Owning a rooted Galaxy Nexus has its benefits.

After Google dished out some devices at I/O preloaded with Android 4.1, the developing community has went crazy and successfully extracted this OS for download.

A quick look at RootzWiki or XDA Developers and you will find endless posts filled with download links for Jelly Bean.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1737849  This is the link i used.

Jelly Bean still has the potential to be altered slightly prior to release but this leaked version will probably encompass most of what the new software has to offer.

Below are a couple of the subtle differences in the software. As you can see the Notification Bar is different with a lot more neat approach, also including a settings toggle. The icon on the right also acts as a “dismiss all” sort of function, removing any notifications.

You can also see the lock screen is slightly different with an added shortcut for “Google Now” at the top position, and a new animation.

As well as a new search bar along the top the homescreens look very much the same, the image on the left shows what happens when you swipe up from the shortcut keys, this again gives a shortcut to “Google Now”.

A lot of the Google based apps have also had UI (user interface) overhauls. The most noticable for me was that of Youtube, this app looks completely different and has taken a step in the right direction as far as im concerned.

Google Now is one of the main differences for this new update. This would take a post in itself to give it the attention it deserves, its effectively the competitor for Siri. The video below gives a good starting idea to its capabilities

Putting aside the visual changes of the OS, the performance changes are what sets it apart. The “buttery smooth” like feel that google promised feels like it has been achieved with multi tasking, typing and even the stock launcher feeling far smoother and faster. Other articles have benchmarked the update to see what the numbers look like but dont look to have got much benefit from it, this is something that is incredibly easy to see on the every day use of the device.

To summarise, the quicker the full Jelly Bean OTA update is released the better.
The improvements that have been made have built on the solid foundations that were achieved on the release of Ice Cream Sandwich

Jelly Bean ! Android 4.1, first thoughts !.