intro for android 3.0 Honeycomb ~

If you’ve been wondering what all of the hype around Honeycomb is about, check out these two detailed dissections of the new OS.

First up is Geek.com, who breaks out the elements of the new OS, including the UI, multitasking, typing, and Google Apps. Most notable is that in the Android 3.0 SDK, Google’s own Gmail app left them wanting more and even hoping it was incomplete. However, multitasking is much improved, handling multiple applications with ease, and displaying the actual in-app screens, instead of just the app name and an icon.

The second dissection comes to us from AndroidCentral. In this case, they really break out the new OS, including home screens, the system bar, action bar, keyboard, cut/copy/paste, web browser, and more. They also highlight that you can drag and drop items, which is a needed feature, but something that we’ve been enjoying on iOS and HTML5 for a while now.

In both of the above articles, it’s clear that a lot of thought went into this new OS. Gone is the feeling that you’re using a larger phone, and in its place is a futuristic, solid perfuming contender to the iPad.

As an iPad user I have to admit that interacting with a tablet device can be an experience. The iPad delivers on the experience, whereas the Samsung Tab just delivers functionality. With the new Honeycomb OS, you can bet that Android will start taking a bite out of the iPad’s market share in pretty short order.

You can also check out Google’s preview video of the OS below: