Android 3.0 Honeycomb Live Preview Wrap-up

by Antonio Wells Feb 2, 2011 2:43 PM – Leave your thoughts

At Google’s Honeycomb press event they demoed first-hand many features of the tablet oriented mobile OS that we only had the privilege to see videos of back at CES 2011. We saw just how snappy the OS was plus user interface enhancements, performance improvements, media (not Google Music as we’d hoped), and official launch of Android Market webstore. Read here for a complete summary of what’s new in Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

Performance Improvements

Honeycomb Preview YouTube Video Wall

Honeycomb Preview Google Books App

Honeycomb Preview New Music Player Carousel Album Artwork

With Honeycomb developers will be able to take advantageous of graphics and hardware acceleration for 2D & 3D with one line of code. The core platform allows devs to use animation framework for smooth transitions and overall polish. This is thanks to new RenderScript is new graphics engine for high end 3D graphics (examples include Honeycomb’s YouTube app with video wall and Google Books app).

Media

Honeycomb Preview Camera App Rear Facing Camera

Honeycomb Preview CNN Android Tablet App

Google showed off the revamped camera app front and back camera including a live video chat over Google Talk. CNN has also been busy working on a Honeycomb tablet app infusing their video, written, photo and user community news content known as iReport into their Android app.

Android Market Webstore

Android Market

Probably the sweetest announcement was the unveiling of web-based Android Market. The answer to a long waited consumer outcry. Future enhancements will come such as support for buyer currency and support for in-app purchases, SDK virtual goods directly within. Currently the Android Market allows consumers to search and download Android apps to their selected devices without plugging into the computer.