Within the next few weeks, the Motorola Xoom will be seeing some major updates and most notably to the newest version of the Android Operating system (Honeycomb 3.1).  Here’s what you can expect to see with this update.

Android Honeycomb 3.1 Features For Motorola Xoom

As we reported yesterday, Android 3.1 was announced at the Google IO conference and it’s going to be bringing some great new features along with it.  One thing about Android and tablet computers is that unlike iOS and the iPad, the individual manufactures get to decide when to issue an update to the latest and greatest OS.

In the case of Motorola, it looks as though Xoom tablet owners will be getting their chance to update to Honeycomb 3.1 “within the next several weeks”.

The best news, however, are all of the new features Xoom users can expect to see and a lot of these go right along with what was announced by Google.  The Xoom will actually be the first device to have 3.1 rolled out to it and it will get the update over the air (OTA).

As reported by Motorola, when the update is finished installing on your Xoom you will be able to take advantage of some really nice new features.  Most notably you will be able to rent movies, use a Bluetooth headset during video chats, and resize all your widgets.

Android Honeycomb 3.1 supports movie rentals with thousands of titles available right on the Xoom or watching them on your TV via the HDMI (built-in) connector.  There will also be full support for Flash 10.2 which is supposedly delivering a ton of new performance enhancements and hopefully better use of power.

A few other things you will get is support for all kinds of peripherals and accessories (keyboards, mice, cameras, etc.) as well as expanded use of Bluetooth and Bluetooth headsets for Google Talk.

And there is a reported new feature called Picture Transfer Protocol which supports the transferring of photos to and from your PC without the need for additional drivers.

All in all this seems like Honeycomb 3.1 will definitely bring some needed enhancements to the Xoom and other tablets but the big elephant in the room remains the lack of tablet-based apps.  There are a few good ones such as these Android productivity apps but no where near what the iOS App Store has and so far that is what continues to drive the decision between one or the other, pricing not withstanding.