Update: Google pulled the first video, but we’ve found a replacement. Unfortunately, it’s also on Youtube, so its life expectancy is short. We’re working on getting a local copy, and there’s a screenshot below showing the two UI changes mentioned.

Google’s Hong Kong group released this seemingly innocuous video last week, demonstrating Google Voice Search in Chinese. It went mostly unnoticed until it was realized that the device in the demo was running a build of Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).

It happens fast (and it’s in Cantonese), but there are two key user interface (UI) differences to watch for. First, the top status bar is now cleaner and in a much less glaring black. It’s a minor tweak, but it definitely represents the honing of the platform.

Additionally, the launcher now seems to feature icons instead of the buttons found in Android 2.2 (froyo). If this is indeed the case, users will likely be able to swap them with any other icon, so phone and browser won’t necessarily need to be ever present in the launcher.

Not much is revealed beyond that, but it is an interesting early look at the next iteration of Google’s forthcoming mobile platform.

Here’s a screenshot that shows the two major UI changes seen in the video:

[via Android Police]