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Google has released a platform preview of the Android 3.0 SDK giving the public a sneak peak at the upcoming tablet-friendly operating system.
The Android 3.0 Platform Highlights page promises "a glimpse of some of the new features and technologies, as delivered in the Android 3.0". Chief among the improvements is the new "holographic" UI which is designed to take advantage of larger screen sizes.
Google said that the new interface offered improvements in interacting with applications and added a global status bar always available except in a "lights out mode" and full-screen viewing.
Also included are expanded home screen widgets which allow flicking through application content such as 3D stacks, grids or lists. Widgets would also respond to user interaction through gestures.
Graphics performance improvements are also promised with new hardware accelerated 2D and 3D graphics. The OS will offer a new animation framework to developers and a new 3D graphics Renderscript system is provided which Google said is "an ideal way to create high-performance 3D effects for applications, wallpapers, carousels, and more."
Support for multi core processor architectures is another feature of the new version. New Android 3.0 tablets are generally expected to launch with at least dual ARM processor cores.
Google created a sneak peek video of Android 3.0 at the CES show which you can see below.
