Yesterday was certainly a busy day in Google-land, we had the long-awaited launch of the new Nexus 7, the Chromecast and of course the official announcement of Android 4.3. While Android 4.3 is “just” another coat of polish on top of Jelly Bean, it does bring with it some features that should improve apps and games on Android going forward. Think of Android 4.3 as more of a “Service Pack” than a full update. The 4.3 update adds support for new technologies, such as OpenGL ES 3.0, Bluetooth Smart and more. Essentially, Android 4.3 now has all of the latest and greatest tools developers need to make stunning games and to connect to Bluetooth Low Energy devices.
Nexus owners just love days like these, and for good reason, they get to try out the latest version of Android long, long before anybody else does and no matter what the new version of Android brings, that’s a nice feeling to have. The Nexus 4 is obviously at the forefront of Google’s mind when they roll out a new version of Android and in predictable fashion, the OTA update is now rolling out all over the place.
The update will bring the Nexus 4 up to version JWR66 and you should be able to pull it down now if you’re running stock, but if you can’t get a hold of it just yet, you can download the ZIP directly from Google’s servers here. If you’re not sure on how to manually update your Nexus 4, then it’s save to say you should just wait for the update, or even your favorite ROM to get updated with the new source code.
Android 4.3 has already hit the AOSP, and a ROM for the Galaxy Nexus is already available. Android 4.3 does feature a little more under the hood than we first though but, for the most part this is more of a service pack sort of thing, which is fine with us.