Many early buyers of ASUS’ new Padfone 2 were disappointed that their device came loaded with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich instead of the newer Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. However, ASUS promised to remedy this problem before the end of the year. Padfone 2 owners will be receiving their update soon to Jelly Bean as promised. The update is being rolled out over the air (OTA) in stages, so be patient for a bit longer if you have not yet received an update notification. The build number for the update is JRO03L 10.4.5.33-0 and even though it is only available in Taiwan right now, it is expected that the Jelly Bean update will be rolled out globally in the next few weeks.
When you do receive the update, make sure to have your device on charge as the update can take as long as thirty minutes to install. If it turns off on the boot screen, just turn the phone off and back on again to start over.
Once the update is complete, ASUS Padfone 2 users may have a difficult time noticing. ASUS kept the same skin that was present in Ice Cream Sandwich but all the new Jelly Bean features, like new notifications and Google Now, are there for your enjoyment.
Some of the new Jelly Bean features to look for are offline voice typing, voice search, an improvement on face unlock, ability to use the volume keys as the camera key, and of course Google Now.
The notification bar is improved and allows you to expand on and read part of an email or news update without having to open . It is also integrated with Google Now, so you can view useful information without having to switch apps.
Offline voice typing means you can dictate notes to your phone without having a cellular or Wi-Fi connection.
Google Now and voice search might just be the most useful feature Jelly Bean will add to the Padfone 2. Ask Google any question you can think of and Google Now will vocally answer with what it thinks is the best answer and will follow-up with relevant web search results. Cards will pop up based on information it gleans from your Google calendar, gmail or any searches you make. Go ahead and play around with it, Google Now just gets better over time.