We talked the other day about Motorola rolling out the Android 3.2 update for Xoom owners and the release of the release of the source code for that update. We also briefly touched on some of the features of this latest Honeycomb update, but we really didn’t know too much. Since then Google has released the Android 3.2 SDK (software developer kit), and now we are able to look a little deeper into what this update actually entails.
It seems to be the main focus of this update is all about the tablet screen. As excepted Android 3.2 will offer support for new screen sizes and different resolutions, most importantly the 7 inch tablet. Currently the only Honeycomb tablets are 10 inch tablets with a 1280 x 800 pixel display. Android 3.2 will fully support 7 inch tablets, and a 1024 x 600 pixel display. This means more affordable tablets on the market. Huawei has announced their 7 inch MediaPad, Asus is working on the EeePad MeMO 3D, and the Acer Iconia A100 should all be released soon.
The other big screen related feature is the Zoom to Fill feature. This will help out apps that weren’t designed for large screens, become compatible with tablets. Now users will have the option to select a Zoom to Fill sceen, instead of automatically being stretched to fill the screen. If will offer a scaled alternative to the traditional streched view, but the drawback is some apps will look pixelated, just like on the iPad. It also gives the user more choices, which is always a good thing.
Third on the list is SD card media synchronization. Apps can now read and load media directly from the SD card, instead of just the tablets internal memory. As long as your tablet has a working SD card slot, you will be able to sync media to and from the card. I am sure developers will be taking advantage of this in no time.
There are also some other additions, but nothing to big. These are basically geared towards developers, and nothing that the average user will notice. Its also rumored that Google is hoping that all Honeycomb tablets will have the 3,2 update by the end of next month, we also hear that Asus is already in the internal testing phase, and should have the update ready for EeePad Transformer very soon, maybe even next week.
All and all, Android 3.2 is pretty big update. It wont have the impact that Ice Cream Sandwich will have, but it is still important nonetheless.
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