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LarryM99
I've seen surveys that put the number pretty high. I would prefer to use a puck ...
KB3001
@Larry, I wonder how many customers out there prefer a tablet without an ...
Google demos tablet version of Android
Rick Merritt
3/9/2011 6:44 PM EST
SAN MATEO, Calif. – Two Google developers demonstrated Android 3.0, the first version of the open source mobile operating system supporting tablets. The so-called Honeycomb release is also the first version to support hardware acceleration and multicore processors.
Google has yet to announce a general release date for the Honeycomb source code. Last week, Motorola launched its Xoom tablet using the OS, running several applications developed in tandem with the systems software.
"Honeycomb is all about the tablet, but along the way we made a lot of general improvements in the user interface," adding new rendering and animation engines, said Chet Haase, a Google UI developer who showed the software to an audience of more than 400 at the Android Developer Conference here.
A version of the software geared for smartphones is still in the works with no public release date given. It could emerge as early as May at the annual Google I/O event.
Honeycomb uses the OpenGL applications programming interface for 2-D graphics, video acceleration and a new 3-D engine from Google called Renderscript. In a video here, Google developer Romain Guy demonstrated the engine running a fully hardware accelerated browser, a YouTube video wall, music and e-book apps.
Renderscript has been in the works for three years, uses the C99 language and can be used both for graphics and compute jobs. The software can automate the work of using multiple cores in a host processor without requiring developers to generate threads. A future version will let compute jobs be split among graphics and host processors, probably using the OpenCL API.
"We added a lot of hardware acceleration with this release," said Guy. "We used GPUs before, but we weren’t really taking advantage of them across the interface," he said.
Renderscript supports vectors, timed behaviors for animations and some of the features of graphics shading languages. It does not allow memory allocations. All data set up is handled in Javascript prior to rendering.
Honeycomb comes with hardware acceleration turned off by default. Developers can enable the feature globally or turn it on or off in selected areas of their apps. Motorola chose to enable hardware acceleration throughout its Xoom tablet.
Honeycomb supports USB keyboards, a first for Android. Work is going on to support other USB devices. The Android OS which originally supported just 40 Mbytes main memory, now supports up to a Gbyte.
A new animation framework lets developers animate any object or property. Haase and Guy demonstrated the animation framework in a video here.
Honeycomb does away with hardware navigation buttons given users are expected to flip tablets regularly between landscape and portrait modes. Instead it uses a system bar always present at the bottom of the screen but sometimes toned down in a "LightsOut" mode in apps such as an e-book reader.
The OS also does away with menus, using a so-called action bar at the top of the screen to navigate through applications. Developers have full control of the look and feel of the action bar.
About two dozen OEMs now ship more than 150 Android devices that ride on more than 150 carrier networks in nearly 100 countries. The devices have access to a library of more than 150,000 apps, and each day about 300,000 Android devices are activated for the first time, said Haase.
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selinz
3/9/2011 7:51 PM EST
It sounds exciting but I hope they don't turn the system too "bloaty." My upgrade to version 2.2 was snappier and less buggy than 2.1 on the same device. Hopefully this trend will continue!
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elctrnx_lyf
3/10/2011 1:03 PM EST
It will be really good if Anroid can support wireless AV link implemented in the many recent high end TV's. This will give a big edge for the tablets to compete with the mini laptops which are already supporting this with windows O/S.
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rick.merritt
3/10/2011 4:27 PM EST
I didn't mention it in the story but when a Honeycomb tablet is plugged into a projection system via HDMI it a) won't support a shift to portrait mode and b) doesn't display the on-screen system bar...two little issues that gave the demonstrators pause
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dutchmam
3/10/2011 4:27 PM EST
"Waiting on Honeycomb" You mean "waiting FOR," right?
"Waiting on [customers]" is what waiters and waitresses do IN A RESTAURANT....
Please to not get the two actions confused!
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Bob Virkus
3/10/2011 6:08 PM EST
Sorry dutchmam we're a bunch of engineers here and we don't need no grammar lessons from the school'marm. Especially one that shouts.
Anyways, considering Honeycomb what is it's level of bluetooth support? I would rather have a cordless keyboard with a tablet.
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LarryM99
3/10/2011 6:17 PM EST
I've been waiting for ( or on :-) ) this version of the software before buying a tablet. Now that this piece is in place I'm looking for a hardware platform that has the right specs and doesn't leave me beholden to yet another cell contract. The rumored Wifi-only version of the Xoom might be just the ticket.
Larry M.
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KB3001
3/15/2011 8:20 PM EDT
@Larry, I wonder how many customers out there prefer a tablet without an always-on cellular connection?
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LarryM99
3/16/2011 9:38 AM EDT
I've seen surveys that put the number pretty high. I would prefer to use a puck or tethered handset to get access over tieing a relatively high-value device to a service provider. That also means that I can leverage one data account to provide service to multiple devices.
Larry M.
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rick.merritt
3/10/2011 8:15 PM EST
@Bob: An engineer asked a specific question about BT support they could not answer. My sense it the Android software is still in a pretty young state, I mean they only just now have support for USB keyboards--the only USB device Android currently supports. It's like the early days of the PC!
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garydpdx
3/12/2011 5:31 PM EST
Rick, if the Honeycomb code is still in a young state, maybe still beta, I would be pretty hesitant about getting a Motorola Xoom, which is shipping and available from Verizon!
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LarryM99
3/10/2011 9:08 PM EST
The good news is that Android is based on Linux, so I am a little surprised that it doesn't support a wider range of devices. It's more likely that the locked-down and ROMed device OS configurations don't support adding device drivers. This makes it more stable, but it is frustrating for those of us used to general-purpose computers and OS's.
Larry M.
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Neo1
3/10/2011 9:29 PM EST
I think it is more likely that they started with a bare minimum linux with drivers and then added support for audio, video, RF, DVM to keep it light and fast for handhelds. . So I feel that it already had bluetooth support but only enabled now after extensive testing
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Steven Huo
3/10/2011 10:19 PM EST
Currently, my device K7 MID http://www.opensourcemid.org/ can support Andriod 2.1 and WinCE6.0, while some friends say it can support Android 2.2 as well. Hope to update my OS to Android 3.0.
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kinnar
3/11/2011 10:56 AM EST
The android has really got advanced, it is really going more feature rich compared to ios and windows. After the full support of USB the days of laptops and netbooks will be over.
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kinnar
3/11/2011 10:58 AM EST
It seems that android is getting more suitable for tablets compared to ios and windows. If full support of USB is provided the days of notebooks and netbooks will be over.
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rick.merritt
3/13/2011 1:18 AM EST
@garydpdx: What I meant was Android as a whole is sitll in its infancy given it only just recently got support for its first USB device--a keyboard.
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Sanjib.Acharya
3/13/2011 12:40 PM EDT
Recently, may be sometime in the last week, there was a report I found as below:
"... there were 58 malicious apps on the Android Market place which 2,60,000 Android users inadvertently downloaded. These apps were basically trying to steal information by uploading it to unknown servers and were adding backdoors to the mobile devices. What Google did to remedy this was even scarier. It used a remote Kill switch to delete these apps. So Google used a backdoor of its own to close some other backdoors. With Google saying there are more than 3,00,000 Android activations a day, this Google backdoor puts an alarming amount of information in one corporation’s hands."
- Sounds a bit scary to me! Any comments on the above?
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LamarGreen
3/14/2011 12:54 PM EDT
Google is like the KGB accusing everyone else of spying.
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LamarGreen
3/14/2011 12:51 PM EDT
By delaying general release is Android 3.0 shooting itself in the foot now that iPad 2 is out? WiFi-only Android tablets are no bargain when compared with the Apple product, and they usually must be rooted to derive full benefit. Also, the "monthly, no-contract" approach by AT&T and Verizon for the iPad-2 beats what is being offered for the Xoom and similar products.
My company is interested in Android for field video communications (so problems may actually be viewed for live discussion). Until the iPad-2 with its front-facing camera, only Android tablets held this undelivered promise.
If Android doesn't do something very soon, we're going to donate the Viewsonic G Tablets we've already purchased (or raffle them to employees) and move forward with the Apple product.
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