back to article Give us a break: Next Android version to be called 'KitKat'

Google has announced that the next version of its Android operating system will be codenamed "KitKat", after the iconic chocolate-covered wafer candy bar. Photo of the KitKat mascot among the Android lawn statues The Chocolate Factory needs a break from 'Jelly Bean', it seems Previously, the leading speculation among the …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.

Page:

  1. David Given
    Thumb Down

    Ouch

    ...I think I just facepalmed so hard I broke my nose.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Ouch

      So appropriate. Nothing brings to mind a flakey, crumbly easy to break meltdown to mind faster than Android...

      1. andreas koch
        Coat

        Windows Phone 9

        Codename 'Snickers'

        <g,d&r>

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Windows Phone 9

          Windows Phone 9

          Codename 'Snickers'

          .... so MS are in it for the long run then!

          1. andreas koch
            Happy

            @ AC 2130h GMT - Re: Windows Phone 9

            Yep, the full 26 miles.

            1. DRendar
              Megaphone

              Re: @ AC 2130h GMT - Windows Phone 9

              Yep, the full 26 miles

              Yes! someone who remembers the truth!

              Now I'm off to scarf some Opal Fruits.

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: @ AC 2130h GMT - Windows Phone 9

              "Yep, the full 26 miles."

              As in "almost there, but not quite finished"?

              (Roughly 26.2 miles in a marathon)

    2. brainbone

      Wouldn't be so bad if it were a UK KitKat.

      The KitKats here in the states have a waxy yet gritty texture, seem needlessly sweeter, have less cookie/wafer, and just taste poor in comparison.

      So, does this naming mean that the UK version of Android will be better?

  2. Arctic fox

    I would have been very surprised if either company had objected.

    "In the US, however, KitKat is manufactured and sold by the Hershey Company, a Nestlé competitor. The chocolate was originally created by Rowntree Mackintosh of York, England, which licensed the brand to Hershey in the 1970s. When Nestlé bought Rowntree in 1988, that licensing arrangement remained in place – and it is to the Hershey KitKat website that the Android site now links."

    As far as free advertising goes it's win-win for them both.

    1. deshepherd

      Re: I would have been very surprised if either company had objected.

      "In the US, however, KitKat is manufactured and sold by the Hershey Company"

      I've lived in Silicon Valley for a few years and had the misfortune of buying a KitKat there and being unaware of the Hershey connection ... until I started to eat it and discovered it tasted DISGUSTING as it was covered in Hershey's "chocolate". In contrast when I had to fly to Vancouver to get my visa renewed (has to be done outside the US) it was a delight to find that they had KitKats there imported from the UK!

      1. Gene Cash Silver badge

        Re: I would have been very surprised if either company had objected.

        Pretty much ALL American chocolate is rubbery nasty crap, but yes, Hershey's is the worst offender. Pretty much tastes & feels like a doormat soaked in motor oil.

        Thank god we have a "British Shoppe" on 17-92 that has the imported good stuff.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I would have been very surprised if either company had objected.

          Not to mention Hershey's "Kisses" which do, literally, actually taste of vomit.

          First time I ate one, I thought it had been spiked.

          1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

            Re: I would have been very surprised if either company had objected.

            Not to mention Hershey's "Kisses" which do, literally, actually taste of vomit.

            Funny, I came here to post exactly the same thing. I was worried it was just me.

            It's uncanny how they manage that.

            1. Cliff

              Hershey and ilk

              My first association was brown crayons.

              I know British newsagent chocolate isn't generally in the league of European-style posh dark chocolate bars (Lindt and friends), but still way ahead, and somewhat moreish!

              1. davemcwish

                Re: Hershey and ilk

                Given WallMart's ownership, I noticed recently that they (Hershey's) have inveigled their way in to these shores.

            2. Mint Sauce

              Re: I would have been very surprised if either company had objected.

              <AOL>

              It really *is* that bad...

              <shudder>

            3. tony2heads
              Trollface

              Re: I would have been very surprised if either company had objected.

              perhaps lark's vomit garnished over the cornish ram's bladder?

              http://www.montypython.net/sounds/sketches/larkvomit.wav

      2. asdf

        Re: I would have been very surprised if either company had objected.

        Usually I am quick to respond to Merkin bashing but this one is earned. American chocolate especially Hershey's is an embarrassment defended only by people who have never lived abroad.

      3. Chuunen Baka
        Unhappy

        Re: I would have been very surprised if either company had objected.

        You mean there's even worse milk chocolate than the British 'vegelate' rubbish? You live and learn.

      4. Peter Gathercole Silver badge

        Re: Hershey's chocolate

        I saw in interesting documentary on Hershey that claimed the reason why American chocolate is so nasty is historical.

        In the 19th century, Europe had a Chocolate fad. East coast America picked this up as Europe was trendy to Americans who lacked a long history, and looked across the Atlantic for trends and fashions. East Coast America is fairly cool and the major cities were fairly close together, so chocolate could be made and moved quite easily,

        When the frontiers started getting civilised (mainly with the railroads), high quality goods from the east coast were sent around the country because those people wanted to be seen a sophisticated, and chocolate was a small luxury that could be afforded in small quantities. Unfortunately, America is a big place, and often quite hot.

        This meant that chocolate arriving on the West coast or the South was often in box cars for days in hot conditions, and quite naturally went off. The milk in the chocolate became rancid. The people receiving such luxury items did not know that it was off because they did not have anything to compare it to, only knowing that it was the trendy thing to eat and just accepted that this was how it should taste, and got used to it.

        When Hershey, Pa (aka Chocolatetown, USA) was built, and they commissioned refrigerated box cars on the railways to distribute the product in ideal conditions, the outcry about the change of taste from the rest of the US was so great that Hershey changed the process to re-create the taste of gone-off chocolate that Americans now favoured. And the rest is history.

        Mind you, I understand that Americans now go wild about the taste of Cadbury's chocolate (and buying the company, unfortunately), so maybe they are beginning to see sense. Having said that, I guess that people from places like Belgium and France probably throw their hands up in the air at British chocolate, which substitutes vegetable fat for milk fat.

        But I prefer it that way, and that's what matters to me.

        1. asdf

          Re: Hershey's chocolate

          I forgot about one thing Hersey's makes I can stand. Their chocolate syrup is ok if you were raised on it. Like using to make chocolate milk or to top vanilla ice cream. Its not really chocolate and is probably still an acquired taste but knew there was something they made I could tolerate.

    2. Big-nosed Pengie
      FAIL

      Re: I would have been very surprised if either company had objected.

      "In the US, however, KitKat is manufactured and sold by the Hershey Company, a Nestlé competitor. The chocolate was originally created by Rowntree Mackintosh of York, England, which licensed the brand to Hershey in the 1970s. When Nestlé bought Rowntree in 1988, that licensing arrangement remained in place – and it is to the Hershey KitKat website that the Android site now links."

      Gods - those poor Yanks. That rubbish that Hershey laughingly calls "chocolate".

      1. Chris King

        Re: I would have been very surprised if either company had objected.

        Hershey's: We've heard about that "cocoa powder" stuff.

        1. Spleen

          Re: I would have been very surprised if either company had objected.

          Maybe Google should just go the whole hog and call it the Android KitKat Badger Cull Tuition Fees 10am Lecture just to *really* annoy the second-year PPE NUS-candidate wankers.

    3. Tom 38
      FAIL

      Re: I would have been very surprised if either company had objected.

      I'm astonished by Google on this. Since 1977, Nestle has been aggressively boycotted by action groups on milk powder. In the UK, the boycott is largely implemented by university students who ban Nestle products from sale in student run facilities and promote the issue amongst freshers. Google have willingly associated with this company, seemingly on a whim.

      Most people won't care one iota about this, but some people vehemently will. "Key Lime Pie" offends no-one..

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I would have been very surprised if either company had objected.

        I bought into all that crap as a student. Now I've grown, I eat KitKats.

        1. Tom 38

          Re: I would have been very surprised if either company had objected.

          I bought into all that crap as a student. Now I've grown, I eat KitKats.

          Me too. But each year, hundreds of thousands of new students pop off to UK universities where a good proportion also buy into all that crap, and Google are willingly associating their brand with them. Surely having militant students saying "down with that" to your products would be a bad thing?

          My uni didn't have a Nestle ban when I went there, but each year I was there there were votes to have it banned from various places, and the vending machines with Nestle stuff in them often had stickers or posters on them to shame you if you bought Nestle.

          1. Great Bu

            Re: I would have been very surprised if either company had objected.

            I think it will be an excellent test of their level of conviction - it's fine to boycott a particular company's product when there are a great many easily available alternatives that are just as good but how will the poor impressionable freshers decide between trendy boycotting of baby milk producers and using their shiny new smartphone (or will they defect to iOS (there goes my student loan), WinPho (even less cool points, surely MS are satan spawn) or Blackberry (choice of the Chav)) ?

        2. taxman
          Facepalm

          Re: All that crap

          Obviously a very long time since you were learning......and not much stayed - or was understood - by the looks of it.

          Here's a refresher....if you can believe any of it.

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott

          1. Andrew Garrard

            Re: All that crap

            Quite. I still prefer to avoid Nestle (although I'm not absolutely strict about it). Not something I'd want to associate with if I had "don't be evil" in the company motto, though. I have a vague hope that it's going to be a deliberate name-and-shame policy and they'll change back.

            I kind of think they did this just to spite everyone who assumed Key Lime Pie. Which is a pain for people who actually have source code with that moniker in it, of course. The "people don't know what key lime pie tastes like" seems rubbish, at least (lime, duh).

      2. Mark .

        Re: I would have been very surprised if either company had objected.

        If Nestle aren't getting any money from it, surely one can still boycott them even if you're buying an Android device?

        True it might seem annoying that they be given publicity, but one doesn't have to refer to Android Kitkat, you can just say Android, or specify Android 4.4. (This isn't quite as nuts as "sponsored by itunes festival", where there isn't any name to refer to the festival by AFAIK other than the product placement name.)

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why Not.

    I however love chocolate and I love android products, what I love most is how random things like this confuse marketing people.

    Why should everything have to make sense? Why does everything HAVE to be so formulaic? Why can't things be organic?

    Why should tie up deals involve money (neither Nestle or Google paid money for this, it was born out of Android engineer's love for chocolatey wafer biscuits)

    1. dogged
      Meh

      Re: Why Not.

      Having tasted it, I refuse to believe there's anything organic about Hershey's chocolate.

      As for Nestlé - still evil....

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Why Not.

        Organic? Having tasted it I would suggest Hershey's chocolate is very organic. It appears to be excreted rather than conched, and I'm sure the bovine it was excreted from was very organic.

    2. FIA Silver badge

      Re: Why Not.

      "I however love chocolate and I love android products"

      But which one's better?? There's only one way to find out...

      FIGHT!!!!

    3. Pete 2 Silver badge

      Re: Why Not. Here's why

      Is it really a good move to name a software release after something that breaks so easily?

      Or that melts when it gets warm?

      I suppose some people will give it the finger (or 4).

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Why Not. Here's why

        It's not a software release you idiot.

        The software is called ANDROID 4.4

        INTERNALLY it's codename is called KitKat...

  4. Matt Piechota

    Confectionary Perfection

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OKOrkLxOBoY

  5. Tom 7

    4 damp cores

    but I guess the silver wrapper might keep the NSA away.

  6. JDX Gold badge

    It would be a great homage to advertising history if they call the next version Android Lemon

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Pssst!

      <_< ... >_> ... Next Android after 'Kit-Kat' will be called 'Licorice'.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Pssst!

        Lindt Gold Bunny

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Pssst!

          Lindt Marc de Champagne

  7. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Coat

    The Nestle Kit-Kat Chocolate is far too sweet

    The old rowntree mix was a lot better (IMHO)

    I wonder if this Android release might be the same? After all they are due their Vista release aren't they?

    Ok, I'm gone to get some Thornton's.

    1. John H Woods Silver badge

      Re: The Nestle Kit-Kat Chocolate is far too sweet

      Have you ever tasted Hershey's though? The first time a US friend gave me some, presumably expecting me to have a "wow" moment, I thought I had been given joke chocolate. Nestle is hardly the height of chocolate but in my opinion it beats the waxy texture and soapy taste of Hershey pretty much hands down.

      1. 100113.1537

        Re: The Nestle Kit-Kat Chocolate is far too sweet

        I fully agree - Hershey chocolate is a completely different texture and I never touch it. All a matter of taste, of course, but I know someone who imports Cadbury's into North America and makes a pretty penny doing it. I can even get Nestle KitKat in some shops in Canada (at an inflated price) so there are a good few of us with the same taste!

        Have you had Kvikk Lunsj from Freia (probably limited to Norway and Sweden)?

        http://www.freia.no/sjokolade/freia-kvikk-lunsj/659

        The Norwegians claim this is the original and no self-respecting Norwegian would dare go to mountains without a bar in their pack. I have to say Freia is nice chocolate and probably beats out the Nestle version. Maybe this new version of Android can be called Kvikk Lunsj in Norway?

        1. deshepherd

          Re: The Nestle Kit-Kat Chocolate is far too sweet

          I know someone who imports Cadbury's into North America and makes a pretty penny doing it.

          Target started to sell Cadbury's Creme Eggs just before we returned to the UK in 2000 - recall buying several dozens of them

        2. jonathanb Silver badge

          Re: The Nestle Kit-Kat Chocolate is far too sweet

          There is only one place in the world to go for decent chocolate, and that is Belgium. Nowhere else is any good.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: The Nestle Kit-Kat Chocolate is far too sweet

            "and that is Belgium"

            Never heard of it. Which country is that in?

            1. Piro Silver badge
              Pint

              Re: The Nestle Kit-Kat Chocolate is far too sweet

              Ah good old Belgium. They make the finest beer, too.

              Infact, cram the chocolate, just give me some Trappist booze, and I will be happy

Page:

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like