Ubuntu Tips n Tricks

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" May Support Smartphones Soon

Posted: 29 Jan 2011 03:40 AM PST

Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" May Support Smartphones Soon: Although the spectacularly sweet Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" is primarily aimed to run on tablet computers, there is already sufficient proof that it will support smartphones in the near future. The recently released Android 3.0 SDK preview has revealed several significant details that the Honeycomb will not run exclusively on tablets.

Utilizing the Android 3.0 preview SDK's emulator, the default screen resolution is 1280 x 768 pixels (WXGA) that is obviously set for the large screen of tablet PCs. Under this display setting you will see the glorious Honeycomb home screen with all those shiny widgets and impressive special effects. However, when the emulator is set to a lower WVGA resolution (commonly used by smartphones), it automatically switches to a more simple user interface (see below). The default launcher also crashes so you may proceed by installing a new or replacement launcher.

As you can see from the screenshot above, you will notice that the home screen UI is indeed designed for smartphones. The status bar, lock screen, and even the background are pretty similar to those on previous Android versions.

The Android 3.0 web browser has been completely overhauled and features tabbed browsing. Running under the lower screen resolution I've mentioned above, the browser still works but with tabs hidden probably to maximize screen real estate.

On a related note, Google will hold an Android event on February 2. The guys from Mountain View promised to give us a close look at Honeycomb and will provide some hands-on demos. Hopefully, Google will confirm during the said event that Android 3.0 will be running on smartphones soon.