At a press even Wednesday, Google took the wraps off Android 4.3, the new Nexus 7, and Chromecast.
Google's Wednesday announcement of Android 4.3 may not have carried the same amount of pizzaz as the company's Android 4.1 presentation in June 2012, but then again you can only fling your executives out of blimpsso many times before it starts to get stale. Although the latest release of Google's mobile OS carries with it new features that are important to developers—like Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy and OpenGL ES 3.0 support—it wouldn't be too inaccurate to say that this Android update is drab, dreary, and any other synonym of the word "boring" you want to throw in there.
Minor changes for everyday users
There are a few neat extras for regular folk. A new phone dialer auto-completes your phone numbers, though I don't think I've ever heard of anyone getting excited for an updated dialer. Touch response has also been improved, which should help make the OS feel slightly faster, though the improvement is negligible and most people probably won't notice it. There's also a new emoji keyboard, in case you've ever wanted your text messages look like they were sent by a teenaged girl.
Finally, multiple user profiles with content and app restrictions. aka "Kid mode"
Perhaps the change users will most easily notice is Restricted Profiles. You can set up multiple accounts on an Android 4.3 device, restricting access on a user-by-user basis for apps and content. Parents can set up profiles for their kids, or stores can create a "kiosk mode" profile that locks everything down.
The changes brought about in Android 4.3 aren't half as dramatic as the ones in Apple's iOS 7, and it overall looks and works like the version of Android we've all been using since last year. Google isn't trying to redefine its mobile OS: It's trying to iron out the kinks and give developers the resources they need to build better apps.
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