Genuwine1976
08-25-2010, 02:16 AM
* Android 3.0 Gingerbread will be released in mid- October (around 15 -16th), 2010. First handsets shipping in November/December – for the Holiday Season.
* Minimum hardware requirements for Android 3.0 devices are: 1GHZ CPU, 512MB or RAM, displays from 3.5” and higher. (We all, of course, heard that Android handsets with 2GHz CPU’s are coming)
* New 1280×760 resolution available for the devices with displays of 4” and higher. (Anyone thinking about Android tablets now? )
* Completely revamped user interface. If you want to get a feeling of what Android 3.0 Gingerbread UX is like, check out the Gallery App on Nexus One. The same overall feel, light animated transitions,etc. Natively, through all the UI.
* Android’s split into 2 branches becomes official. 3.0 for top of the line/high end devices. Cheap, low-end mass market handsets will keep Android 2.1/2.2
Eldar also confirmed my musings about the death of third party User Interface shells like HTC Sense, MotoBlur, etc;. Android 3.0 basically kills the need for them.
Still, there’s some hope for third party vendors here – while Google takes over the UI on the high end, vendors get to keep their UI shells/improvements on mass market Android smartphones, running Eclair or Froyo.
Update: I posted an update to this post, where I address Dan Morrill’s tweet, and do some corrections/clarifications regarding the upcoming Android update number issues, “minimum” specs – thay are actually only “recommended”, and the the split between high end Android 3 – low end Android 2.2 devices – it’s not an official Google policy, but it is happening nonetheless.
* Minimum hardware requirements for Android 3.0 devices are: 1GHZ CPU, 512MB or RAM, displays from 3.5” and higher. (We all, of course, heard that Android handsets with 2GHz CPU’s are coming)
* New 1280×760 resolution available for the devices with displays of 4” and higher. (Anyone thinking about Android tablets now? )
* Completely revamped user interface. If you want to get a feeling of what Android 3.0 Gingerbread UX is like, check out the Gallery App on Nexus One. The same overall feel, light animated transitions,etc. Natively, through all the UI.
* Android’s split into 2 branches becomes official. 3.0 for top of the line/high end devices. Cheap, low-end mass market handsets will keep Android 2.1/2.2
Eldar also confirmed my musings about the death of third party User Interface shells like HTC Sense, MotoBlur, etc;. Android 3.0 basically kills the need for them.
Still, there’s some hope for third party vendors here – while Google takes over the UI on the high end, vendors get to keep their UI shells/improvements on mass market Android smartphones, running Eclair or Froyo.
Update: I posted an update to this post, where I address Dan Morrill’s tweet, and do some corrections/clarifications regarding the upcoming Android update number issues, “minimum” specs – thay are actually only “recommended”, and the the split between high end Android 3 – low end Android 2.2 devices – it’s not an official Google policy, but it is happening nonetheless.