In case you missed it, Google made the full SDK for Android 4.1 available for download yesterday, as well as an updated set of SDK tools (20.1.1) and the NDK (rev 8b). The download is available via the SDK manager or the Android Developers site and is a must have for developers. As with all new versions of Android, there’s a few learning curves. Thankfully Android engineer Nick Butcher was kind enough to give out some pointers.

In a blog post, Nick outlines ways to optimize your apps for Jelly Bean and the Nexus 7. This makes sense, considering the majority of people experiencing Jelly Bean will be doing so via the Nexus 7.

Nexus 7 ships with Jelly Bean and its updated suite of system apps are built to take advantage of new Jelly Bean APIs. These apps are the standard against which your application will be judged — make sure that you’re keeping up!

If your application shows notifications then consider utilizing the new richer notification styles. If you are displaying immersive content then control the appearance of the system UI. If you are still using the options menu then move to the Action Bar pattern.

A lot of work has gone into making Jelly Bean buttery smooth; make sure your app is as well. If you haven’t yet opted in to hardware accelerated rendering then now is the time to implement and test this.

I’m sure you have lots of Jelly Bean goodness to delve into, so I’ll let you get to it. Have fun.

• SourceGoogle+