Asus Releases Honeycomb Source Code For Transformer

Peter Judge,

As Asus’ Eee Transformer goes on sale; it brings Honeycomb source code that Google hasn’t released

Asus’  Eee Transformer – the tablet that turns into a netbook – is available now in the UK for prices as low as £361, and developers can download Android Honeycomb source code that Google has not yet released on Asus’ site.

The tablet is on sale at around £380 for the 16GB version, or £430 including the optional plug-in keyboard dock, from sites including eBuyer; but Comet is reportedly offering a five percent discount until Wednesday 13 April, to customers quoting the code 5OFF.

Transformer Tangles with iPad 2

According to reviews, the Transformer gives Apple’s iPad 2 some competition, as it is one of the first tablets using the tablet-oriented Honeycomb (v3.0) release of Google’s Android mobile operating system to arrive.

With a separable keyboard, it is a serious bid to square the conflict between consumer-oriented tablets and business-friendly notebooks, powered by a 1GHz Tegra 2 processor and with a 10.1 inch display.

Releasing the Honeycomb source

Almost as excitingly for developers, the downloadable software on Asus’ site includes the source code for the Android kernel, which Asus should post in order to comply with the GPL licence – even though Google has not officially released Honeycomb source code.

In Honeycomb, Google has adapted the Android OS for tablets, and it is believed that the delay to its source code is because a phone-oriented version of Honeycomb is also on the way.

Asus has not released the whole OS, but the kernel will be enough for developers to get started, according to Android Central.

Other Honeycomb tablets are emerging, notably the Motorola Xoom, with more coming from Samsung, Dell, HTC and Acer.

Apart from the possible confusion between Honeycomb tablets and phones, Google has another problem – it has two overlapping operating systems. Chrome OS, a lightweight operating system designed to run apps through the Chrome browser, was originally launched on netbooks, but has now been tweaked to run on the more fashionable tablet format.

Commentators have suggested radical options including merging Chrome and Android.