Android 3.0 Honeycomb

Android 3.0 Honeycomb

On February 22, 2011, the Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) SDK – the first tablet-only Android update – was released, based on Linux kernel 2.6.36. The first device featuring this version, the Motorola Xoom tablet, was released on February 24, 2011. The update's features included:

Version: 3.0 Release date: February 22, 2011

•     Optimized tablet support with a new “holographic” user interface
•     Added System Bar, featuring quick access to notifications, status, and soft navigation buttons, available at the bottom of the screen
•     Added Action Bar, giving access to contextual options, navigation, widgets, or other types of content at the top of the screen
•     Simplified multitasking – tapping Recent Applications in the System Bar allows users to see snapshots of the tasks underway and quickly jump from one application to another
•     Redesigned keyboard, making typing fast, efficient and accurate on larger screen sizes
•     Simplified, more intuitive copy/paste interface
•     Multiple browser tabs replacing browser windows, plus form auto-fill and a new “incognito” mode allowing anonymous browsing
•     Quick access to camera exposure, focus, flash, zoom, front-facing camera, time-lapse, and other camera features
•     Ability to view albums and other collections in full-screen mode in Gallery, with easy access to thumbnails for other photos
•     New two-pane Contacts UI and Fast Scroll to let users easily organize and locate contacts
•     New two-pane Email UI to make viewing and organizing messages more efficient, allowing users to select one or more messages
•     Hardware acceleration
•     Support for multi-core processors
•     Ability to encrypt all user data
•     HTTPS stack improved with Server Name Indication (SNI)
•     Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE; kernel module)
•     Applications' write access to secondary storage (memory cards on devices with internal primary storage) is disabled outside of designated, app-specific directories, while full access to internal primary storage is still allowed through a separate application-level permission.