Google's Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, although not a complete overhaul to the Android's previous iteration, Ice Cream Sandwich, has people excited about its performance enhancing capabilities and new features. The source code has been made available, but due to the nature of the Android operating system, it will be some time before you see it on many devices. Here's where you can find it so far.
The Jelly Bean has already been rolled out for a few select devices such as the Galaxy Nexus smartphone and Google Nexus 7 tablet. Other smartphones, however, will have to wait a while.
The first phone maker to confirm an upcoming Android Jelly Bean update is HTC. The company released a statement saying that the HTC One X, One S, and One XL will all be receiving a Jelly Bean update. The company did not give a solid release date, instead saying, "Please stay tuned for more updates regarding device upgrades, timing and other details about HTC and Jelly Bean."
The next two companies Android users are surely waiting on are Samsung and Motorola. Samsung makes the much sought-after Galaxy S3 smartphone, and Motorola produces the popular Droid RAZR Maxx.
Sammobile reports that the Samsung Galaxy S3 will most likely get the Jelly Bean update in August. The company has also apparently successfully completed initial tests of porting Jelly Bean over to the Samsung Galaxy S2, which is good news for those with the older smartphone.
The Motorola Xoom tablet should be getting the Jelly Bean update soon, but that is only because it runs a vanilla version of the Android system that Google can update without the device manufacturers. Motorola hasn't confirmed a date for the Jelly Bean coming to the Droid RAZR Maxx.
The reason for the staggered updates is because the Android operating system is open sourced by Google out to various manufacturers who then create their own build. This is known as Android fragmentation, and means that each company will roll out, and update, its own version of the Google build.