After waiting patiently for the update to grace my tablet; I came home to find it waiting for me. It took a short bit to update before my device proudly displayed the new boot animation before me. At long last; KitKat was now a thing on my Nexus 7!
Android 4.4, otherwise known as the KitKat Update was announced in September and released alongside the Nexus 5 on Halloween (funny how an update named after a popular candy bar is announced on a day that involves eating candy) Lucky users like me who got their hands on the Nexus 5 were amazed by just how fast and snappy the update was; of course this treat was escalated with the Google Experience Launcher, which integrated Google's voice search helper "Google Now" into the homescreen; just by simply swiping to the right or by saying "Ok, Google"(For those who want to learn more about the new update; here's Google's official page for the new update). Of course, the Nexus 5 has some powerful specs to power this device so everything was faster than usual, but many Android users waited to try out the KitKat goodness on other devices, including the popular Nexus 7.
So the update came out for my device, and therefore I was eager to try it out! Once my device was updated, I sat down and gave it a spin!
The first thing that appeared was the homescreen, which unfortunately was not the Experience Launcher I had so come to enjoy on the Nexus 5. Fortunately with a bit of tinkering, I got the launcher "working" on my tablet; though there are still plenty of bugs to deal with and swiping to Google Now in landscape mode is a bit slow but manageable.
Besides that, everything about this update remained quite the same; which I'm glad is the case! 4.4 works beautifully on the Nexus 7: Quick, usable and very pleasing to digest! A transparent notification bar and Android function bar (Thanks to the launcher) was a nice touch along side the new colour change from a light navy blue, to a sleek white-ish grey.
One of the highlights of the 4.4 update is the introduction of a new runtime system known as ART, which apon playing it, speeds up the functions of the device in many areas. However, I've found that this experimental system slows down a few apps in loading time by a fraction of a second...but I hope that Google will eventually implement this new runtime to replace the old Dalvik runtime.
Another new feature that I'm fond of is the new full screen effect for certain apps; this means that I no longer have to see the status bar or the on screen Android keys if I don't want to in order to gain some screen space for watching media. Though some apps already could do this before the update, it's good to know that this is now a standard when it comes for apps that stream or playback content.
Android 4.4 is one of the most sweetest updates to the Android OS yet, and those there still remains some unfortunate users who haven't gotten the update yet for their device; I can only assume that by the end of the month, all selected devices will be able to munch on some KitKat deliciousness!
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