It runs the next Android version, Android 4.1, dubbed Jelly Bean. One of Jelly Bean's key features is Project Butter, a comprehensive effort by Google to boost Android performance and response time by increasing the frame rate to 60 fps. The demonstration showed fast, smooth animations, and the tablet's CPU automatically speeds up when it detects an onscreen touch.

The Android notification system has been revamped. Alerts now expand and shrink automatically as they appear. You can see a preview of an MMS image, and view it in full size all inside Android's notification area.

Also part of Jelly Bean is Google Now, with a redesigned user interface for your mobile searchers. It now features, like Apple's Siri, a very realistic synthesized voice interface to respond to search requests or remind you of appointments. But Google Now blends this with a predictive capability: it uses data about your location, the date, from your contacts and prior searches to proactively recommend an alternative way home if your usual commuting route is congested. And the app will verbally update you on new offers or changes as you walk past restaurants or retails stores.

Jelly Bean will appear first on the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S and Xoom devices in mid-July. The SDK is available for developers now as part of preview.

Google also unveiled its first consumer electronics product, called Google Q, a ball-shaped Android computer that Google calls the first social media streaming device. Controlled by Android tablets or smartphone, Google Q has high-definition interfaces to plug directly into speakers and flatscreen TVs. It's designed specifically to exploit the content available through Google Play, the online market for Android content and apps, so you can't stream audio or video from your Android tablet or smarphone, for example.