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Android 4.4 Named 'KitKat'
Today Google revealed that the next major version of the Android mobile operating system will be called 'KitKat.' The naming convention has always used sugary snacks in alphabetical order — Jelly Bean (4.1 - 4.3) followed Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0), which followed Honeycomb (3.1 - 3.2), which followed Gingerbread (2.3), and so on. Unlike the previous releases, KitKat is named after an actual product, rather than a generic treat. Thus, Google contacted Nestle, who was happy to jump on board and take advantage of the cross-marketing opportunities. According to an article at the BBC, the Android team was originally going to use 'Key Lime Pie,' but they decided it wasn't familiar enough to most people. After finding some KitKat bars in the company fridge, they made the choice to switch. Nestle was on board 'within an hour' of hearing the idea.
They using the same alphabet I'm using?
@Valentinial
Why not 'candybar', or whatever non-commercial name? Seems like a silly choice.
Android 4.5, brought to you by Pepsi can't be far from here.
Screw you and your cross marketing opportunities.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
That's fine and all, but I really don't care about the OS name. There's multiple articles out there and people going crazy _just for the name_. I want to know what's new in the OS for developers, not what their next marketing strategy is.
You mean they didn't want to turn down a free opportunity to have their trademark splashed all over the world in marketing blurbs for the next couple of years on someone else's dime? Shocking!
N/T
Give me a break!
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
I suspect no one asked the lawyers yet.
This is the result of what happens when an advertising company makes an operating system.
I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
From Nestlé's Wikipedia page alone:
Chocolate price fixing: "Nestlé recently agreed to pay $9-million, without admitting liability, in a settlement subject to court approval in the new year. But a massive class-action continues in the United States". Nestlé CEO Robert Leonidas is under threat of a criminal charge for his role in the price fixing of chocolates in Canada when he was at the helm of Nestlé Canada from 2006 to 2010.
Marketing of formula: One of the most prominent controversies involving Nestlé concerns the promotion of the use of infant formula to mothers across the world, including developing countries – an issue that attracted significant attention in 1977 as a result of the Nestlé boycott, which is still ongoing. Nestlé continues to draw criticism that it is in violation of a 1981 World Health Organization code that regulates the advertising of breast milk substitutes.[34] Groups such as the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) and Save the Children claim that the promotion of infant formula over breastfeeding has led to health problems and deaths among infants in less economically developed countries.
Ethiopian debt: In 2002, Nestlé demanded that the nation of Ethiopia repay $6 million of debt to the company. Ethiopia was suffering a severe famine at the time. Nestlé backed down from its demand after more than 8,500 people complained via e-mail to the company about its treatment of the Ethiopian government. The company agreed to re-invest any money it received from Ethiopia back into the country.
Melamine in Chinese milk: In late September 2008, the Hong Kong government found melamine in a Chinese-made Nestlé milk product. Six infants died from kidney damage, and a further 860 babies were hospitalised. The Dairy Farm milk was made by Nestlé's division in the Chinese coastal city Qingdao. Nestlé affirmed that all its products were safe and were not made from milk adulterated with melamine. On 2 October 2008, the Taiwan Health ministry announced that six types of milk powders produced in China by Nestlé contained low-level traces of melamine, and were "removed from the shelves".
Greenwashing: A coalition of environmental groups filed a complaint against Nestlé to the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards after Nestlé took out full-page advertisements in October 2008 claiming that "Most water bottles avoid landfill sites and are recycled", "Nestlé Pure Life is a healthy, eco-friendly choice" and that "Bottled water is the most environmentally responsible consumer product in the world". A spokesperson from one of the environmental groups stated: "For Nestlé to claim that its bottled water product is environmentally superior to any other consumer product in the world is not supportable". In their 2008 Corporate Citizenship Report, Nestlé themselves stated that many of their bottles end up in the solid-waste stream, and that most of their bottles are not recycled. The advertising campaign has been called greenwashing.
Zimbabwe farms: In late September 2009, it was brought to light that Nestlé was buying milk from illegally seized farms currently operated by Robert Mugabe's wife, Grace Mugabe. Mugabe and his regime are currently subject to European Union sanctions. Nestlé later stopped buying milk from the dairy farms in question.
Palm oil use: Rapid deforestation in Borneo and other regions, in order to harvest hardwood and make way for palm oil plantations, releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In particular, where peat swamp forests are cleared, destroying the habitat for many threatened species of animals such as the orangutan, much public attention has been given to the social and environmental impact of palm oil and the role of multinationals such as Nestlé in this.There is ongoing concern by various NGOs including Greenpeace.
On its
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
So how many fandroids are blowing their digital load about what the next version's name will be, without any other information about improvements, features, or anything that might actually be worth talking about?
Who fucking cares what it's named. It's the features, fixes, and improvements that need to be reported.
Quince?
Quesadilla?
Quaaludes-N-Cream?
Or are they just planning ahead for Nestle Quick.....
you are eating the wrong brand, according to Dr. Oz.
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
Oh well, more for me.
isn't that some kind of cat food?
ewww....
Crashes upon hearing the news.
People get all touchy and down-moddy when I mention the dreaded F-word (fragmentation) bout android, but is Google doing anything to actually get their latest software in to the hands of consumers?
Flagship devices ship with out of date android versions and hoping for an upgrade is a bit of a lottery. Carriers still ship devices with android 2.X, which is a fucking travesty.
Crunch - the sound made by a Nexus 7 running KitKat, hitting the pavement from a 3 foot drop.
Actually, reading the article, I rather think they have. Otherwise they wouldn't be doing stuff like this:
"To promote the alliance, Nestle now plans to deliver more than 50 million chocolate bars featuring the Android mascot to shops in 19 markets, including the UK, US, Brazil, India, Japan and Russia.
The packaging had to be produced in advance over the past two months. But despite the scale of the operation, the two firms managed to keep the story a secret,"
Coincidentally, just the other day I was watching Aziz Ansari's stand-up special, Deliciously Dangerous, in which the comedian covers the topic quite succinctly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIXl1e0d5QI
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Don't forget Kit Kat (played by David Caruso) from Hudson Hawk -- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102070/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Invalid Checksum. Retrying.
... in a fire? Pretty please?
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Wait until they find out that KitKat is a steaming pile and it'll be too late. Don't try to associate your product with something that's completely out of your control. Murphy's Law will get you. Same goes for Android, as they can't control what people think of KitKats.
Oh, you're no fun anymore!
And the Apple fanboys arrive.
Didn't you pay the self-proclaimed patent owners of that alphabet either?
Be sure, Google will _never_ pay Apple for using the alphabet.
Don't ever pay Apple for using the alphabet!
How is this going to affect open source releases?
Will they not have to call it Key Lime Pie in order to avoiding Nestle's legal arm issuing C&Ds?
Will Google use this as an opportunity to help stifle open source development in their bid to focus on Google Play as the one true API?
Inquiring minds want to know!
Android 5.0 Diabetes
What will they call it? AArdvark?
Maybe now Nestle will sell the same KitKat bars in the US as they do in Canada. KitKat bars in the US have a candy chocolate coating. In Canada, and in the rest of the world, they use milk chocolate. Plus, they have a KitKat chunky... more milk chocolatey goodness...
Mountain KitKat
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
They should have named this release after Kent Cigarettes, then they could immediately follow it with Lung Cancer. Perhaps the successor to Kitkat could be Lard.
Nullius in verba
Raver/druggie phone nerds will get extremely confused over this...
Google! Kitkat! GOOGLE! GOOOOOGLE!! Nestle Kraft foods Pepsico Advertisers Privacy-for-rent KIT KAT! CHROME BOOK!!!!!!!
Google! (Made in USA)
Apple! Microsoft! Sheeple! Idiots. lol made in China.
--Tupe666
He is suggesting a hypothetical. Not saying he thinks it will be.
Ketchup :)
Sweet condiment
course then you'd have joked Android Ketchup more like "catch-up"
so yea probably wouldn't work
It's not small. No no no!
Honeycomb's got...a big big bite!
Big big (taste/crunch) in a big big bite!
At least, it USED to be, until the nutrition nazis ruined it, like seemingly everything else from our childhoods. :-(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeycomb_(cereal)
Apple once famously code named new version "Sagan", but Carl Sagan objected. So they renamed it BHA, for "Butt head Astronomer". Sagan sued.
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/03/butt-head-astronomer.html
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
We live in an age without rules or respect for well established conventions, and THAT is not a good thing. Now the NSA's R+D company has crossed this line, things are never going to be the same again. EVERY internal code name for every product from any significant company is also up for 'sponsorship'.
Google is like a school kid 'discovering' the wonders of shop-lifting - thinking they are getting away with an act no-one else has ever had the 'smarts' to consider. It gets worse. Google is also into the Edward Bernays concept of social manipulation using linked symbols in a public context. Bernays famously promoted female cigarette smoking (at a time when it was considered anti-feminine) by paying a whole army of female 'actors' to pass themselves of as ordinary people, and all light up at the same time at a significant public event. Bernays was artificiality creating a 'fashion' trend, and Google is leveraging the same psychology by linking subconscious love for this famous chocolate wafer snack with mobile computer use. "Have a browse, have a Kitkat".
The competition has no choice but to follow Google's example. Moronic cross-promotion (an absolute freebie for the computer companies) will become the order of the day. A sickening race to the bottom. It is notable that every futurist writer that wants to portray a moronic future where corporate thinking has hit rock bottom, always shows 'sponsorship' and cross-promotions taken to ludicrous, Google-like, levels of all-encompassing idiocy.
In the short term sadly, companies gain advantage by breaking established rules like this. Promoting the Android logo promotes the OS itself. Neither Apple or Microsoft can easily copy the immediate strategy, because both competitors have lame or unremarkable logos. But shoplifting also gains the child a short-term advantage as well, and that hardly justifies the act.
True, braindead sheeple will applaud the ingenuity of Google. The great Idiocracy believes Human invention is typified by such thinking.
What's point of this revelation of ... a name of some software version? There is nothing about new features in the article, completely garbage!
Key Lime Pie is less common than kit kats? Look, I enjoy kitkats, always have, but I've had way more key lime pie in my life. It's kinda sad that your country in general feels the reverse. Sad, and not unexpected.
If I was Nestle I'd want searches for "KitKat" to go to sites about the candy bar not sites about phones. It will probably be 4-5 years before a search for "KitKat" will lead to a page about or selling the candy bar after this
KitKats are something that are recognised across the world. 96% of the planet wouldn't know a key lime pie if it fell on them.
Google is pretty bad at releasing later to the planet earth than the USA. For a long time, for example, we heard about Google Music which did not exist. There were people somewhere saying how wonderful it was but it only seemed to exist for a small group of people far away from everyone else.
Perhaps they are improving?
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
nmb3000: You tryin to hide post parent to mine where you ran?
The next version will be sponsored by L.L. Bean, I'm sure.