New Features of Android 4.3 Detailed on Video Including Massive Battery Life Boost

dgstorm

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Jan 5, 2011
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The folks at PocketNow have a video up detailing a ton of new features and improvements on Android 4.3. The video uses a Nexus 4 equipped with the new OS from Google, and amongst the many new features comes a huge battery life improvement. Read on and check out the video to find all the details.
  1. Auto-complete in the Dialer - this is a clever function that makes you wonder why they haven't thought of it before. The Android 4.3 stock dialer has been upgraded to include auto-complete within the dialer itself to help you get the right number more quickly. It's important to note that some devices have this function already, but that was thanks to the specific OEM. Stock Android didn't have that feature until now.
  2. New Emoji Keyboard - Google included a this new keyboard as an option for all those super-texters out there who like to add the context of "tone of voice/facial expressions" to their messages with more cute emoticons. To get to it from the messaging app you need to long-press on the space bar.
  3. Bluetooth 4.0 LE - This is one we heard about previously, but it's still pretty cool regardless. The newest version of Bluetooth promises much better power efficiency, and should drain your battery far less. This new version also includes a greater range of compatible devices. (This wasn't truly confirmed in the video, but the Bluetooth SIG has confirmed it.)
  4. Improvements in the Camera App - "The camera in Android 4.3 fine-tunes the way the previous version worked by placing the items in an arc with the selected item clearly called out above your finger. Also, rotating the device from portrait to landscape and back while in camera mode is now almost instantaneous."
  5. Better Performance - Apparently, the Nexus 4 is a great deal more responsive when using Android 4.3. It wasn't really sluggish before, but supposedly the difference is noticeable. This is borne out in synthetic benchmarks as well.
  6. Significantly Improved Battery Life - Normally with this phone, Android 4.2 offers about 4-6 hours of heavy use before you need to recharge. With Android 4.3, the user was supposedly able to jump that all the way up to 25+ hours!
It's exciting to think that software tweaks could result in such dramatic improvements. We probably should remain a bit skeptical, but that should only temper our excitement a little bit.

Luckily, we are likely to hear all about Android 4.3 tomorrow during Sundar Pichai's press event and the probable launch of the next-gen Nexus 7.

Source: Pocketnow
 
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