In the world of Android tablets, most of the options are extremely similar, but the Asus Transformer has stood out from the rest of the pack in two main areas. First, it is the only Android tablet to have an official plug-in keyboard, and second, it is the only Android tablet to sell out. Since that time Asus has been able to ramp up production and now is able to keep up with demand for the popular device. Asus announced via its Twitter account that the tablet will be updating its operating system to the latest version of Honeycomb 3.2 on July 28.
Despite being one of the most popular Android tablets, the Transformer isn’t the first Honeycomb tablet to upgrade to 3.2, but it certainly isn’t the last. Honeycomb 3.2 isn’t drastically different from 3.1, but it does add some small changes. The most notable change is the zoom feature for phone versions of apps displayed on the larger tablet screen. The user is now able to decide how the phone apps are displayed on the screen, either zoomed in or stretched. The other exciting thing about 3.2 is not even a feature of the OS. Honeycomb 3.2 is supposed to be the last update to Honeycomb before Google releases Ice cream Sandwich. Ice cream sandwich is Google’s all-inclusive OS that will be available on phones and tablets, and is supposed to provide a single OS shared between several form factors.
While it still might be a gamble to buy an Android tablet, it’s clear that the OS is ready for a fight against Apple’s iPad. Honeycomb tablets are coming out fairly quickly, and one of these days consumers will start buying them in larger quantities. Hopefully developers will also start working on some decent apps to help populate the pretty barren Honeycomb market.
