Galaxy Nexus smartphone owners finally have some good news. Per reports, the Android 4.1.2 OTA for the smartphone is already being pushed out by Google and the update is also rolling out for some of company's other Nexus phones.
This development is the latest one after Google pushed out Android 4.1.2 live only last week, which was done to integrate its changes into the Android Open Source Project. However, the initial distribution of 4.1.2 arrived as updates only for Nexus 7 tablets. In the following days, Google added some new 4.1.2 factory images for other hardware. Although this was big news from Google's front, users were still looking for updates that would bring them to 4.1.2 without having to start from scratch.
The devices that are being mentioned are the international HSPA+ GNex, and not the CDMA version currently available in the States. The update is arriving for yakju builds already at JRO03C and the latest Android 4.1.2 build brings that up to JZO54K.
The new thread from the XDA Developer's forum, which is dedicated entirely to the latest OTA, states that the thread is applicable to both maguro (GSM/HSPA) and toro (Verizon CDMA/LTE) devices. The latest post in the thread is a compilation of all the OTA update URLs that are currently found.
However, it is to be noted that these are incremental updates and not full ROMs. These are basically the same files that get pushed to the users' device after they accept the OTA notification that they receive. The difference, the post states, "is, in 99% of the cases, they will be available here before you will get it pushed to your device."
Importantly, users, in order to install these updates, will need at least an unlocked bootloader, a custom recovery, or root.
As far as the previous 4.1.2 update for Nexus 7 is concerned, Google's Jean-Baptiste Queru broke the news on Google Groups, calling 4.1.2 a minor update. While, at that time, he didn't go into the update's details, users who had already received the OTA spoke about its performance enhancements, stability improvements, and a number of bug fixes.
However, the most visible change was that the tablet now supported home screen rotation, letting users quickly switch over to a landscape view.
