Android 4.1 Jelly Bean: faster, smoother, more delightful (ars technica) [LWN.net]

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean: faster, smoother, more delightful (ars technica)

Posted Jun 29, 2012 11:08 UTC (Fri) by cesarb (subscriber, #6266)
In reply to: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean: faster, smoother, more delightful (ars technica) by mastro
Parent article: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean: faster, smoother, more delightful (ars technica)

> I've heard rumors that there are small hardware variations and some get their updates sooner than others.

Other than the GSM (maguro) versus CDMA (toro), I did not hear anything about hardware variations, only software. The Google software variant for GSM (yakju) is the one which updates quickest; the others (yakju followed by two letters) update slower, and some of them did not update from 4.0.2 to 4.0.4 yet (for instance, the yakjuvs which is the variant sold here in Brazil).

But as long as you have the GSM hardware (maguro), you can unlock the bootloader (a simple command from Linux, erases all data on the device for privacy reasons) and flash the standard "yakju" variant. It is not officially supported, but I have seen forum posts from several people who did it with zero problems.

> Buying it directly from Google offers some hope for timely updates

Buying a Galaxy Nexus directly from Google only shows an "unavailable on your country" page, it is much easier to buy from a local carrier. The Galaxy Nexus has no carrier customizations, AFAIK all local carriers are using the same yakjuvs build.

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Android 4.1 Jelly Bean: faster, smoother, more delightful (ars technica)

Posted Jul 2, 2012 16:51 UTC (Mon) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

> The Galaxy Nexus has no carrier customizations, AFAIK all local carriers are using the same yakjuvs build.

Mine came with MyVerizon (which I would have installed anyways, but the latest update removing the widget and something about the login requiring a second app that doesn't work on ICS makes me wary of whether it will continue being useful at all; still haven't upgraded) and Wallet can't be updated from the store (I got the APK from the XDA forums though).