Jelly Bean is the catchword of the Smartphone world right now with hardware companies rushing to upgrade or install the latest Android edition in their gadgets. The latest device to afford itself the sweet taste of Jelly Bean is Acer Iconia A500.
Soon after the source code for Jelly Bean (Android 4.1.1) was released, Acer Iconia A500 got itself a sturdy build of Jelly Bean. Over the next few days, XDA Developer ‘Randomblame’ and his colleagues have worked on tweaking and hacking the source built beast (or beauty, some could claim) and by now have sorted out almost everything. If you are not very nitpicky then the alpha build will be quite enough for you- as sufficient as a daily driver, some would say.
Some users who have run Randomblame’s AOSP Jelly Bean ROM on their Acer Iconia A500 have claimed that the WiFi and audio has been working well. Although most are biding their time on this gadget until Google Nexus 7, equipped with the real deal, arrives, A500 and Jelly Bean is a good match. The signal indicator in the notification bar is not working, but that’s of little or no consequence. You can see whether you are connected or not by opening Internet connection enabled apps. Granted it’s a roundabout way to check whether you are on the grid, but as an alpha build, it can be excused. The sound partly works- apps can play sound but system sounds are not working. Bluetooth, USB mounting, rotation, storage, battery indicator are all perfectly working. Google Voice Search has been working surprisingly well, unlike what was expected. It returns the search results but cannot read it back as system sounds don’t work yet. But it is not the weakest link in the chain at all!
What it is, then? Undoubtedly, the Google Now. It is supposedly Google’s answer to Apple’s Siri, even though Google argues it is a match to none. It is still one of the biggest attractions of Jelly Bean and it is a disappointment indeed to see it in a mess in the alpha build. The welcome setup works just fine. But when the last screen of the Google Now setup is clicked, it force closes. You have to clear the Google Search app’s cache and data. Installing apps that require storing data on microSD card is proving to be a pain to many users as well. All the technical glitches aside, this alpha build is a novel idea and serves Acer Iconia A500 well indeed.