So I am now running Jelly Bean (4.1.1) on my Samsung Galaxy S3 Android phone, and it was the first time I used an over the air upgrade, and it was the first major operating system update I’ve done since I started using an Android phone.

The upgrade was flawless, and my applications are still working. I had a small issue with Swype, but it figured itself out after a re-start.

The small tweaks they made to the user experience seem to be working well, and everything just feels a little more refined. My phone feels like it responds a bit faster. They changed some things to make things easier, including having a larger clock and date notice in the pull down notice section.

The battery even seems to be lasting a bit better, though I’m not sure if that’s accurate, as I wasn’t truly keeping track, nor have I really since I started using Jelly Bean.

Yesterday evening, I posted that I had updated, but also that my mom had Jelly Bean on her phone before I did. But in my defence, I had her buy a Nexus device, and unlike me, she doesn’t have to wait for manufacturers and carriers to add in their own cruft before going to the device.

While this update was nice, it wasn’t a must-have by any stretch of the imagination. I get how Apple users feel like they are better because they all get update releases as they happen, but the changes from version to version of both operating systems are no longer the game changing level of updates that they might have once been. I could have persisted on Ice Cream Sandwich for years to come without feeling like I was left behind because I didn’t have Jelly Bean, but I do enjoy the little interface tweaks that I’ve been given.

Side note: My mom thought that Android meant off-brand. Like the no-name version of a phone. She didn’t realize it had anything to do with the operating system on the device, and wondered how many people really understand what Android means. I think more education about hardware versus software is needed in the world to help the not so tech savvy understand more about what their options are and what all the crazy names mean.

It also makes me wonder if people buy iPhones or Windows phones because they are like “I know Apple” or “I know Windows”.