I spent the last two days watching Google I/O coverage roll in, and honestly? I'm impressed in a way I haven't been about Android in a while. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean doesn't sound like much on paper: a minor version bump, some smoothness improvements called Project Butter, a few new features. But Google Now, which they're baking into Jelly Bean, is legitimately interesting. It's the kind of thing that makes me realize iOS 6 might've just peaked while Android's actually getting its act together.
Here's the thing: iOS 6 is fine. Maps are getting replaced (and yeah, that'll probably be a mess for six months). Passbook exists so you can scan tickets. Siri still can't do much of anything useful. But it all feels iterative. Apple's good at polish, at making what already exists feel slightly better. Google's doing something different with Now. They're throwing the weight of their search infrastructure at your phone and saying they'll predict what you actually want to know before you ask.
Google Now shows you weather before you check the weather app. It tells you about traffic on your commute without you having to open Maps. If a flight you booked gets delayed, it just knows and tells you. The system's pulling from your email, your calendar, your location, your search history, all these signals that actually exist on your phone but nobody was doing anything smart with.
Does this sound like Big Brother stuff? Sure. Is it privacy-questionable? Absolutely. But I'm sitting here with an iPhone that doesn't know my flight information even though I have the confirmation sitting in Mail, and Google's building a system that just reads everything and makes your life easier. The irony isn't lost on me.
What really gets me is that this is Google doing what Google should do. They built the entire company on understanding what you're searching for and showing you what you need. Transposing that onto a phone where you're carrying around all this contextual data—your location, your schedule, your communication—is actually brilliant. It's not even that complicated when you think about it. It's just that Apple hasn't tried.
The other stuff in Jelly Bean is real too. Project Butter, and I hate this name because it sounds ridiculous, actually addresses the jank that's plagued Android forever. If they've really smoothed out the UI, that's huge. I've been using Android phones for work email, and the stutter when scrolling through lists has always bugged me. On my iPhone, everything just works. On Android phones, even the Nexus ones, there's this occasional roughness that reminds you you're running a more complex OS.
I don't know what this means long-term. Google's had genuinely good ideas before and then just abandoned them. They launched the Nexus Q at I/O this year too: this weird WiFi speaker that costs 299 dollars, and I'm pretty sure nobody's going to buy it. It feels like a project someone built because they could, and Google's putting it out because why not. Meanwhile, they're also dealing with fragmentation, manufacturer skins, carriers loading bloatware onto devices. Apple's got one phone, iOS 6 in June, done.
But right now? Right this second? I'm more interested in what Android's doing than I've been in months. Google Now might actually be the thing that makes Android feel like it's thinking for you instead of just letting you do what you want.