A taste of technology

There's always something new cooking in the tech world – and most of it is sweet.

AD: Hi, weren't you looking for a mobile a couple of months ago? Did you buy one?

BC: I just couldn’t decide... All of them sounded so complicated….

AD: Why don’t you get the latest – Samsung Galaxy Nexus - with an Ice Cream Sandwich?

BC: Is that an offer? Buy a mobile phone and get an ice cream sandwich free?

AD: No, Ice Cream Sandwich is the latest version of Google’s Android operating system.

BC: Why name an OS after a food item?

AD: They're just trying to find a way to get guys like you to work up an appetite for technology.

BC: You haven't answered my question though...

AD: Well, first, there was nothing…

BC: Are you starting from God creating heaven and earth?

AD: No, what I meant was that the Android OS, Version 1.1 did not have a name.

BC: So how did the saccharine connotation come about?

AD: Google’s next big release was Android Version 1.5, codenamed cupcake…

BC: And that was how it all started…

AD: Yes, ‘cupcake’ was followed up with Android Version 1.6 – Donut.

BC: What was next – Éclair?

AD: Was that a lucky guess? It was Éclair – Android 2.0.

BC: But why Éclair?

AD: Perhaps there were so many new features that they needed something bigger than a donut!

BC: So each version was named after a dessert item.

AD: They didn’t stop with that, they named them in alphabetical order too. Cupcake, Donut, Éclair… the next was Froyo, Android 2.2.

BC: Froyo?

AD: Yup, stands for ‘frozen yoghurt’.

BC: Was it meant to be a sweet and sour experience for users?

AD: It was lip-smacking! Froyo was succeeded by Gingerbread – Android 2.3.

BC: Maybe each new version had to be celebrated and hence a dessert name…

AD: Perhaps! Apparently, gingerbread is part of the year-end celebrations in the US, and this version was released in December 2010, so…

BC: That figures.

AD: The next version of Android OS – Honeycomb - was launched exclusively for tablets.

BC: After all these desserts, I’m sure you’ll need a tablet.

AD: Oh c’mon, you know what I’m referring to. And now, Version 4.0 is being launched this month…

BC: Ice Cream Sandwich!

AD: You got it!

BC: With India becoming a huge market for these devices, do you think the next version could be called Jalebi?

AD: Why don’t you write to Google? They might give you a job…

BC: …in the kitchen, where I’ll be making sweets.

AD: I don’t think they’ll want to risk their lives.

BC: I’m still curious – why desserts?

AD: The Google team prefers to be secretive about this, so all we can do is guess. There are other 'sweet-sounding' names as well. Peppermint is an open source operating system based on Ubuntu Linux. Muffin is a proxy software that filters web content...

BC: I always thought that a name should convey a category, a benefit or an innovation…

AD: That’s conventional thinking. Companies follow their own nomenclature when it comes to naming products… For instance, Apple names its Mac OS X versions after cats – Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, and so on.

BC: Isn’t it funny?

AD: What is?

BC: Half of technology is named after food we love to feast on. The other half is named after cats that love to feast on us.