Google finalises its Android 3.0 SDK

SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Google has released the full software development kit (SDK) for Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

Last month Google announced an interim version of the Android 3.0 SDK to whet developers' appetites, but as devices running the operating system near public release, Google has gone ahead and finalised the APIs. It means that developers can go headfirst into developing Android applications for tablets.

From a developer's point of view, Android 3.0 brings several changes to the user interface - 'live' widgets, improved 2D and 3D performance and multi-core processor support. Google has updated its SDK Tools with a new version of the Android Developer Tools plug-in for Eclipse. Changes to the UI Builder include accuracy improvements in rendering, a new palette and zoom improvements.

Alongside improvements to UI Builder, Google has integrated Traceview and bunged in software to allow developers to make use of Renderscript, Android 3.0's 3D graphics engine.

With devices such as Motorola's Xoom and Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 set to hit the shelves in April, this gives developers just about enough time to port applications from previous versions of Android.

Google has given developers a new bag of tricks with Android 3.0 and now with the SDK finalised, it's up to the clever people sitting behind Eclipse screens to do their magic. µ