Android Tablet Reviews: Honeycomb OS

Android Honeycomb is the current Google Android OS. It is designed only for tablets and is therefore optimized with even more features and benefits than you would normally find on a regular smartphone running on Froyo or Gingerbread.
The Honeycomb has received a dramatic improvement compared to Gingerbread in several aspects. One of the most obvious examples is enhanced applications in Honeycomb. Many of the native apps on Android have been completely rethought and enhanced, such as the email, browser, android market, Google Talk, and YouTube.

• Email. The email apps (both Gmail and everything else) use a two-pane system. So it makes perusing your inbox and various folders much easier. Moreover these apps use a new API open to all devs called "fragments" which allow for sliding panes. This means the left pane starts out listing all available folders for that email account, but when you choose something from the panel on the right side, that then slides over to the left and replaces the folder list. Consequently on the right side, now I can see the entire email thread or full chat that I requested pull up, and I can see the whole conversation.


• Browser. The biggest enhancement is tabbed browsing. You don't need to press a menu button within the browser to see all of the open windows. They're just presented like the Chrome browser on your computer, with the Action Bar showing off multiple tabs that you can switch to rather easily.


• Android Market. "My apps" section shows a listing of all apps you've downloaded, updated and/or installed. You can dictate whether the apps will have updates automatically installed, and you can open each individual app directly from this section. This listing of My Apps also notices if any updates are available, keeps me apprised of download/install progress, and is easy to scroll through.


• Google Talk. The integration of native video chat and Google Talk app makes it more convenient and accessible for anyone to use it. Even if you have a tablet and your business partner doesn't, just have them sign on to Google Talk on their computer and you're all set for a good video chat.


• YouTube. The YouTube app was built with Renderscript, and it's easy to tell because of the extra 3D renderings done up here. The app is set up like a grid with several rows and columns, but when you scroll left or right this grid curves with the scrolling, acting as if it's on a carousel.

With its enhanced applications, Honeycomb has been the biggest leap Android has taken in its growth and development ever since the OS came out. It has made Android much smarter in the process. As a result, Honeycomb will make Android tablets much more competitive with the iPad than existing Android devices running earlier versions of the Android software.

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