Android, Android Tablet | featured news

Google Mobile Platform VP Andy Rubin literally arrived with a bag full of tricks at the D: Get Into Mobile Conference, showing publicly for the very first time an Android "Honeycomb" tablet. The roughly 10-inch, Motorola device was sleek, black, thin and sported an Android interface unlike any we've seen before. There was a very clean homepage, but the app page looked almost Apple iPad-like. Plus, when Rubin brought up the Gmail app, it looked almost exactly like Gmail on the iPad.

“For the holidays, the tablets will be mostly Android-based, plus the iPad,” said Mike Vitelli, Best Buy’s President of North and South American business, in an interview.

Early reports indicate Europe will pay a pretty penny for Samsung's Galaxy Tab, but the 7-inch tablet may cost a good bit less when it comes to US shores -- the Wall Street Journal paraphrases a Samsung executive who claims it could run between $200 and $300 depending on the all-important carrier subsidies.

Samsung shows up fashionably late to the Android Tablet party with a new product scheduled to release this quarter.

Watch out, iPad: Google may be getting into the tablet game. In a move reminiscent of its recent step into mobile phone design, Google is reportedly working on its own custom Android-powered tablet.