Another rumor to start the early week off. According to Android Police, a source of theirs has let loose that the SDK for the update to Android Gingerbread (2.5? 3.0?) will make its way to the internet next week. I question the validity of this claim considering Google has yet to say a word about the forthcoming iteration. It’s not often that we see them (intentionally) release the SDK before formally announcing the new version. (And I do discern the difference between SDK and the source code here.)

If this does somehow turn out to be true, it doesn’t mean that a release would be on its way right afterward. It could be weeks before we hear more about it, but it’d at least give us an early look at what Google’s looking to do with Android going forward. Rumor has it that this new version will either be tailored for tablets or will be a good starting point leading into that before Honeycomb.

While source code from the AOSP would still be miles off, we’ve seen the geniuses from XDA create full-fledged ROMs based on the SDK image before. If we do end up getting an SDK release next week, expect no different (especially considering everyone’s excited to see what Google’s done UI-wise after grabbing ex-Palm user experience leader – the man directly responsible for webOS’s polish – Matias Duarte.)

Let’s just try to not get too excited before we’re actually able to confirm or deny this rumor. I guess we’ll all know by the time next Friday rolls around.