Google posted a video of Android 3.0 Honeycomb in action today, giving us the first good look at the upcoming mobile operating system optimized for tablets. Unfortunately, shortly after the video was published it was pulled down, but Engadget made a backup which you can check out after the break.
Here’s what we learned from the video.
- Honeycomb will be Android 3.0
- Honeycomb may be exclusively for tablets, although that doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t be able to run smartphone apps
- There will be a two-pane view for some apps such as Gmail
- The desktop and app launcher experience have been completely redesigned for use on button-less tablets
- The keyboard finally looks like it could be usable on a 10 inch device
- The web browser has tabs at the top, much like Google Chrome
Video after the break.
Update: Google officially published the video this evening, along with a blog post. Among other changes, Google says that there will be an incognito mode in the web browser as well as form auto-fill, and Google Chrome bookmark synchronization. While Honeycomb is designed for tablets, and developers will likely start writing apps specifically for larger displays, Google confirms that over 100,000 Android Market apps will run on the tablet (which is interesting, because the last time I looked there were closer to 200,000 apps in the Android Market).
Google Talk for Honeycomb will also support voice and video chat with users on personal computers or tablets.
Android 3.0 looks good :-)