What seems to have caught everyone’s attention at this point is the ‘always on’ Wi-Fi feature in the Android 4.3 update, which had been skipped while the company spoke about the fresh improvements. This attribute however, has been spotted on the the OS’ latest version meant for the Samsung Galaxy S4, while there has been no word of its existence in the new Nexus 7 or the Google Play edition smartphones so far.
Updating to Android 4.3 on the Samsung Galaxy S4 will allow Wi-Fi to function in the background silently, even when turned off. To spell it out, the search giant’s location services and other apps will continue scanning for networks irrespective of WLAN being on or not. Now, we’re sure this could raise a lot of questions concerning battery consumption. But it so happens that this addition kills any previously made stereotype and will weigh less on the built-in power pack as opposed to GPS.
In any case, if this feature still doesn’t striking anybody’s fantasy, it can be turned off. Users will have to switch off the ‘scanning always available’ option, buried under an advanced menu to get this done. According to a string of code posted by Android Police, the attribute not only aims at improving location precision, but also certain ‘other purposes.’
The report has indicated that these purposes could be transferring Wi-Fi location data back to the Mountain View folks. Other introductions made to Android 4.3 are more or less known, especially Bluetooth LE support and the restricted profiles feature. Let’s not forget the changes made to the widgets panel icons and the stock Android 4.x gradient background, we saw on the GP editions last week.