Android 3.0 Honeycomb SDK Released, New User/Developer Features Breakdown
Google has just released the new SDK for Android 3.0 aka Honeycomb. This version of Android is meant to be used on tablets only while Gingerbread is to be used for Android phones (for now). Here’s is Google’s own words describing the new OS version:
Android 3.0 is a new version of the Android platform that is specifically optimized for devices with larger screen sizes, particularly tablets. It introduces a brand new, truly virtual and “holographic” UI design, as well as an elegant, content-focused interaction model. Android 3.0 builds on the things people love most about Android — refined multitasking, rich notifications, Home screen customization, widgets, and more — and transforms them with a vibrant, 3D experience and deeper interactivity, making them familiar but even better than before. The new UI brings fresh paradigms for interaction, navigation, and customization and makes them available to all applications — even those built for earlier versions of the platform. Applications written for Android 3.0 are able to use an extended set of UI objects, powerful graphics, and media capabilities to engage users in new ways.
There are a lot of new features added to Android with this version so let’s not waste anymore time. Here they are:
| New User Features: | |
| System Bar – | Ok, so familiar with the notification bar at the top of your Android phone? Well, in Honeycomb it’s going to be at the bottom and add a little more functionality including soft navigation buttons and a new “lights out” mode that dims it for when you are watching videos etc. |
| Action Bar – | So this one is a little trickier. Basically it is a section at the top of apps that can be used to control certain functions of the app. Any apps made for Honeycomb will have access to this and the app itself is in charge of what controls end up here. |
| Home Screen Visual Layout Mode – | You can now enter this home screen editing mode to change aspects of the 5 home screens you have including set up widgets, apps, etc. Also they have said that the “app drawer launcher” button we are used to will also be present on all home screens like it is now. |
| Recent Apps – | Users can launch a recent apps list from the System Bar (that new thing at the bottom of the screen) and use it to see their last few apps like users can do now with holding down the Home button on their Android phone. Difference here is that each app will not just show an icon for that app, but also a screen shot of the state that app was in when you left it. |
| New Keyboard – | This is basically the Android Gingerbread (2.3) keyboard but they added a few new touches like a Tab button and the ability to switch between text and voice input directly from the System Bar. |
| Improved Text Selection, Copy, and Paste – | Again this is similar to the text selection in Gingerbread, but now it makes use of the new Action Bar at the top, giving you options to copy and paste etc from there instead of having to long press after selecting the text like you do now in Android. |
| New Connectivity Options – | Media/Photo Transfer Protocol has been added. Now you can sync music, picutres, or other media with your Desktop computer OR if you plug in a Digital Camera to your Android tablet without needing to mount it as USB storage. Full Keyboards can be connected to the Android tablet either by USB or Bluetooth. Improved Wifi connectivity (new method of scanning to save time and energy) Support for sharing your Internet Connection via Bluetooth instead of just WiFi. |
| New Standard Apps – | Browser – Not going to lie, I’m a little excited about this one. Basically they are adding tabs instead of having to bring up the windows method we currently use to view multiple websites in the browser and they are also adding a way to sync your bookmarks with Google Chrome on your desktop. Besides that they have added multitouch support for Javascript and plugins and they say they’ve improved the scrolling, zooming, etc. when viewing websites as well. Camera and Gallery- They basically took the controls and made them larger and prettier for use on a larger screen. Contacts – Similar to the iPad, they have a new two-pane design for view contacts. Email – Again taking a page from the iPad, this is using a new two-pane design to view emails. |
And for you developers out there, here’s what they added specifically for you… (And even for you non-developers, it’s interesting to see some of the new features apps will be able to use)
| New Developer Features: | |
| Activity Fragments – | These basically break down any Activity into sub components, called Fragments. These fragments can be used to display information in two separate panes in an Activity, for example, each being able to be interacted with individually by the users. |
| Redesigned UI Widgets – | Now the name widgets usually confuses people, but Android uses widgets and Home Screen widgets, they are two different things. But as a developer, you knew that, of c0urse. So basically Google has added new widgets to be used in your apps, including a 3D stack, a new search widget, and many others all using the new “holographic” theme. |
| Expanded Home Screen Widgets – | Ok, now these are the widgets that are actually displayed on the home screen of you device. Google has added a few new features to them in Android 3.0, like 3D stacking, grids, lists, and users can interact with them differently now using gestures. |
| Action Bar – | We talked about this in the User feature section, but it’s really more of a big deal for developers. Android provides you with an Action bar at the top of your application and you can choose what controls (or actions) go in that bar for you application to use. Sort of giving you a specific place for your app’s controls instead of you having to make your own (probably in an effort to keep Android apps looking more consistent, I’d imagine). |
| Better Notifications – | Developers can now better customize their notifications for users. They can add flags, change the size of the icons, give it a title, and other additions to make notifications a little richer for the user. |
| Multiselect, Clipboard, and Drag and Drop – | As the title says, Android has added a few new selecting options for developers to implement in their apps. These include Multiselect so users can select more than one item in a list for example, a new system wide Clipboard that they can save things to and recall things from, and a Drag and Drop option that allows developers to use the DragEvent framework to have users be able to move items around within the app. |
| Animation Framework – | Developers can now easily animate the properties of UI elements of within their apps like Views, Widgets, Drawables, etc using a new animation framework. |
| Upgraded Graphics Handling – | New hardware accelerated 2D graphics using OpenGL and new Renderscript framework support. |
| Support for Multicore Processors – | Not much to say here… Android 3.0 can support processors with more than one core. |
| HTTP Live Streaming – | Applications can now pass an M3U playlist URL to begin an HTTP Live Streaming session. |
| Pluggable DRM Framework – | A framework to help developers manage protected content. |
| Digital Media File Transfer Protocol – | See New Connectivity Options in the User Features above. |
| Existing Application Compatibility – | This one is kind of important! Ok, so basically any apps designed for previous versions of Android will run on Honeycomb and even have the same “holographic” styling by simply adding a single attribute to the existing apps manifest file. Also the Menu key is emulated by the new Action Bar at the top in case the tablet doesn’t have a menu button I guess? Also, it is fairly simple to add specific layouts and assets for larger screens that will be used automatically instead of the smaller ones when it is loaded on a Honeycomb running device. |
More screenshots and a video below:
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Feel free to grab the SDK or read more details here.
Looks UI Heavy, Can even think of porting it to some phones.. 🙁