At the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, Google previewed the next version of Android – 3.0 AKA Honeycomb. VP of Engineering Andy Rubin provided the following explanation of what to expect from Honeycomb, as well as the video below:
Honeycomb is the next version of the Android platform, designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes, particularly tablets. 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. 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. We’ve also made some powerful upgrades to the web browser, including tabbed browsing, form auto-fill, syncing with your Google Chrome bookmarks, and incognito mode for private browsing.
Honeycomb also features the latest Google Mobile innovations including Google Maps 5 with 3D interactions and offline reliability, access to over 3 million Google eBooks, and Google Talk, which now allows you to video and voice chat with any other Google Talk enabled device (PC, tablet, etc).
Four 4G Android handsets were revealed at CES. These included the Droid Bionic from Motorola and Verizon, the HTC Inspire 4G from AT&T, the Samsung Infuse 4G also for AT&T, and the Motorola Atrix for AT&T.
"What’s a bit odd about yesterday’s announcements is that the one handset we expected, the Thunderbolt 4G or whatever they’re going to call it, was not present," says Joe at the Android Blog AndGeeks.com. "You’ll remember that HTC said it would be the first to 4G, again, referring to LTE. But will they really be? They announced a device yesterday, and it is 4G, but it’s HSPA+ for AT&T. Is that what they meant by first to 4G again? (Then again, the teaser said January 6, and it is January 6 currently, but most of the big announcements came yesterday. But we’ll see.)"
There are also a slew of Android tablets being introduced at the event.