It seems as though the Ice Cream Sandwich will have to step aside momentarily and allow a new tech delight, called Jelly Bean, to make its grand entrance.

Google began its annual Google I/O developer keynote in a big way this [Wednesday] morning, by announcing, not only a new tablet, media streamer, and Google + updates, but a new version of Android called Jelly Bean, as well.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is the next major update to Google's mobile operating system. Jelly Bean will not completely knock out Ice Cream Sandwich, which was released in 2011, but instead build upon it. It has been designed to make Android faster and much more responsive.

Jelly Bean uses a new search interface called "cards," which makes it easier to read and digest certain types of information. Search cards can show all kinds of things like the weather forecast, answers to questions, image search results, and more; it also works with Android's voice search feature. Also, the new Project Butter is a performance-based enhancement to make the phone experience smooth (like butter); using VSync and Triple Buffering to enhance the touch responsiveness. 

Other additions include improvements to the home screen, an upgraded camera app, the ability to send photos and videos from one phone to another via Google Beam, and more.

Impressive features include:

• Vsync timing across all drawing and animation done by the Android framework
• Triple buffering in the graphics pipeline
• Enhanced accessibility
• Bi-directional text and other language Support
• User-installable keyboard maps
• Expandable notifications
• Automatically resizable app widgets
• Multichannel audio

Jelly Bean will come to Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy S smartphones and the Xoom tablet in mid-July, but developers can download the app-development tools starting today from Google's Android developer's site.