Android 3.0 Honeycomb announced

Today Google announced their tablet optimized version of their mobile operating system Android 3.0 HoneyComb. Android 3.0 takes advantage of the larger tablet screen real estate and provides users with an updated interface and widgets.

The full list of features of Android 3.0 Honeycomb follow:

Both users and developers continue to benefit from the new features and improvements that Google continue to implement on Android. Honeycomb aims to focus mainly on tablets. Firstly lets take a closer look at whats new for users.

New User Interface

The Android 3.0 Honeycomb user interface has been designed from ground up. The UI takes advantage of the large tablet displays in Android's new holographic UI design. Multi-tasking, home screen customization, widgets and notifications have been refined to fit into this new UI experience.

The top of the UI consists of the Google Search, access to your apps and the action bar which gives you access to contextual content such as widgets, options and more.

The bottom of the UI features the back, home and multi-tasking buttons on the left and the status, clock and notifications on the right.

This bar will fade away during 'Lights Out Mode', allowing you to take advantage of the full screen real-estate.

The multitasking button on the lower bar gives you access to all your most recently opened apps. The apps will maintain a snapshot of their last known state allowing you to scroll through a list of opened apps and select the app you want to open.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb comes with five customizable home-screens. Each of these screens can be customized with widgets and app shortcuts or visually with static or live wallpapers

This in turn makes each user's experience a unique one. Both the top and bottom menus remain universally accessible throughout your home-screens.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb also features an improved keyboard, which takes advantage of larger displays. The keyboard has been optimized for typing, speed and accuracy. New keys like 'tab' have been added to make your typing experience as close to using a physical keyboard as possible.

Google has also improved the ability to select, copy and paste in Android 3.0 Honeycomb. All you need to do is press and hold in the area you want to copy and use the two selection arrows to select the text which needs copying. 

Once selected, and action bar will appear allowing you to cut, copy or paste the text where you want it.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb has some great connectivity features which will allow you to connect full keyboard over USB or Bluetooth. The new version of Android has also improved Wi-Fi connectivity and Bluetooth pairing. A newly introduced protocol will allow you to sync your media files with a USB connected camera or desktop computer.

The folks at Google have also worked on improvements for some of the standard Android apps.

The browser now has tabbing, which allows you to open and browse through several tabs at the same time. You can also browse using incognito mode, which will allow to to browse without having your browsing history recorded. History and Bookmarks are now presented and managed from a single page making it easier to work with them.

The camera app has been improved to take advantage of the larger screen space you now have quick access to features like zoom, camera toggle switch, focus and flash and more. The gallery app has also been similarly optimized.

The contacts app now features a split screen interface which allows you to select from your list of contacts from the left and have the information displayed on the right. The contacts are presented in cards, making it easier to browse through your colleagues, family and friends.

Check out the following video preview of Android 3.0 Honeycomb which demonstrates the features which have been discussed.

As we mentioned above, its not just the users who benefit form the Android updates. The developers are also presented with new APIs and security features which will benefit their apps. Check our the Developer Features of Android Honeycomb and leave us a comment of what you think below.