Honeycomb is here. The latest iteration of Google's popular Android Operating system has been unveiled, and tablet makers are lining up to install it.
For the first time since its release, the Apple iPad has some actual competition.
First off, the Motorola Xoom tablet. We first saw this as it garnered a ton of buzz at CES. It uses Google's cloud services to store your data, so even if you lose your device, the data is safe. It's open source, and it's fair to say is is the very latest in touch computing.
It, along with tablets from Samsung, LG, and others, will come with Honeycomb inside.
The multi-touch on Honeycomb is cool. You can stack your widgets, and touch multiple stacks at the same time. Yes, there are lots of new apps, as well as classics. "Fruit Ninja," for example, was shown off, with multi-touch, multi-fingered play.
Expect a ton of new open source apps to show up for all these new tablets. Google pleased the developers in the crowd by showing off new tools for creating apps within Honeycomb.
Not surprisingly, Google's own YouTube has cool tablet features, including a wall of videos for you to scroll through and choose from.
Tech
Maps, too, are rendered larger for tablets. Some of Google's new 3D mapping shows you buildings in a cool way. "Google Body," called the Google Maps of, well, yourself, gives you a tablet-sized, 3D tour of your bod. Nice new app.
We're still waiting for prices and release dates.
Updates on Twitter @scottbudman
