The most notable difference between Honeycomb, and any other version of Android, is the
user interface. It’s been completely revamped to suit larger displays, and just looks
plain sexy. The holographic UI is quite a step above almost anything we’ve ever seen
on a tablet, and from an aesthetics point of view, can easily challenge any tablet on
the market today.
Honeycomb offers the familiar five homescreen panels that you can customize with
applications and widgets, only this time around, it’s done with style. The panels are
all done up in 3D, and the entire UI is smooth as butter – at least on the Motorola
Xoom, which has the NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processors to thank for its graphics
prowess. The graphical enhancements throughout Honeycomb are stunning, and make a truly
immersive experience when using the tablet. Honeycomb has a slight learning curve, but
just like Android phones, once you get it, you get it. Still, that may not be simple
enough for some people.
In contrast, iOS is so painfully easy to use, that anyone could pick it up and get
going. However, it seems as if Apple is so concerned about making their OS stupid-proof
that it lacks certain functionality. Android 3.0 oozes power at the OS level, and iOS
leaves it to the applications to make it powerful. This isn’t a bad thing, but more
functionality within the OS itself makes for a more complex layout of how you use it.
2011年2月22日 星期二
Sony to Launch S2 Dual-Screen Android Tablet as Echo Competitor
Sprint’s Kyocera Android tablet may not be the lone dual-screen consumer tablet for
too long as Sony is rumored to be working on its own dual-screen Android tablet with
the codename of S2. According to Engadget, the S2, unlike the S1, may not be a
Playstation Certified device, as Sony is looking to position the S2 as more of a reader
than a gaming tablet.
The S2 will have larger displays than the Kyocera Echo, with each display panel
measuring 5.5 inches. The device follows a patent filing that was made by Sony in 2010
about a dual-screen digital reading device. The tablet, when closed, will have a nice
elliptical cylindrical form factor.
The S2 will be powered by a Tegra 2 chipset, bringing dual-core CPU performance from
NVIDIA. It will have WiFi and 3G support.
Like the Echo, the purpose of having dual displays will help to augment the user
experience. One application will be to provide an email list on one panel and show the
email content on the other panel so users can triage emails like on a desktop without
having to open the email to see the content, exit the email to go back to the list
view, and then tap on another email to see the body and repeat that process. Each
display will serve as a pane and will be able to deliver a desktop-like user interface.
Sony will likely use a customized Android build for its UI and will probably not use
Honeycomb. The company is anticipated to ship the S2 in time for the holiday shopping
season for $699, which will give you the WiFi + 3G model.
Additionally, Fujitsu had more recently demoed a dual-screen Android tablet concept of
its own as well at MWC.
too long as Sony is rumored to be working on its own dual-screen Android tablet with
the codename of S2. According to Engadget, the S2, unlike the S1, may not be a
Playstation Certified device, as Sony is looking to position the S2 as more of a reader
than a gaming tablet.
The S2 will have larger displays than the Kyocera Echo, with each display panel
measuring 5.5 inches. The device follows a patent filing that was made by Sony in 2010
about a dual-screen digital reading device. The tablet, when closed, will have a nice
elliptical cylindrical form factor.
The S2 will be powered by a Tegra 2 chipset, bringing dual-core CPU performance from
NVIDIA. It will have WiFi and 3G support.
Like the Echo, the purpose of having dual displays will help to augment the user
experience. One application will be to provide an email list on one panel and show the
email content on the other panel so users can triage emails like on a desktop without
having to open the email to see the content, exit the email to go back to the list
view, and then tap on another email to see the body and repeat that process. Each
display will serve as a pane and will be able to deliver a desktop-like user interface.
Sony will likely use a customized Android build for its UI and will probably not use
Honeycomb. The company is anticipated to ship the S2 in time for the holiday shopping
season for $699, which will give you the WiFi + 3G model.
Additionally, Fujitsu had more recently demoed a dual-screen Android tablet concept of
its own as well at MWC.
2011年2月20日 星期日
Quickoffice for Honeycomb Demoed: Turns Your Tablet Into a Business PC
If you're looked at the Motorola Xoom or other Android 3.0 tablets that are coming out and thought "that's nice, but I can't do serious work on them," you haven't seen Quickoffice running on it. Today at Mobile World Congress, Quickoffice demoed its upcoming app for Honeycomb, filled with wide-screen goodies you won't find on your phone.
We've long been fans of the company's Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite, because it allows smart phone users to edit Microsoft Office documents, even though there's no version of Office for Android and there probably never will be. With the ability to do serious Excel, PowerPoint, and Word document creation, any device can be used for serious productivity work.
The Honeycomb version of Quickoffice provides all the same great functionality Quickoffice users have come to know and love, but adds new features that take advantage of new Honeycomb features such as fragments (aka panels). For example, the file manager which appears when you first launch the app is a three-paned menu with a list of both local and cloud-based storage drive son the left, a list of files and folders in the center, and the files in the currently selected folder on the right.
In the Quickpoint presentation editor, a panel on the left allows you to scroll through the list of slides in your presentation and reorder them by tap and dragging. In the Quickword document editor, you can see a list of thumbnails of the next and previous pages while you finger scroll and a context menu in the top bar changes to allow contextual search or formatting when you highlight a piece of text. The Quickpoint spreadsheet editor is also impressive, as it includes 140 formulas built in and the ability to handle multiple worksheets.
Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suit for Honeycomb tablets will be available later this spring in the Android Market. Get a much closer look at it in the video below.
We've long been fans of the company's Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite, because it allows smart phone users to edit Microsoft Office documents, even though there's no version of Office for Android and there probably never will be. With the ability to do serious Excel, PowerPoint, and Word document creation, any device can be used for serious productivity work.
The Honeycomb version of Quickoffice provides all the same great functionality Quickoffice users have come to know and love, but adds new features that take advantage of new Honeycomb features such as fragments (aka panels). For example, the file manager which appears when you first launch the app is a three-paned menu with a list of both local and cloud-based storage drive son the left, a list of files and folders in the center, and the files in the currently selected folder on the right.
In the Quickpoint presentation editor, a panel on the left allows you to scroll through the list of slides in your presentation and reorder them by tap and dragging. In the Quickword document editor, you can see a list of thumbnails of the next and previous pages while you finger scroll and a context menu in the top bar changes to allow contextual search or formatting when you highlight a piece of text. The Quickpoint spreadsheet editor is also impressive, as it includes 140 formulas built in and the ability to handle multiple worksheets.
Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suit for Honeycomb tablets will be available later this spring in the Android Market. Get a much closer look at it in the video below.
訂閱：
文章 (Atom)