Android Honeycomb Is For Tablets OnlyAndroid Honeycomb Is For Tablets Only

When and where Google will officially announce Android Honeycomb and its features, we still don't know. After viewing today's sneak peek, we do know that it won't be available to smartphones.

The video shows Honeycomb running on an unbranded tablet device. The first thing that's noticeable are larger widgets on the home screen, which can still appear alongside Android apps. The added real estate of the tablet's larger screen makes for easier-to-use widgets. Widgets have always been one of Android's strengths, and I see that being amplified here.

The biggest new feature showcased by the video is a native video chat application. That means Android Honeycomb users won't need to use a third-party solution such as Skype or ooVoo to conduct video chats. The platform will handle it instead.

It appears that the Android browser has been revised in a very positive way. The big change? Real tabbed browsing. Tabbed browsing (with actual tabs across the top of the screen) is much better for fast switching between open web sites. This is something that I wish the iPad would adopt.

Honeycomb also shows off a new version of Gmail, which now features sliding panes for access to the inbox, messages, and other content. It feels more like the HTML5 email client that Gmail has created for the iPad.

The Google books application has been refreshed a bit, though none of the changes are revolutionary. There are some more animations and slicker transitions, but that's about all that was noticeable in the short video.

Last, the YouTube application has been revised somewhat. It has a more 3D-like user interface with collections of videos floating across the screen.

Google didn't post any text along with the video, so there's little else to say. Also, sadly, Google pulled the video soon after it was posted.