Hands-On With Google’s Android 3.1 Update

Google's long-awaited Mechanical man 3.1 update is slowly rolling unfashionable over-the-air to the Motorola Xoom, the prototypical of the Honeycomb-supported tablets to get the update. The non-3G Xoom on my desk finally got its update, and I got a chance to finally get some up-close time with the OS.

The update is a feast for the eyes, literally, since it corrects one major issue–the image interpretation snafu in the Gallery app–and provides the tractability of resizable widgets. However, in spite of the many niceties integrated into the head-on face of Android 3.1, I'd consider this update just a baby step towards fixing a wider swath of rough spots in Android Honeycomb.

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Fixed: Look-alike Interpretation

Interestingly enough, the Android 3.1 developer revision notes don't appear to specify anything about fixing the image rendering problem. Information technology's a problem I've transcribed about multiple multiplication before, simply because information technology was so confounding and unexpected to find in so much a basic, core app. And because, honestly, Humanoid 2.2-based tablets had no issues; who'd have expected Google to mess up something it was already getting proper?

Of course, I had other reason for noticing the write out–and wanting it flat. As a photographer, I can foresee a world in which a tablet can be a handy and unobtrusive tool in the field for blob-checking exposures and sharpness. Mind you, this can just atomic number 4 done if the image is existence rendered properly–and the Gallery app struggled to do fair-minded that pre-3.1 update.

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With the 3.1 update in place, I checked the same images happening 3.1 and along 3.0. The difference was impinging, to the point that colleagues even questioned whether information technology really was the same image. My high-resolution shots (photographed on a Canyon 1D Tick III) looked crisp and sharp, and displayed terrific detail on the Xoom's 1280 by 800 pixel screen. I'd go so far as to say it displayed better detail than the lower-resolution Malus pumila's iPad 2. The iPad 2 appears to be better at color replication than the Xoom, although this seems to be thanks to the iPad's display, not how Mechanical man or iOS render images. I say this simply because the screen grabs of the Motorola Xoom's picture picture gallery, seen below, both exhibited better colors on an Orchard apple tree iMac display than they did on the Xoom itself.

Resizing Widgets (Click to Zoom)

New: Resizable Widgets

This unprecedented capability unlocks a whole new global of functionality. World Health Organization knew the ability to resize would make such a departure? But yes, the ability to manually adjust the thingumajig size is freeing, and makes the e-mail widget infinitely more useful. Resizing is simple. Showtime, drag the widget to the home screen you wish information technology on. Past, press and hold to reposition information technology, and to contribute up the blue rectangular box with points you can drag out to enlarge the widget in any direction.

Improved: Browser

Embedded HTML5 videos now can play in-line in the browser. Previously, they launched intent on a full-screen web browser. Also, a hot addition for those who privation to stock informed Web pages for offline indication (i.e., before IT's time to number off all lepton devices in front takeoff): the browser can now save Web pages. The pages are saved to the revamped Downloads view, which now rear show downloads past date or size. The Quick Controls (accessible in the browser's Settings/Labs options) now hide Application and URL bars. In conclusion, in the Labs section, you can now enable Google Instant.

Improved: Contacts and Calendar

Contacts now let you search an stallion tape for a term, not just the name fields. This is terrifically handy if you want to add a keyword to help refine searches when you're looking for contacts whose names may not live on the tiptoe of your tongue. The calendar apps tweaks are subtle, to the point that you mightiness miss them if you blink. Simply the graphical fixes (for example, adding a "Today" label to the button you tap to return to today's date on the calendar) heighten usability.

Improved: Navigation

The Home screen button now returns you to the last home screen you accessed. The spry access push button–one of the ternary main navigation keys at the lower unexpended of the screen–now lets you scroll through your recently opened apps. The most recently opened app appears at the underside of the lean, with the older apps scrolling up and off-screen. Still, the finger-flick access makes good sense–though I still find I ultimately English hawthorn deman to motility my fingers many to use the sol-called "quick access" characteristic than if I had just reopened the app from one of my internal screens.

Cleared: Mechanical man Market

Again, some harmful interface tweaks really help boost usability. For example, now the interpretation see of the app appears suited next to the version number. The addition of movie rentals at the top expands the Market's functionality.

Added: USB Host

As according before, Android 3.1 lets USB ports on tablets now act as USB hosts, officially adding support for peripherals such as flash storage, cameras, and keyboards. Unfortunately, almost of the tablets out today don't have a USB-A port; instead, they may have microUSB, which is what the Motorola Xoom has, which means you'll need to scare up an adaptor or find a uncommon peripheral that relies on microUSB for a host device (none in reality come to mind). I'll eagerly hand this a go, but that will possess to wait until the update reaches the tablets that can take advantage of this. Lag, Bluetooth pointing devices are now supported; just duet the input gimmick with the pill and you'ray on your way.

Backside Line

To be sincere, I found it intemperately to take Android 3.0 seriously when image rendering was so much an issue. The Android 3.1 update fixes that and helps the OS uprise up some. But there's still plenty of room for melioration. Before Google I/O and the announcement of Android 3.1's availability, I known basketball team things Google needed to fix in Humanoid 3.0. Of those five, only the first was self-addressed. And those aren't the only unpaid things that needed advance, no doubt. Hopefully whatever of these tweaks will hail with time–and we won't have to time lag for Icecream Sandwich, the great unifying operating system of rules that leave make up used for both phones and tablets–to view Thomas More improvements.