Acer Iconia Tab A500 and Asus Eee Pad Transformer to get Honeycomb 3.1

Update promised

Acer Iconia Tab A500 and Asus Eee Pad Transformer to get Honeycomb 3.1

18 May 2011 5:59 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Acer and Asus have both confirmed that the new Iconia Tab A500 and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, just launched, will be getting the new Google Honeycomb 3.1 update in June.

Google announced the new features of Honeycomb 3.1 at its annual Google I/O conference in San Francisco last week, and it looks like both companies will be rolling out an update quickly.

So far there is just one Honeycomb device with Honeycomb 3.1 - the Motorola Xoom, however the news from Acer and Asus will mean more tablets, and therefore users, will be getting the new features sooner rather than later - clearly a good thing for all involved.

The new update brings with it a bevy of features, however aside from USB accessory support the majority of changes are tweaks to the user interface.

New to the operating system will be an application task manager that automatically shuts down tasks that aren’t being used - your battery will thank you later.

Google has also re-vamped the widgets feature allowing you to set your own size, and whether you want them to be horizontal or vertical.

However, the biggest change will be that Android 3.1 also gets USB hosts, meaning you’ll be able to input photos directly from your camera to your tablet, as well as supporting a range of USB accessories like game controllers, keyboards, and mice.

Asus already offers USB support for its transforming keyboard, however this should add even greater support for other devices. 

No word, however, whether the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1V will be getting the 3.1 update. 

Via: thisismynext.com

Full tags
Tablets, Acer, Asus, Acer Iconia Tab A500, Asus Eee Pad Transformer, Honeycomb

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