The much awaited update of Google's Android OS is now confirmed. When the images of the Google Nexus 4 Smartphone running Android 4.3 was spotted at the Thailand Mobile Expo 2013 and the images of the same floated across the web, Google's operating system became a talk of the tech town over the weekend. Once those images made their way online via the XDA Developers Forum, the rumors of the Jelly Bean update were no more seen to be fake. A lot of droid fans were expecting to hear something at the Google I/O conference earlier this month, especially because of the leaks that surfaced prior to the event, but there was no news about it. And now even if there is no official word yet from Google Inc., people are speculating that the update will come around June 10. So, what did these images have that can help us build speculations for the upcoming update? Let's find out.

The two images that are being shared has one featuring Android's standard "About phone" settings screen and the other one could be the new camera interface. Since, there were a lot of complaints regarding the AOSP camera controls when Jelly Bean 4.2 was released, this is good news that Google is working on tweaking it for better. The image suggests that there will be a new see-through action area along with a new activation ring and fresh icons for HDR, contrast, and rotation. Though most people are worried that the Android 4.3 update should be more than just camera's setting enhanced, but that's pretty much all the evidence we have right now.

It was highly possible that these images are fake, but then we have good reasons to rely on them because two different people have shared photos of what appears to be the same Nexus. Moreover, a lot was added to the credibility of this news, after a video appeared where a visitor navigated through the Android's Camera UI while going through the options of setting location, a countdown timer, picture size and scene mode. Take a look at the video below -

We are very aware that Google fanboys are expecting a lot more than this with this update. And though its all a big mystery right now, Android 4.3 may feature a support for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for conserving battery life (a much needed feature) and the OpenGL for Embedded Systems 3.0 graphics specification for advanced visual effects. We would like to know what the engineers here are expecting for their own droids. Share with us in comments.

In the first major interview since taking the place of Andy Rubin, Google executive Sundar Pichai has told Wired that making Android update process better is an area of focus for him and Android team.
“We are thinking about how to make Android handle updates better. We see ways we can do this. It’s early days. We’re talking with our partners and working our way through it,” said Pichai.
The delay in Android updates or some time the total lack of updates from the device manufacturers is a major bone of contention for the Android users around the world. Every six months, Google brings something new on the Android front, and apart from the flagship devices, all other device owners have to wait for months and sometime over a year to get these features of their phones and tablets. If Sundar Pichai can fix this, Android users will surely be a happy lot.
This Pichai interview comes just 55 hours before the start of Google I/O 2013, where Sundar will be taking the stage to reveal the progress on the Android front apart from his usual Chrome announcements. When asked about the probably announcements at the event, he said the event is going to focus on developers rather than being consumer centric. He also hinted that there aren’t going to be many launches
“It’s going to be different. It’s not a time when we have much in the way of launches of new products or a new operating system. Both on Android and Chrome, we’re going to focus this I/O on all of the kinds of things we’re doing for developers, so that they can write better things. We will show how Google services are doing amazing things on top of these two platforms,” he stated.
Rest of his interview keeps the Google line and has nothing new. He was asked about Facebook Home, his new role, Chrome – Android merging and Samsung’s dominance, but he did not say anything different from what we have been hearing from like say Eric Schmidt or Larry Page. You can read the full interview here.
Source: http://androidos.in/2013/05/android-updates-sundar-pichai/