5 Things We Want From Android 4.1 'Jelly Bean'

It's time for the world's most popular smartphone OS to get an upgrade. Google is expected to announce a new version of Android, code named "Jelly Bean," at its Google I/O conference tomorrow. Various websites have tipped Jelly Bean's version number as 4.1, making Jelly Bean a smaller upgrade than Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich."

Android's biggest problem right now can't be solved by an OS upgrade. Google's No. 1 problem is that manufacturers and carriers aren't clearing its new versions for existing devices, leaving most Android devices running Android 2.3 or earlier.

That said, we could see some changes in Android 4.1. Here are five ideas.

Chrome, The Browser
is much faster than the Android phone browser. It's time to drop the "beta." I've been using the Chrome browser on my HTC One S for weeks now, and it's a genuinely speedy and elegant way to browse the Web. Google needs to kick the standard Android browser to the curb and replace it with an official build of Chrome.

Vastly Improved Google Play Market
The Google Play market is a mess, full of junk apps. It also does a poor job of showing tablet owners apps designed for their devices. Along with Android 4.1, Google should roll out an update to the Market that takes a riff from PageRank to deliver well-regarded, reliable apps at the top of search results. Google should also start enforcing the deprecated MAX_API flag to punish app developers whose old phone-only apps are appearing on the Play Market for tablets.

Google's Voice Assistant
I'm rolling my eyes a little because I never signed on to the global fascination with Apple's Siri, but then again, I don't drive a car. Voice interfaces are absolutely killer when you're in a car. Android has always been a leader in dictation, and Google is reportedly working on a more extensive voice assistant system, which would compete with Vlingo, Samsung's S Voice, Siri and others in offering comprehensive natural language voice commands.

The End of Chrome OS
Chrome OS isn't doing too well. In my mind, we're still a few years too early (or about 40 years too late) for true thin-client cloud computing to be a workable general-purpose solution. So it's time for Google to set aside the Chrome OS project and fold it into the Android trunk. Recent versions of Android have decent peripheral and input device support, so Google's thin client projects can continue on Android-driven PCs running the Chrome browser.

More Devices At Launch
With less than 10 percent of current Android devices running Android 4.0, Google must realize that the single-device Nexus plan isn't getting the freshest versions of Android out to many people. Without bringing down the whip on its OEM partners, which will probably never happen, Google can at least make Nexus a bigger tent, with four or five devices included as part of the initial rollout.

We'll know all the answers about what's rolling out when Google delivers its keynote at 9:30 a.m. PT on Wednesday. We'll have Sara Yin and Damon Poeter there for PCMag.com, and I'll be live-kibitzing on Twitter @saschasegan.

Until then, check out .