Android 3.0 Nears Release

Can you smell it in the air? It smells like a Honeycomb cooking, otherwise known as Android 3.0, which Google's trying to bake to perfection for the tablet space. The search titan has begun serving up samples of its next-generation OS to allow developers enough time to get acquainted with the new platform.

"Today, we are releasing a preview of the Android 3.0 SDK, with non-final APIs and system image, to allow developers to start testing their existing applications on the tablet form-factor and begin getting familiar with the new UI patterns, APIs, and capabilities that will be available in Android 3.0," Google announced in a blog post.


In case you haven't been following, Android 3.0 (codenamed Honeycomb) is the first version of Android "that is designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes, particularly tablets," Google says. More than just lip service, early glimpses of Honeycomb confirm that there's reason to be excited about Android in the tablet space, as it represents a noticeable departure over Android as you've come to know it in the smartphone sector.

You can view highlights of the upcoming OS here, and if you're a developer itching to play around with the newly released SDK, go here.