On Wednesday, Mountain View-based Internet giant Google has officially unveiled a new flavor of its popular Android mobile operating system, namely Android 3.0 Honeycomb, which has been greatly optimized for use on tablet PCs, an emerging new generation of devices.
The company made the announcement at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, when some of its partners unveiled their first devices that are meant to take full advantage of the new technology.
For the time being, none of these devices was put on shelves, and we'll have to wait a little before they actually become available for purchase, but, until then, we can have a look at the new OS version through the video embedded below, courtesy of Google Mobile Blog.
The development team behind the new platform iteration claims that they have built it from ground up so as to offer full support for the new tablet PC devices.
“Honeycomb is the next version of the Android platform, designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes, particularly tablets,” Google states on the said blog.
“We’ve spent a lot of time refining the user experience in Honeycomb, and we’ve developed a brand new, truly virtual and holographic user interface.”
Existing features of the Android platform are present in the new OS version as well, only that they have been refined so as to deliver a better experience to users, Google states.
“Many of Android’s existing features will really shine on Honeycomb: refined multi-tasking, elegant notifications, access to over 100,000 apps on Android Market, home screen customization with a new 3D experience and redesigned widgets that are richer and more interactive,” the blog post reads.
Among the other improvements the new platform release includes, we can count an upgraded web browser, which features tabbed browsing, along with form auto-fill, and the possibility to sync it with Google Chrome bookmarks. Additionally, the application comes with an incognito mode for private browsing.
Google Maps 5 with 3D interactions is packed with Honeycomb as well, along with Google Talk, which features video and voice chat, and access to over 3 million Google eBooks. More info on the new OS version should be unveiled soon.
