Rumor has it that Android 3.1, the new version of “Honeycomb”, is going to be delayed until August on several tablets, including the eagerly awaited Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. The release dates for these devices will naturally be pushed to August too, if these rumors turn out to be true.

So, what’s so special about the latest iteration of Honeycomb? Here’s a quick rundown:

• Support for additional input devices, such as keyboards, game controllers, mice and trackpads.
• More customization options: e.g. widgets can be resized to your own preferences instead of just having to choose between “small” or “large” as before.
• More stable: many bugs that would cause crashes on 3.0 have been taken care of.
• Support for the beta version of Google’s music service in the cloud, which will allow users to begin storing their music in the cloud using the standard Android music player. Personally, I expect that this will be limited to certain countries at first, then later opened up for more countries as the beta progresses in typical Google fashion.

For a more in-depth look at Android 3.1 (for developers), check out this clip from the Android Event in February:

“Support for paid application sales is now expanded to developers in 29 countries, with today’s additions of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland and Taiwan.

In addition, Android Market users from 32 countries will be able to buy apps, with the addition of Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, and Taiwan. No action is necessary if you have targeted your paid apps to be available to “All Locations” and would like to launch in these additional countries. If you have not selected “All Locations” and would like to target these additional countries, or if you have selected “All Locations” and do not want to launch your apps in these additional buyer countries, please visit the Android Market publisher site regularly over the next two weeks to make the necessary adjustments as the new buyer countries launch.”

This is an exciting release due to the impressive new features. The complete list of features, and more details for developers can be found on the Android Developers Blog.

Watch the demos shown during the Google I/O 2010 Keynote Speech (day 2) below:

The Sony Ericsson “Rachael” is an upcoming Android-based smartphone from Sony Ericsson rumoured to feature a Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, which has awesome performance at clock speeds of 1-1.5 GHz depending on how they implement it. I bet it will be running at 1 GHz though.

The built-in camera sports an 8.1 MP sensor with auto-focus, while 3D-acceleration support boosts the usability of its many promising widgets.

For your mobile YouTube or TommyNation video streaming needs, 3.5G support is of course included with a 7.2Mbps HSDPA radio unit. Now if that doesn’t earn me some commissions…