Available as a free (of course) download through the Google Play Store, Chrome for Android is currently only compatible with devices running on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (or higher). It’s unclear whether Google will eventually port it to Honeycomb and Gingerbread, since they’d rather you keep upgrading to the newest version of Android anyhow.

You can expect to get tabbed browsing, of course, but Chrome for Android also has incognito. There’s also the ability to sync your open tabs with your desktop to read later and the ability to switch tabs “the way you would fan a deck of cards.” They’ve made some minor UI adjustments that are meant to make the browser better for tablets too.

[Source]

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Chrome OS. It’s the platform that is behind the ChromeBook, but don’t you think it would be an even better solution for tablets? Sure, there are already tons of Android tablets out there, but Chromium might be a more suitable fit. And the video below demonstrates exactly what a Chrome tablet would look like.

Web developer Francois Beaufort found a “hidden” touchscreen interface within Chrome OS, so he thought he’d give it a try. Tinkering around in the open source operating system, he activated touchscreen mode by adjusting export GYP_DEFINES=”touchui=1″, then running the standard “gclient sync” to revise the tarball.

And the net result looks pretty good. The touchscreen keyboard is similar to Android, you get larger menus that are more finger-friendly, and the regular option and navigation buttons are easy to tap too. This is an early build, but I’d imagine that with some tweaks and fixes, Chromium could have some serious tablet potential. To the cloud…

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Making your own OS is taxing on developers and time consuming, then where does this new OS pull its apps from? The quick fix, slap Android on it and go. That’s all fine and dandy for smartphones, but Google’s director of mobile products Hugo Barra told TechRadar “The way Android Market works is it’s not going to be available on tablets that don’t allow devices and applications to run correctly.” Since the Galaxy Tab is considered a “large phone” the apps from Android’s market seem to function just fine. Apparently, the G-Tab works so well that Android’s Open Source & Compatibility Program Manager, Dan Morrill, didn’t want to give a loaner unit back; “got a pre-release “loaner” to test for compatibility & refused to give it back :)” Morrill tweeted.

Back to Froyo on a tablet. Barra hints at the fact that tablets can run Froyo, but warns manufacturers not think its going to be an out of the box solution. Android can be heavily customized and skinned, so manufacturers have control in the end, but if your device doesn’t run correctly dont expect anything from Google : “Which devices do, and which don’t will be unit specific, but Froyo is not optimized for use on tablets” said Barra.

This leaves us waiting for the next release of Android Gingerbread or even Honeycomb to get a full Android tablet experience, that is, unless Google unveils a Google Chrome  tablet. Now that will change everything, again.

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