terms a bit.
1G – A term never widely used until 2G was available.  This was the first generation of cell phone technology.  Simple phone calls were all it was able to do.
2G – The second generation of cell phone transmission.  A few more features were added to the menu such as simple text messaging.
3G – This generation set the standards for most of the wireless technology we have come to know and love.  Web browsing, email, video downloading, picture sharing and other Smartphone technology were introduced in the third generation.  3G should be capable of handling around 2 Megabits per second.

4G – The speed and standards of this technology of wireless needs to be at least 100 Megabits per second and up to 1 Gigabit per second to pass as 4G.  It also needs to share the network resources to support more simultaneous connections on the cell.  As it develops, 4G could surpass the speed of the average wireless broadband home Internet connection.  Few devices are capable of the full throttle yet.  Coverage of true 4G is limited to large metropolitan areas.  Outside of the covered areas, 4G phones regress to the 3G standards.  We have a ways to go.  For now, 4G is simply a little faster than 3G. 
4G LTE – Long Term Evolution – LTE sounds better.  This buzzword is a version of 4G that is becoming the latest advertised technology but still not true 4G as the standards are set.  When you start hearing about LTE Advanced and WIMAX Release 2, then we will be talking about true fourth generation wireless technologies because they are the only two formats realized by the International Telecommunications Union as True 4G at this time. 
WiMAX - Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access – should be capable of around 40 megabits per second with a range of 30 miles.  It is one of the closest technologies to meet the standards of true 4G and as it develop should surpass the 100MB/second which is the 4G standard. Mobile WiMAX allows the use of high speed data transfers and is the main competition for the 4G LTE services provided by cellular carriers.  
The major wireless networks like Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile are not actually lying to anyone about 4G, they simply stretch the truth a bit.  A 4G phone has to comply with the standards but finding the network resources to fulfill the true standard is difficult.  You are buying 4G capable devices but the network is not yet capable of delivering true 4G to the device.  Your brain knows that 4G is faster than 3G so you pay the price for the extra speed.  Marketing 101. 
Where does it go from here and why does this page exist?  Not sure where this path will lead but the reason I wrote this page was to try to understand the lingo a bit better.  I think I cleared it up for myself so I thought I would pass it along.  Hope it helps!

whatsag

The Most Important New Technology Since the Smart Phone Arrives December 2012

Even if you’ve seen the Leap Motion before, this is a demo you’ve got to watch.

By now, many of us are aware of the Leap Motion, a small, $70 gesture control system that simply plugs into any computer and, apparently, just works. If you’ve seen the gesture interfaces in Minority Report, you know what it does. More importantly, if you’re familiar with the touch modality – and at this point, most of us are – the interface is entirely intuitive. It’s touch, except it happens in the space in front of the screen, so you don’t have to cover your window into your tech with all those unsightly smudges.

By now, many of us are aware of the Leap Motion, a small, $70 gesture control system that simply plugs into any computer and, apparently, just works. If you’ve seen the gesture interfaces in Minority Report, you know what it does. More importantly, if you’re familiar with the touch modality – and at this point, most of us are – the interface is entirely intuitive. It’s touch, except it happens in the space in front of the screen, so you don’t have to cover your window into your tech with all those unsightly smudges.
To understand how subtly revolutionary Leap will be, watch the video below, shot by the folks at The Verge, where you’ll also find more juicy details on the device’s specs and inner workings

Unlike a touchscreen interface, with the Leap, there’s no friction. That sounds trivial, but it isn’t. It’s the difference between attempting to conduct a symphony with a wand and attempting to conduct the same symphony by sketching out what the orchestra should do next via chalk on a blackboard.
. Plus, Leap operates in three dimensions rather than two. Forget pinch-to-zoom; imagine “push to scroll,” rotating your flattened hand to control the orientation of an object with a full six degrees of freedom, or using both hands at once to control either end of a bezier surface you’re casually sculpting as part of an object you’ll be sending to your 3D printer.
The fact that the Leap can see almost any combination of objects - a pen, your fingers, all 10 fingers at once, should make every interface designer on the planet giddy with anticipation. If you thought that the touchscreen interface on the iPhone and subsequent tablets opened up a whole new way to interact with your device, imagine something that combines the intuitiveness of that experience with the possibility of such fine-grained control that you could do away with the trackpad or mouse entirely.
The number of emergent properties that are inherent in an interface like Leap is mind-boggling. In their demos, its creators are fairly casual about its potential, preferring to show off its precision rather than imagine radical new applications for it. Judging by Leap Motion’s indications that it’s going to open an app store just for Leap, it’s clear they’re aiming these demos at least in part at the developers who will see the technology’s potential and, like the thousands of coders who poured countless hours of effort into the iOS App store, create a panoply of applications so desirable that the Leap will become a must-have.

 technologyreview.com

 

10 Tips for a Better Facebook Experience

1. Choose a good picture

While you can upload and tag as many pictures of yourself as you want, you only have one profile photo, so make it a good one. While it might entertain some of your closer friends to post a picture of your cat or an image of Superman, the joke (if there ever was one) soon wears thin. Put your best face forward and have people say: “Wow, she looks good!”

2. Keep your profile updated

Like your main photo, your profile says a lot about you. Make it honest but interesting, and keep it updated. One of the best ways to get in touch with old friends is by posting your education and work experiences. And although you don’t have to get into your favorite quotations (never quite understood that one!), people will pay attention to your activities, your current interests, and even your favorite music and/or TV shows.

3. It’s not a popularity contest!

Facebook is not 9th grade (unless you’re a 9th grader!). You aren’t competing to prove you are the most popular kid in school. Don’t friend every random person you can find or everyone that shows up on the People You May Know feature....or feel inadequate if you “only” have 40 friends. Facebook truly is about quality over quantity and unless you can devote every waking hour to the site, having 300+ friends probably says more about your lack of discrimination than your popularity!

4. It’s OK to say no….really!

This is the other side of #3. If you get a friend request from a random stranger, or from someone you hardly know, or someone you don’t want to share your online life with, then it’s OK to say no. Facebook makes it easy for you: if you ignore a friend request, nothing is reported and no-one is any the wiser.

5. Use the privacy settings

Facebook has devoted much time and effort in developing a comprehensive set of privacy settings that can be customized to the nth degree. Use them. You may want to control what people see when they search for you, or you might want to restrict which friends can see tagged photos of you. The privacy settings can take care of this. Similarly, if you are tired of being constantly notified about trivial status updates and wall posts, then you can control that too.

6. Friend your family

One of the most rewarding aspects of Facebook is its ability to draw families closer together and help them share news that usually gets relegated to the once-a-year holiday letter. Friend those fun cousins in Texas that you only get to see at weddings and funerals, or the aunt that was so good to you when you were a kid. Hey – you might even be able to friend your kids as they get older! This time not to keep an eye on them but instead to find out how life on campus is working out.

7. Use wall posts

Don’t just message people, otherwise you might as well stick to e-mail! Use the wall posts and share it with everyone! The wall post is the true essence of Facebook. Someone’s birthday? Post a Happy Birthday on their wall. Your friend just got a promotion? Use his wall to congratulate him. Having a great vacation in Hawaii? Post it on your wall and make ‘em all jealous!

8. Don’t poke!

Or at least not until you know what it means! The poke still remains a mystery to most Facebook users. When you poke someone, you don’t get to say what the poke is about, and the recipient just gets a message telling them they have been poked. Okay…… Perhaps the poke is a hangover from the days when Facebook was regarded as a student dating site. That might explain the Facebook group called: “Enough With The Poking, Let’s Just Have Sex”!

9. Tag photos

If the wall post is the heartbeat of Facebook, then photos are the smile. Photos make Facebook fun and will bring your page alive. The more photos you post, the more people will connect with you. Also, learn how to tag photos – that’s adding names to the faces in the pictures. It’s easy and it's the best way to send the pics to people in the photos. But be nice. Only post and tag photos that you think the person would be happy to have circulated to their Facebook friends!

10. Careful with the kids

If you have teenage children and are lucky enough to friend them on Facebook, tread very carefully. You might see some things that you are tempted to comment on, either on Facebook itself or face-to-face offline. But unless it’s a case of cyberbullying, or someone is putting themselves in danger, or the behavior is totally inappropriate, be careful not to overreact. To most teenagers, their Facebook profile and how they are perceived online by their friends is extremely important to them. It would be very uncool to have a parent jump in with critical remarks. Feel fortunate that you have a trusting enough relationship with your child to get friended in the first place and enjoy it for as long as it lasts!

thanks for Monica Vila

Tips and Tricks for Making Animated Gif Avatars

1. Necessary Software
I use Jasc's Paint Shop Pro and its included Animation Shop program for all of the heavy lifting. I know that PhotoShop and Image Ready are alternatives (and there are others). If I do not have access to an avi or mpeg file for the raw material which will be used in creating the avatar, I use PowerDVD to grab DVD frames.
2. The Raw Material
If you want to use a movie clip for your raw material, you need to have a keen eye for a clip that will look good when looped. A choppy and readily noticeable loopback (IMHO) detracts from the avatar's impact. Some clips may look good when looped without any modification.
If I am working with raw material from a widescreen movie, I just work with the frames in their original widescreen format. It's easy to resize the animation to TXB's requirements later in the process (discussed below).
Of course, you don't have to use movie clips to have a cool animated avatar. See TFX's, SaveTheDay7's, Candypants' and Tony Montana's avatars for examples.
3. The Aesthetics of Looping
Others may require some tricks, such as a well timed flash of light at the loop (see Bucket's Matrix avatar or Lifthz's Arwen avatar) or you may be able to reverse the sequence of frames so that you go from A to B to C to B to A. I did that with my original pulsing, glowing Loc Nar avatar and I think Lifthz' Arwen avatar incorporates some of that, though it is hard to spot (which is good). Also, image transition effects such as morph, fade, and dissolve work well to hide looping or ease frame transition.
I'm sure there are countless other ways to disguise looping, and I'd like to hear other suggestions. The workarounds are limited only by your creativity. For example, I recently made Fry's Family Guy t.v. avatar and struggled with a way to handle the looping of the extended cartoon clip. I finally decided that I would make it look like the t.v. was "stuck" and repeatedly cuing up the scene, like you can do with a dvd AB playback routine. I made a glowing button and stuck it on the t.v. and made it blink as if it were resetting the scene at the end of it.
4. Display Timing
I have discovered through trial and error that IE6 can only display an animated gif avatar at a speed of 10/100ths of a second per frame or slower. IIRC, movies are encoded at 24 frames per second. I used PowerDVD to step through the scene and grab the frames for my Balrog Emoting avatar. When I made the avatar using each frame that comprised the scene, it ran in slow motion. Animation Shop allows you to preview your animated gif in a web browser so that you can see what it will look like in practice (which would be identical to how it would appear here at TXB's forums). I'm sure other animation programs would let you do such a preview. So, to get my Balrog avatar to run at near film speed, I simply eliminated all of the even numbered frames. That got the speed to twelve frames per second. The best IE6 can do is 10 frames per second, so that's close enough for most purposes.
Display timing is also critical for aesthetic purposes. Slowing or speeding up the display time of the frames in your avatar can have a huge impact. Back to the Family Guy t.v. avatar I made for Fry, I simply had the t.v. dark screen frame hang for 2-3 seconds before it recycled and kicked back on.
5. Work with Multiple Copies of your Animated Gif
Animation Shop allows me to make multiple duplicates of the animation I am working on. I've found it saves a lot of your trial and error time to immediately make a duplicate of your imported raw material and work with the duplicate. Then, anytime you make significant progress and want to try out a new path with the animation, make another duplicate and continue with the duplicate. That way, it's easy to go back to an earlier stage if you wish to abandon your latter stage. I just think of them as saved games.
6. Thoughts on the Image Size of the Avatar
The maximum image size of a TXB avatar is 100 by 100 pixels.
If you really want a widescreen avatar and your raw material is a widescreen movie, you can just resize the animation to 100 pixels wide with the "keep aspect ratio" box checked and you will be good to go. But that's not always the best looking solution.
You might instead have widescreen raw material, but all the action you want in your avatar is in the middle. To focus on the middle and increase the size of the avatar to use all of the available 100 by 100 pixel box, you can simply use the cropping tool to draw a perfect square box (it does not matter what size as long as it is a perfect square, e.g. 434 x 434 pixels - it has to be square so that the end size of 100 x 100 does not distort the images) around the first frame in the series which will define the area for the entire avatar. In Animation Shop, when I draw the box around the first frame, it automatically draws the same box in the same spot on the other frames.
Once you draw this box, you can use the move tool to get it just where you want. When you do that, you can then use the slider to run your animation manually so that you can see how the animation will play in the box you have defined. When you do this, you may see that you need to make minor adjustments in the box location.
You might also see that the box is great for most frames but not all, which may require you to manually slide some of the frames with action outside the box so that their action falls in the box. The backdrop of the frame in Animation Shop is a checkerboard, which can be easily used to gauge your slide points so that you slide all related frames over the same distance when necessary.
Once you are satisfied that all of the action is in your defined box, just double click the crop tool. Now, you will have a perfectly square avatar. You then can resize it to 100 x 100 pixels without causing any distortion in the picture.
7. Optimizing the File Size of Your Avatar
A TXB avatar must be less at or than 122880 bytes. It's very easy to be over that mark with your initial work.
The program I use, Animation Shop, has an extensive optimization wizard to guide you through the process of optimizing your animated gif to reduce its file size. You can play around with different settings to try to preserve the best image quality while still getting it under the file size cap. Also, you can't always trust what your animation program reports as the size of the file. I always go into My Computer to check the file properties to make sure I know the exact size of the file.
If even after running the optimization program you are over the size limit, you need to eliminate some frames. Some tricks to hiding that are to see if you can eliminate redundant images by freezing a frame for an extended period. For example, in Fry's avatar referenced above, there was a scene where a grappling hook latches onto a light fixture. Once the hook grabbed, there were a number of redundant frames to show that the hook was solidly on. I eliminated all those and just held the one frame showing the grab for a second or two by changing the display timing of that frame. If you used transition effects, you can shorten those by reducing the number of frames in the transition. These are hard choices, but in the ones I've worked on, a suitable solution eventually presented itself through trial and error (which again makes those duplicate animation sets handy).
8. Get Feedback
Once you've got the avatar at the acceptable size limits and you're happy with it, go to the Rate The Avatar thread here and rate the one above you so that someone can come along and rate yours and, hopefully, provide some useful feedback. Finally, don't be afraid to ask questions and have fun!
9. If you get stuck, search the web or ask here at TXB
If you get stuck, you can ask your question on the TXB Website and Graphics forum, but don't forget about a google or yahoo search for "animated gif" and "tutorial" and the software program you are using. You'll get a lot of hits.
10. Share Your Knowledge
If you learn or already know a nifty new shortcut, technique or tip not covered above, post it here

Corel PaintShop Pro X5 SP1 v15.1.0.10

 In an exploding digital imaging market, Paint Shop Pro Photo rises above the rest. With the unparalleled power of Automated Productivity Scripts™ and Dynamic Personalization™, Paint Shop Pro Photo increases productivity and enhances workflow like no other digital imaging software on the market. Paint Shop Pro Photo is your complete solution for print and Web. Paint Shop Pro Photo, a part of the Paint Shop family of digital imaging and photography products, is the most complete, easy-to-use software for creating professional digital imaging results. By combining automatic and precision tools with an integrated learning system, Paint Shop Pro Photo helps you produce professional results with power and ease. Filled with one-of-a-kind photo tools sure to please even the most discerning photographer, Corel® Paint Shop Pro® Photo is the ideal choice for people who want extraordinary photos.

Corel® PaintShop Photo™ Pro X3 gives you the power to easily organize, edit and share professional-quality photos—fast. Ideal for DSLR cameras, it combines photo organization, easy batch processing, creative projects, sharing, and now HD video slideshows and a new 

 RAW Lab

Loc Nar teamxbox.com

free download

Google Android 4.1 Jelly Bean vs Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

Android, an open-source Operating System, is the biggest thing ever happened to Mobility Platform Market since its launch. Over the last few of days, rumor mills about Google‘s unannounced Operating System, Android 4.2 Key Lime Pie are spinning furiously. According to the few reports, we have deduced that Android 4.2 will just be an iterative update to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, just like Android Jelly Bean update over powerful Ice Cream Sandwich a.k.a Android 4.0, in terms of speed and smoothness
Google recently released an incremental version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich – Android 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is launched with new features coupled with lots of exciting up-gradations, which makes us to compare the two. So what exactly is the difference between the two. To check, we’ve formulated this post to compare the features of both Android Operating Systems, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
Android 4.1 is faster, smoother and looks nicer than any earlier Android releases. However, you won’t find too many visual differences on the home-screen of Jelly Bean as Google has kept the basic look and feel of ICS. But there are lots of significant fine tunes and refinements. Before we start, there is an important thing we got to discuss here – Project Butter.

Why Project Butter

Prior to Jelly Bean, Android lacks smoothness and responsiveness when compared with iPhone and high-end Windows Phone to some extent. Project Butter is the Google’s effort to get rid of such performance issues and make Jelly Bean fast, fluid, and smooth. Jelly Bean’s “Project Butter” helps in improving graphics rendering at 60 frames per second, for which it extends vsync timing across all drawing and animation within the Android Framework. Google says, “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.” Jelly Bean also adds triple buffering in the graphics pipeline, with which it reduces touch latency. Interesting fact is that it predicts your next touch at the time of the screen refresh, which ensures more reactive and uniform touch response and while, you touch after periods of inactivity, it boosts CPU input to max at the next touch event to ensure minimal or no latency.

Google Now and Voice Search

Google Now is one of the highlights of Jelly Bean. Google Now can be quickly accessed by swiping up from the system bar. Google Now is more of a Search Application in Jelly Bean with a new look-and-feel, and faster and improved natural voice search engine. It produces more relevant and richer search results based on the Knowledge Graph. In Contrast, Voice Search also works locally without any data connection and while, no internet connection is there (as in flight mode), voice and word processing is done by processor itself. Additionally, Google Now allows to choose and customize beautiful cards which appears throughout the day and as a notification when they’re important. As of now, the App only supports one language, that’s US English, but it would support as many as 18 languages in future, according to Google’s announcement.

Re-sizable Widgets

Google has done major improvements to Customizable home-screens in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. While with Android 4.0 ICS, you have to struggle with your widgets to fit in the screen, but with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, widgets are easier to move and re-size; when you place a widget on the screen, home-screen automatically adopts the placement and re-sizing of the widget according to your finger’s movements. And widgets can be removed very easily by switching to edit mode and swiping up and off the home-screen.

Expandable Notifications

The expandable notification has got a major update – larger applications display, richer user notifications and new content support. As they are expandable, you can dive more into the notification just with a pinch or swipe. So, you can have a brief view about your notification, without having to dealt with the original App. You can organize the way your notifications appear using 3 templated notification styles – BigTextStyle, BigInboxStyle and BigPictureStyle, while developers have the option to build custom notification styles anytime.

Smarter Predictive Keyboard and Offline Text-To-Speech

Google has pitched new prediction Algorithms into Jelly Bean and the result is more predictive keyboard. Jelly Bean’s keyboard looks pretty similar to Ice Cream Sandwich’s, but the dictionaries are now more accurate and more relevant. The keyboard’s internal model learns over the time and suggests words before you type them using bigram prediction and correction. The platform has an improved offline text-to-speech feature, making voice typing on Android even more better, without any data connection. The stock Keyboard is available in more than 20 languages with a dedicated selection key that helps in switching the languages quickly.

Better Offline Maps

With Offline Maps, you can now save maps to the device storage and access them when you don’t have data connection. You need to select a square area in the map that you want to cache in the memory and you can access that in the area with poor signal strength. However, there is a limitation for caching the maps, according to Engadget, “In our testing, we found it possible to download around 80MB of maps before running into a “This section is too large to download” error, which makes itself known even when connected to WiFi.”

New Connectivity Options

Apart from standard Connectivity options we had in ICS, Jelly Bean comes with an updated version of Android Beam which now allows you to pair a phone with an NFC-enabled Bluetooth device, instead of tapping two phones together. In addition to sharing contacts, web pages, YouTube videos, directions, and apps, the new version supports images, videos, or other multimedia stuffs by leveraging Bluetooth for the data transfer.

Wrapping up, Jelly Bean is the smoother and faster version of ICS or any other Android yet and it surely comes as a big, big competitor to iPhone and Windows devices. Jelly Bean comes with plenty of new features that makes it a clear winner over Ice Cream Sandwich. The only dilemma is the availability of Jelly Bean update on majority of Android devices in the crowd. That’s that, what’s your view? Which feature you liked the most

thanks a lot to Mr smart brain

Steve Johnson

http://www.pc-tablet.com