According to some fresh leaks, Google is planning to thoroughly overhaul the UI on Android 3.0 aka Gingerbread and the new OS is set to offer several new features as well.

It appears that Google is taking complaints about subpar design quite seriously and it Gingerbread will get a fair dose of eye candy. Google has poached former Palm UI expert Matias Duarte to help it efforts along and the acquisition should pay dividends. The UI will be simplified, with cleaner icons for a more subtle appearance. It will feature improved kinetic scrolling with "bounce" effects and a few other goodies.

The somewhat more important changes are not skin deep, as Google will offer new apps and SIP support in Google Voice, which will allow users to conveniently receive calls  to Google Voice numbers. We're not sure carriers will be thrilled by this feature.  

It's believed that Gingerbread will also deliver hardware acceleration, so the new UI shouldn't be much of a burden for current processors. Lastly, Gingerbread will offer video chat, which we find rather pointless but neat nonetheless.

More here.