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 …

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          1. Thecowking

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

            I disagree, hotel chocolat is definitely up there, and British to boot.

            *stares patriotically into the distance while eating a 100% cocoa single plantation bar slowly.*

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

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

              I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree - Hotel Chocolat is over-rated. It's a massive step in the right direction for British chocolate, but is still nowhere near as good as the proper Belgian, French or Swiss stuff, for example.

              It's a lot more gimicky as well, rather than purely designed to taste and to feel amazing as it melts - the 100% cocoa bars being a prime example. They're essentially taking advantage of the British public's niavety and new found enthusiasm when it come to 'proper' chocolate. Brits used to like Dairy Milk, then discovered 70% Green and Blacks is so much better - so now think more cocao must = better.

              There's a sweet spot for chocolate, where you have the balance of flavours right. It's between about 65% an 80%. A lot of the 99% and 100% bars are more of a statement a than genuinely nice. (A bit like those extra lean steak beef sausages - people think that they must be better, even though an actual ingredient of a sausage is the fat, and they end up eating somehing that actually doesn't really taste that nice or succulent.)

              Look at Jean-Paul Hévin for example. He does about 30 bars of 65% - 80%, and one at 100% (which he also charges considerably less for). I don't think Pierre Herme even makes stuff higher than 75%. (If you don't know who these people are, sorry - I'm not name dropping - these guys are reall good at their job, and Herme has a couple of places in London if you want to try without leaving the UK. Genuinely worth checking out if you want to go to the next chocolate level after Hotel Chocolat.)

              I'm not saying it's wrong for you to like a 100% bar, just as it's not wrong to like a KitKat, but it's genuinely not the best chocolate.

              It's just market maturity thing. Brits used to drink beer - then wine arrived and there was some pretty nasty stuff being sold at a premium until peope's tastes matured and they could tell actually the best from what they were told is the best.

              Possibly the most in depth chocolate post ever on El Reg?

              1. TheOtherHobbes

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

                The best British chocolate is Rococo, available from posh supermarkets everywhere.

                Hotel Chocolat does a better job with selling and branding, but not so much with the actual chocolate.

                Charbonnel & Walker are good too.

                I don't get the macho-chocolatismo >100% cocoa thing. Pretty much everything tastes like compressed charred vegetable matter once the content goes over 80%,

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

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

                  I must speak highly of Hotel Chocolates customer services.

                  My wife ordered a large slab of the rocky road by post for her friend's birthday.

                  It arrived broken, she called them, they said they'd send a free replacement and she could keep the broken one.

                  The replacement arrived broken, in response they sent another replacement and a small box of their chocs by way of apology.

                  The third was also broken.

                  I don't remember if it got as far as a fourth broken one but In the end, she took an alternative to the slab as a replacement.

                  I personally can't help thinking that by the third replacement (taking into account next day courier fees and the cost of the products) it would have been cheaper for them to have sent someone from the local branch in a taxi to deliver the replacement.

              2. Jonathan 29

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

                The Europeans are snobs about a lot of things including chocolate. I would love to put Belgian chocolatiers in a blind taste test with their British and American compatriots. It would be the Judgement of Paris in 1976 all over again. it's not like they can even claim to grow the bloody stuff though this time.

          2. Rusty 1

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

            There's no need for language like that.

            Belgium yourself!

            1. Admiral Grace Hopper
              Joke

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

              "There's no need for language like that.".

              Stupid Ghent.

          3. DF118
            Stop

            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.

            Yes, the ability to make decent chocolate STOPS at the Belgian border. Nowhere else in the world can you find anyone with the ability to make chocolate so good.

            What a load of tosh. For one thing the Belgians are IMHO a bit too obsessed with minging chocolate smoosh and other pointless frou-frou to make their chocolate consistently enjoyable. That's not to say they don't know a thing or two about it but your statement is nothing more than a pointlessly sweeping generalisation.

            1. Dr_N

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

              "What a load of tosh. For one thing the Belgians are IMHO a bit too obsessed with minging chocolate smoosh"

              Not as obsessed as they are with having frites with everything.

          4. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

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

            The chocolate shop opposite the top of the lift in St Moritz is pretty damned good, if pricey...

    1. Jonathan Richards 1
      Thumb Up

      KitKat chocolate: talking tech

      This is a tech site, innit? The issue for manufacturers of chocolate-coated biscuits is that the characteristics of a chocolate that works for a bar are different to those that work for enrobing or moulding. If you've ever scoffed your kids' moulded easter eggs (... what?) you'll know that the texture isn't a bit the same as that of a decent-quality bar. During a visit to the RM site in York during the mid-seventies we were given a piece of the KitKat mix to try, and trust me, it really needs the biscuit in the middle to make it palatable. The mouthfeel of chocolate accounts for a lot of its appeal, and that depends on many different factors, especially the fats and oils that are used to supplement or replace the cocoa butter. The chocolatier needs artistry as well as technique.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: KitKat chocolate: talking tech

        Their grasp of the Kit Kat in York may have been spot on.

        But Rolo was never the same after production left Norwich.

  1. MJI Silver badge

    I used to like KitKats

    Haven't had one in a while though

    BTW What exactly is candy?

    Also why are Hershey things in Asda?

    What is wrong with our own chocolate?

    1. davidp231

      Re: I used to like KitKats

      Herschey stuff is in Asda most likely because Wal-mart own Asda and can stock them with American goodies.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I used to like KitKats

        > American goodies.

        American baddies more like.

      2. MJI Silver badge

        Re: I used to like KitKats

        I wonder who is buying them?

        BTW I like milk and white chocolate, had some nice chocolate from Cornwall (Trenance) Green & Blacks is OK.

        Just don't like dark chocolate - too bitter for me.

        A nice quality milk chocolate

    2. DF118

      Re: I used to like KitKats

      What is wrong with our own chocolate?

      Where to begin? It's in a different leage from Nort American excreta, but it's otherwise somewhat of a joke. Loading it up with waaay too much sugar and dairy fat is our problem.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Have a break?

    1. Simon Harris
      Happy

      debugging...

      Presumably the next Android debugging tool will allow you to stop your programs at KitKat points.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    How long til the "deep fried mars bar" build?

    Because we all want to know!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: How long til the "deep fried mars bar" build?

      How long? Until the Android versions go through the alphabet, back to the beginning and then on a few.

    2. Voland's right hand Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: How long til the "deep fried mars bar" build?

      It is silicon valley we are talking about here, not Glasgow.

      More interesting question - how long until the Candyman starts to hand out candy not just out of the boxes on the counter, but from the rolls on the wall. Oh... sorry... he already does... And the world tastes good...

      1. Tom 35

        Re: How long til the "deep fried mars bar" build?

        "It is silicon valley we are talking about here, not Glasgow."

        If it's Texas it would be bacon* wrapped deep fried mars bar.

        * The nasty American bacon of course

    3. Horridbloke

      Re: How long til the "deep fried mars bar" build?

      It will the one after the "Curly Wurly" release.

  4. petur
    FAIL

    Somehow the name always reminds me of kitekat

    which is cat food...

    Anyway, being from Belgium, I wouldn't touch that 'chocolate' anyway ;)

  5. The Infamous Grouse

    The touch interface on this new version is horrible. Every operation requires four fingers.

    1. Miek
      Coat

      I knew a girl like that once ...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      And after prolonged use, becomes a sticky mess. I guess that applies to both comments.

  6. Fibbles

    KitKat?

    They should've named the next version of Android after Kendal Mint Cake. Google could've done a publicity stunt which involved sending somebody with one of their ruggedized Motorola handsets up Mt. Everest. I don't know how far up the mountain they've bothered to install base stations but it would still have been a more impressive marketing ploy than giving away a few free phones with purchases of KitKats.

    1. Jedit Silver badge
      Headmaster

      "They should've named the next version of Android after Kendal Mint Cake"

      That would be potentially risky due to politics. The Romney family who manufacture Kendal Mint Cake are relatives of (thankfully failed) Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

      I think we may see more branded Android releases in future. L will be Licorice or Lemon Meringue for sure, but after that we go straight to Mars Bar or Milky Way. N will be Nougat, but O will be Oreo.

      1. monkeyfish

        Re: "They should've named the next version of Android after Kendal Mint Cake"

        Ahh the Kendal Ming Cake, appropriate emergency food as you would only choose to eat it in an emergency.

        1. Alister

          Re: "They should've named the next version of Android after Kendal Mint Cake"

          Ahh the Kendal Mint Cake, appropriate emergency food as you would only choose to eat it in an emergency.

          No, no, you're thinking of Dwarf Bread, it lasts for months... years... decades... aeons!

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: "They should've named the next version of Android after Kendal Mint Cake"

            "No, no, you're thinking of Dwarf Bread, it lasts for months... years... decades... aeons!"

            You're not thinking of Elven lembas? I tried to make some myself recently, based on a bag of out of date muesli, some almost out of date porridge oats, butter, golden syrup, brown sugar and a bit of honey. Nice, and definitely moreish, yet in some intangilbe way not quite the sum of its parts.

            And I'm sure the out of date cereals weren't to blame - I'm a strong believer in "home maturing", with a particular predilection for out of date Stilton that tastes of soap and smells of ammonia - magic!

            1. Fibbles

              Re: "They should've named the next version of Android after Kendal Mint Cake"

              "You're not thinking of Elven lembas?"

              Dwarf bread has the taste, consistency and nutritional qualities of rock. It lasts for aeons because nobody wants to eat the stuff.

  7. graeme leggett Silver badge

    Hershey's chocolate

    that's the stuff that smells like milk that's gone off isn't it?

    can we look forward to 4.8 Liquorice Allsorts, or 5.1 Snickers-but-when-I-was-young-it-was-called-Marathon

    1. tirk

      Re: Hershey's chocolate

      "or 5.1 Snickers-but-when-I-was-young-it-was-called-Marathon"

      If you really want an "S" that gets the old fart brigade going, how about "Spangels"?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Hershey's chocolate

        > If you really want an "S" that gets the old fart brigade going, how about "Spangels"?

        I have only one thing to say: "Mint Cracknel".

        And wasn't it "Spangles"?

        1. Admiral Grace Hopper
          Windows

          Re: Hershey's chocolate

          Yes, it was "Spangles". Old English flavours FTW.

          I'll risk it for a Swisskit.

          1. graeme leggett Silver badge

            Re: Hershey's chocolate

            How about a Texan bar?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There's plenty more, but why don't you just head on over and see for yourself?

    Complete with a "Tech Specs" slide :-D

    Definitely a win/win for them both.

  9. DJGM

    Nestle = Evil ... http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=240

    Seems my next smartphone is very likely to be a Windows Phone.

    1. DF118

      No doubt there will those who dogmatically avoid a K-version Android handset in this manner. I very much doubt either Google or Nestlé will care though, as I suspect the Venn diagram of "people who truly avoid giving financial benefit to Nestlé in any way whatsoever" and "people who buy the latest smartphones built by the tiny hands of east asian children" will have a very small overlap.

      And to anyone who sucessfully avoids Nestlé utterly and completely - my hat's off to you. They have their fingers in so many pies that I'd imagine successfully avoiding them would take up the same amount of time as having a full time job.

  10. 0_Flybert_0

    .. at 'KitKat' eh ? .. won't be long till little android 'M&Ms' then ..

  11. julianh72
    Coat

    And suddenly Apple's strategy for the new iPhone models makes sense...

    iPhone 5Cadbury and iPhone 5Snickers

  12. RyokuMas
    FAIL

    "Do No Evil"...

    ... my arse! As far as I know, the Nestle boycott is still going on after what? nearly 40 years?

    At least it gives me a laugh - everybody hurling abuse at Microsoft, not realising that Google - the entity that many champion for Microsoft's de-thronement - is rapidly becoming as bad. And so the wheel turns...

  13. Chet Mannly

    "In the US, however, KitKat is manufactured and sold by the Hershey Company, a Nestlé competitor. "

    Now I know why Kit Kats in the US tasted like s**t compared to those in Australia...

  14. IHateWearingATie

    Am I the only one who quite likes Hershey's?

    It's not chocolate, but I quite like the taste of the sweet brown stuff they wrongly label chocolate.

    1. Cliff

      Re: Am I the only one who quite likes Hershey's?

      Go to pound land, they do boxes of 48 crayons, differing colours so you can tell yourself they're boutique flavours of Hershey chocolate. Shit crayons, mind, only good for eating.

  15. poopypants

    Looking forward to 'Vegemite'

    Mwahahahahahaha.....

    1. Steve the Cynic

      Re: Looking forward to 'Vegemite'

      I enjoyed the reactions of my French colleagues when someone brought in a couple of tubes (!) of Vegemite. In fact, the first thing was that someone brought them over to ask me about them. So I said that it's an Australian thing, with a strong and distinctive flavour, but that they'd have to try it because the flavour's a bit hard to describe. (And also because although I get along OK with Marmite - I'm one of the three people world-wide who neither hate it nor love it to bits - I've never actually tried Vegemite.)

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