It’s been a very confusing ride with Android, trying to figure out the official version number of Honeycomb, exactly what Honeycomb will be, and what version devices will be getting. CES 2011 has finally helped get some answered though. At first it was assumed Honeycomb would be Android 3.0, then it was assumed it was suggesting Android 2.4. The official and final word on the matter is that it is version 3.0.

Recently at CES, a member of Tweakers.net got their hands on one of the new Sony Xperia Arcs that turned out to be running what appears to be an early build of Android 2.4. Rumor has it that it will be an amped-up version of Gingerbread which will also include some fixes and extra features that Google could not squeeze into the Android 2.3 build. It’s nothing mind-blowing but the initial changes seem to be these:

• Speed: Tweakers.netreports that 2.4, even in these early stages, felt somewhat faster than Gingerbread and that they experienced no delays when switching between windows and apps.
• Screen Animations: Android has had its animations overhauled when moving shortcuts and widgets around the homescreen.
• Call Noise Reduction: Now this one is really interesting; Evidently, the phone app now contains a “noise reduction” option which uses software enhancements (read: magic) to reduce the noise in a voice call. Cool.
• Video Chat: The framework code has added some tools for video chat, but there is still no word on whether or not the gTalk app will be getting this ability (we can only hope).

As for right now, Gingerbread 2.4 is somewhat of a distant release, but it does present some interesting changes. It’s quite possible that Google needed to release 2.3 in a rush before Christmas and that the 2.4 update would be finishing the job. All we’re left with currently are the accounts of Tweakers.net and these pictures:

[Source: Tweakers]

Authors: _GadgetNews

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