Android 3.2 to Feature New Mode for Viewing Non-Tablet Apps
While Honeycomb has vastly improved the Android tablet experience, the platform still features a relatively low number of native apps designed with larger screen sizes in mind. It has been a chief point of attack for many detractors and competitors, and the Android team hopes to provide some relief in a “near-future release” of Honeycomb. To us that could only reference one thing, Android 3.2, the next installment of the Tablet version of Android scheduled to launch on the Huawei Mediapad and possibly rolling out to the Motorola XOOM in the near future.
The next iteration of Honeycomb will give users the options to view non-tablet apps in the already available “stretch” mode, which can lead to wonky layouts and poor compatibility with the screen size of Android slates, or in a new “zoom” mode. This “zoom” mode will run apps at a smaller screen size and then enlarge the whole thing twofold. It’s pretty much the same functionality the iPad has employed to emulate iPhone apps on its bigger screen. It won’t do much to add more apps to Honeycomb’s stables, but it will allow some apps that don’t quite display correctly when stretched to fill the screen to be more usable on Android tablets.
[via Android Developers Blog]