Google issues temporary fix for the 'there aren't enough native Honeycomb apps' problem

Today, Google formally announced Android 3.2, an "incremental release" that addresses a big perception problem: Not enough native Honeycomb tablet apps. Apple's iPad has 100,000, while Android has, well, you don't really want to know.

Google announced the new capability a week ago. Now developers will have access to it: "'Stretch to fill screen' is normal layout resizing (using your app's alternative resources for size and density) and 'Zoom to fill screen' is the new screen compatibility mode" Scott Main, lead tech writer for developer.android.com, writes in a July 11 blog post.

In my experience using the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, most Android phone apps resize pretty, begging the question: How much more native do you need? If I can run Android phone apps, what difference does stretch or zoom really make?

Not all applications support the stretch capability, which is a major reason Google is providing zoom, too. The zoom option also changes how the process works, which may be more appropriate for many apps. Google's Android 3.2 SDK document explains:

Android 3.2 provides a new screen compatibility mode for applications explicitly declaring that they do not support screens as large as the one on which they are running. This new 'zoom' mode is a pixel-scaled -- it renders the application in a smaller screen area and then scales the pixels to fill the current screen.

By default, the system offers screen compatibility mode as an user option, for apps that require it. Users can turn the zoom mode on and off using a control available in the system bar.

Because the new screen compatibility mode may not be appropriate for all applications, the platform allows the application to disable it using manifest attributes. When disabled by the app, the system does not offer "zoom" compatibility mode as an option for users when the app is running.

Android 3.2 introduces some other capabilities that should please developers and end users. Among them:

• Greater control over how apps scale across different screen sizes. This is not the zoom feature but a function of new screen support APIs available with this release;
• For devices supporting SD cards, the ability to load media directly from removable storage to apps.

Google calls this an "incremental release", but that's a matter of perspective. The screen APIs and zoom features pave way for Ice Cream Sandwich, which will bring together Android 2.x for smartphones and 3.x for tablets. Then there are the different size tablets available. For example, Samsung has three models between 7 inches and 10.1 inches. These smaller tablets can be stuck in the Android 2.x world forever.

Additionally, these tweaks are part of Google's process fixing its messy fragmentation problem.