It seems that we are going to see a lot of updates from Google OS Android for the next few months, stringing along manufacturer and developer releases as well. Starting at the top: the much-awaited Motorola Xoom will now be available at Best Buy starting February 24, at a price of $799. Motorola Xoom runs on the Android 3.0 operating system, and is powered by Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor. The price for this  10.1-inch screen tablet are competitive with the iPad’s, hinting at the full capabilities Motorola is promoting with the Xoom tablet.

This new Android tablet comes with  3D capabilities, including the Google Maps 5.0 application, where buildings rise as users tilt the Xoom (I’m sure you saw this on the Xoom’s Super Bowl commercial last night). It is Wi-Fi and 3G enabled, and will be initially be serviced by Verizon. But we will soon be able to see the 4G version, expanding its 4G LTE network, somewhere in the second quarter of this year. The Motorola Xoom tablet was announced at Honeycomb demo event at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif. The press event was led by Google’s CEO Larry Page where it also announced the launch of Google Music, among other things.

Besides the Xoom, we are hearing some rumors about the Android 2.4 Gingerbread update that is expected to hit somewhere in April 2011. And the reason behind this update is to bring support for applications coded for dual-core devices. Although the update is yet to happen, leaked images of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc showed the phone running v2.4–a point that company later described as an accidental glitch.

Further, we are also hearing about updates to the NFC open API, adding support to the impending Gingerbread 2.4. This updated version will be available for download from the end of next month, having compatibility with Android version 2.4. Isn’t this an interesting turn of events, especially when Android 2.4 is yet to be released or officially announced?

As of now, Nexus S handsets runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread) that allows limited access to NFC hardware, though you can’t access other, more interesting NFC applications without updating a version. Anyways, this upgrade will expose an Open NFC API, or the Java equivalent.