Tablets are causing a lot of the buzz at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show. The big question is, what operation system is system is going to drive all of them?
Just over a month back we saw the latest version of Android, known as Gingerbread, which is only currently seen on the Samsung Nexus S. Despite this, Google has pushed ahead and is believed to be close to releasing the next version of Android, which we have seen previewed here at the CES.
The name which is being used to describe this tablet optimised version of the system is Honeycomb, although different rumours giving the OS its official name of either Android 2.4 or Android 3.0 have been quashed with the official release video below. What really matters is that this new design is coming out so soon after the Gingerbread release because it is aimed at a completely different type of machine; the tablet. The official video from the Google Developers YouTube channel outlines Honeycomb below:
According to the most accurate sounding rumours we can expect to see this latest software in March and can expect to see some significant changes to earlier versions of Android, which will help drive the latest generation of tablets.
One of the first tablets to use this operating system will be the Motorola Xoom device. We can expect to see a new, improved interface with an onscreen navigation bar, a new browser. better widgets, a longer battery time, integrated Google Talk video chat and the chance to take advantage of the big tablet screen by using multiple panes.
Even if the March rumour turns out to be wrong it is clear that it will be coming out this year, as the people at Google have already confirmed that 2011 will be the year of the Honeycomb release. Now the people at Google just have to ask themselves one thing. Will the public take to the new tablets well enough to justify the work they have done on the operating system?
