The new build is buggy and not highly optimized for the moment

Mar 13, 2013 08:53 GMT  ·  By

Android fragmentation is one of the biggest issues for Google’s mobile platform. The time it takes smartphone manufacturers to deliver the latest version of Android for all their products does not match with the time it takes Google to release a new Android iteration.

This is one of the main reasons lots of popular smartphones remain stuck on old Android versions. However, most companies that launch Android devices are doing their best to keep their smartphones and tablets up to date with the latest software.

Intel is a relatively new company that has some of its products integrated in Android devices. While Intel does not actively manufacture handsets, its chipsets are part of some mid- to high-tier smartphones that are powered by Android platform.

Today, the company released its first attempt on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean for Intel-based devices. According to Intel, this is a developer preview release of pre-alpha quality. Basically, this means it’s buggy and not highly optimized.

After it gets finalized, the newly released Android 4.2.2 build will eventually be pushed to all compatible Intel-based devices, though we have no idea when that will happen.

The following important changes have been included in this pre-alpha Android 4.2.2 version for Intel-based devices:

- UEFI Boot (legacy BIOS booting no longer supported); - Linux 3.8.0 kernel; - Interactive Installer / Win8 Dual-Boot; - Gummiboot boot loader (SYSLINUX no longer supported); - Mesa rebased onto freedesktop upstream; - Signed kernel modules; - Unified Installer for all platforms except Samsung xe700t.

Aside from the changes mentioned earlier, this build has some known issues as well and one of these is the fact that Bluetooth is broken. It appears that due to bluedroid changes in MR1 the Bluetooth is not enabled on any devices.

For more details of the Android 4.2.2 pre-alpha build, check out the full changelog here.