Honeycomb features a revamped interface Google engineers describe as "truly virtual and holographic." In place of hardware buttons, the software features an on-screen navigation bar that appears at the bottom of the display, regardless of which way you orient the device. Simple multitasking and customization take center stage. And the home screen itself takes on a very different look from previous smartphone-focused Android releases.

The updated appearance is partially due to the prominence of new punched-up widgets, redesigned for a more interactive experience: You can scroll through your inbox with the new Gmail widget, for example, or browse through your upcoming appointments with the updated calendar widget. Honeycomb can also create a custom widget for any person in your contact list; once on your home screen, it displays a comprehensive stream of updates and activity for that person on all of the services where the two of you are connected.

One question currently unanswered is how Honeycomb's robust interface will affect . So far, things sound promising: Motorola, for its part, says its Xoom tablet can provide 10 hours of video playback on a single charge. Until some of these units are available to be tested out in the wild, though, it's difficult to say what real-world performance will be like.

, put together by T-Mobile to help promote its upcoming LG , does a fairly good job showing the new interface in action: