After long of teasing around, Google finally announced Honeycomb (Android 3.0) today and gives way for other manufacturers to make their announcement on the release state for Android tablets. The announcement from Google was mostly around the expected lines and highlighted all of the enhancements that have been showcased already from the preview SDK.
Honeycomb version as mentioned by Google has definitely been built up from scratch and not just an extension of mobile version. This makes the platform more appealing for tablets, so that the tablets don't feel like over-sized phone. This is one of the problem the current Android tablets like Galaxy Tab and even iPad is facing.
Google showcased the following in its announcement today and the entire event was streamed live in YouTube and the video is added to the end of the blog for reference.
Author: Vinod
Source: Engadget
Honeycomb version as mentioned by Google has definitely been built up from scratch and not just an extension of mobile version. This makes the platform more appealing for tablets, so that the tablets don't feel like over-sized phone. This is one of the problem the current Android tablets like Galaxy Tab and even iPad is facing.
Google showcased the following in its announcement today and the entire event was streamed live in YouTube and the video is added to the end of the blog for reference.
Widgets: The platform supports widgets that can be run in parallel on how screen and the screen layout has multiple fragments that can be specifically controlled by applications
Notification System: Taking cue from Chrome OS the device has improved notification, similar to the recently announced Desktop notification, with images and text for different application events. This could be for chat, mail or any other notification like in a desktop. The notifications themselves are like widgets that can control applications and device settings as required.
Portability of Apps: If the applications for Android has been developed as per the specifications and recommendations of Android, then porting to Honeycomb is easy and this was demoed with the demo of Fruit Ninja application
Improved GMail: A two pane GMail interface with contact pictures, status and interface that is more close to working in Outlook or any other desktop client
Application Bar: This controls the multi-tasking of applications and can also control the global actions for use within the application
3D Album: Just like Cover flow mode, Google has announced the 3D wall mode for browsing albums, which is a lot better than the current version of media management provided in Android
Video Calls: The device also supports video calls using the front and rear camera and has enhanced GTalk interface for the video call integration. The quality if the video call may need to be checked on a actual consumer device.
There were no surprising announcements from Google, but most of the platform has already been revealed to users anyways. It is still a mystery on what this means to the Mobile platform. The platform is optimized for tablets, does that mean that the mobile phones are going to be branched from the current 2.3? This is still a mystery.
Author: Vinod
Source: Engadget
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