As the Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 go on sale, several Galaxy Nexus owners are already getting the update to Android 4.2. Luckily, updating your Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7 manually is easy – download the update file from Google, and install it through adb. I did so earlier today, and it all went smoothly. Chrome seems to perform better (yay!), but for the rest this is clearly a point release. Two issues for me: the new lockscreen with widget support is a joke (only three Google-sanctioned widgets are available), and on the Nexus 7, Google did something I just can’t wrap my brain around. Whereas on phones you open the new settings dropdown with two fingers, on the Nexus 7 you swipe down with one finger on the right to get the settings dropdown, and one finger on the left to get the notifications panel. Unintuitive, and incredibly cumbersome and confusing on a relatively small device like the Nexus 7. No more one-handed operation, either. Why Google didn’t just employ the same two-finger gesture on the Nexus 7 as they did on the Nexus 4 and Galaxy Nexus is beyond me. Such a massive UI fail – it almost makes me want to go back to 4.1.2. Luckily, my new HTC 8X will arrive in the mail tomorrow to distract me.
You are overreacting, Thom. That is really a small thing, and I think will get fixed in custom ROMs, maybe like Cyanogenmod?
What is the real problem is that Google keeps development closed, and hits us with source code releases some unspecified time after pushing production builds to the public.
If they did push source code more often, preferably in real time to their public git servers, someone would tell them it’s dumb ass idea much earlier.
Why Google didn’t just employ the same two-finger gesture on the Nexus 7 as they did on the Nexus 4 and Galaxy Nexus is beyond me.
Because Apple holds a ridiculously broad patent on using more than one finger on touch screen devices and has shown itself quite willing to sue over it. I’m sure there will be a way for the user to change that behavior, but Google has to concern itself with how Apple will respond to the default settings.
Is this patent only valid on large screen touch device? Because, you know, it works with a two-finger swipe right now on both the updated galaxy nexus and the nexus 4.
I regret too Google’s choise, but not for the same reason: they had another way to pull down the settings tab on a previous “alpha” build, which seemed better to me:
http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/10/15/exclusive-android-4-2-alpha…
I’m going to be honest – I didn’t even notice the lack of 2 finger swipe.. I just did it naturally. That speaks a lot more to me. I’s actually find 2 fingers unnatural. I can only assume the 2 finger on the Nexus 4 was because of the low screen size.
Or why did you get the 8X?
The 920 is simply way too large and heavy. 4.3″ is my favourite screen size. On top of that, the 920 is, for some reason, €100 more expensive. No idea why – it doesn’t offer that much more, if at all.
the camera on the 920 is ridiculously amazing. my friend took a pic of Chicago at night. the screen showed nothing and the image the camera took was so detailed.
Larger or not…I want me a 920.
Any word on the multi-user profile support that was supposed to be coming to the tablet version of 4.2?
It’s in there, but I have no reason to set it up (I live alone).
I would (and will) set it up with a “guest” account, in case I allow someone else to use the tablet for a short time.
That’s also the reason I’d like to see this feature on phones.
Same reason for me; My wife and I already have our own tablets, but it’d be nice to let others use the guest account once in a while and see how well things are segmented from my personal junk.
I have a wife and a kid. They use the tablet in their own ways, so I’m eager to test it, however I am still on 4.1.2 and checking for OTA updates still yields: system is up to date.
Where do you get the update from manually then?
…links are in the story here.
I updated my N7 last night and set up a guest account. Didn’t link it to Google.
The guest account can’t run applications that the main user installed.
I don’t like this.
I should be able to let friends or family play Angry Birds or whatever on it as a guest.
Can’t do this right now.
It sent my Nexus 7 into a mental spiral of doom. The entire system became so unresponsive that I had to hard reset it. *sigh* I’m coming to expect the worse with the Nexus 7.. it’s not as nice as the iPad mini I just played with in a local store, and it just keep on crapping out on me.
It’s in there; I set it up yesterday. In settings, under Users, there’s a button to add a new user. When you do, you get a list of buttons on the lock screen to pick which user you’re unlocking into – and new users get the first-boot wizard to set up their profile (including the username; they show up as “new user” until they do).
It seems to work as intended, though I haven’t really tested it beyond setting up a new user and handing it to someone else for a while.
Edited 2012-11-14 12:52 UTC
It is full of developer goodies!
http://developer.android.com/about/versions/jelly-bean.html
http://developer.android.com/about/versions/android-4.2.html
http://developer.android.com/tools/sdk/ndk/index.html
Looking forward to the new Renderscript capabilities, graphics optimization, JIT and GC improvements, better security model, Clang in the NDK, lots and lots of NDK fixes.
EDIT: Added more information
Edited 2012-11-13 20:50 UTC
I’ve upgraded my Galaxy Nexus today and it looks like good release so far. Some good new features added and no major breaks in the core apps. On the other hand, Firefox seems to be dying all the time. Is it just me?
Not just you. I just got a nexus 7, and after upgrading to 4.2 I installed the firefox beta, since it works well on my (4.1) phone. It crashes every minute or so, which quickly gets annoying.
I see that more users are complaining now, so I hope it gets fixed real soon.
This is good news to me. We don’t need apps putting notification junk in the lockscreen too. It’s a lockscreen, it doesn’t have to evolve in a secondary notification center.
Edited 2012-11-14 14:02 UTC
I actually like the way you access the top panels now. It makes perfect sense to me. You swipe down from the notifications to get the notifications, and you swipe down from the battery,wifi, etc. indicators to get to the settings. I would have never even thought to use a two-fingered swipe to get to anything unless I had been told about it, so I think that method is actually less intuitive.
You know I’ve been having a lot of trouble with chrome on galaxy tab 7.7, whereas on my galaxy s2 i’ve had no problems with it. Today I realized that the problem might be swype. I use swype on my tab, but on my phone I don’t. A lot of times when chrome locks up on my tab its when i’m typing something in. Thom, do you use swype with chrome?
Nexus 7 OTA is live.. but the results are a real mixed bag for me. Not overly impressed. Tablet is sluggish and has had to be hard reset.