Google has created an interesting side-game in the midst of all its serious technological development activities. The practice of naming the flagship operating system Android in an alphabetical order and expanding the acronym to some kind of a dessert has turned into a game.
Those who keep tracking the company’s every single move wish to make smart guesses on the decisions Google may come up with.
The current speculation revolves around the name for the next version of the Android OS which will be alphabetically called ‘O’ and the majority opinion so far seemed to suggest that ‘O’ stands for ‘Oreo’. But that has changed now.
Fresh leaks and surmises based on some presentations made at the I/O conference for developers in the month of May 2017 have led the analysts to believe that it could indeed be ‘Oatmeal Cookie’ and not Oreo. And they have found at least two or three solid reasons for this as well.
The first piece of evidence cited in these reports relates to the use of the acronym ‘OC’ in some of the source codes relevant to the next version of the OS. The precise usage is ‘oc-dev’ which is being interpreted to mean oatmeal cookie. Another report even says that the ‘Oatmeal Cookie’ name itself figures in the source code documents released during the I/O 2017 in May.
Another perspective being discussed in this connection is that the choice of Oreo would have meant Google getting into discussions with the owner of the brand, Kraft/Nabisco (Kraft uses it for its cookie products and Nabisco owns the trademark) as it did for KitKat. It would then be a long-drawn affair, involving a co-branding exercise between the two companies.
Some experts point out that Google may decide to choose an entirely different name from these two rumored ones as well. The official confirmation may be out soon since the company is giving finishing touches to the development of the OS with the Developer Preview 3 having been released a couple of weeks ago. It is expected that one more final tranche may be released in July and then the announcements will follow.
In terms of what to expect from the new version of the Android OS, the observers feel there may not be very dramatic changes. The one significant feature already written a lot about pertains to the ‘picture in picture’ mode. Besides this, there are also some improvements likely in the user-centric departments like the audio quality improvement, enhancing the battery life through better management of apps in use as well as working in the background and so on.
If you own a Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel C, Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X and Nexus Player and are keen to try out the Android O you can also sign up for the Beta program.
Image: Sylvain Naudin