The folks at Phandroid have snagged an incredibly blurry photo of a phone that’s purportedly running an early build of Gingerbread. That’s the codename for the next version of the Google Android operating system, which may or may not be labeled Android 3.0 when it’s released.
While the photo doesn’t really show us much of anything, Phandroid reports that the updated operating system features a refined user interface with graphic elements that fit together more smoothly. Android is often criticized because it doesn’t look like the same design team worked on the home screen, the contact app, the messenger, and so on. It sounds like Gingerbread may address any design consistency problems a bit.
Google has also reportedly built video chat into the operating system, allowing users to make video calls using Google Talk, much the same way they can with the desktop version of the app. The YouTube app has reportedly received a new design. And users may be able to receive phone calls to their Google Voice numbers over WiFi and 3G. It’s also possible that Gingerbread will add hardware graphics acceleration to make visual effects in the operating system run smoothly without affecting overall speed or performance.
This is all just rumor and speculation for now… and even if it’s all true, it’s possible that Google could drop or add features before launching Gingerbread.
