Rumors suggested that Samsung could release the latest version of Android, 4.1 Jelly Bean alongside the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 at its Aug. 29 conference. However, Samsung only said that Jelly Bean will arrive "very soon" and did not specify a date.

Jelly Bean is not coming to all devices "soon" though: the Verizon version of Google's Samsung Galaxy Nexus does not have Jelly Bean, despite the device being the first to get the latest version of Android. A recent video of a test device revealed the Jelly Bean update will arrive, though the U.S. carrier is still not revealing a date.

SamMobile first reported that Jelly Bean is under testing for the Samsung Galaxy S3 and S2, though the latter seemed less certain.

Despite the undetermined release, Samsung appears to be moving more quickly than during previous releases. The company once carried an infamous track record of delayed updates for its devices; this time, however, it launched the Samsung Galaxy S3 with 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 with Jelly Bean.

Google introduced refinements to Jelly Bean, and real-time updating service Google Now is a major new feature. Compared to Siri by users, the feature updates events like football scores or changed flight terminals in the background. Jelly Bean also introduced Project Butter, improving the overall performance of the OS, especially touch responsiveness; formerly, Android had faced criticism for its lack of touch responsiveness compared to iOS.

Samsung also announced new colors for its Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone, ranging from Garnet Red to Jet Black. Samsung tied the announcement of the colors into the theme of the Galaxy S3 being inspired by nature for man, publishing a blog post with a brief description of the colors.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 launched on May 29 to a record 10 million pre-orders and is on track to outpace its predecessor the Samsung Galaxy S2, which sold 20 million devices, Samsung confirmed.