Google announces Android 4.4 KitKat

Google is calling the next iteration of its Android OS KitKat. The new OS was earlier called Key Lime Pie, but Google finally decided upon KitKat, the famous chocolate brand from Nestle. If you think that this is a sweet financial deal for the two companies, then you'd be wrong. Google told BBC that it had come up with the idea and that neither side was paying the other. John Lagerling, director of Android global partnerships, told the BBC, "This is not a money-changing-hands kind of deal." Simon Myers, a partner at the consultancy Prophet has said in the BBC report, "If your brand is hooked up with another, you inevitably become associated with that other brand, for good or ill." 50 million KitKat chocolate bars in 19 countries will have the Android branding. Buyers of the chocolate bar will have a chance to win a Nexus 7 tablet along with Google Play gift cards. The Android OS expected to launch after Jelly Bean was called Key Lime Pie internally in Google’s offices. Mr Lagerling said, "We realized that very few people actually know the taste of a key lime pie." KitKat on the other hand is a popular snack in many counties. A Google spokesperson explained to The Verge that the new Android version's name was inspired by the Engineering Head Hiroshi Lockheimer's love of KitKat bars. Google has named the Android OS after sweets in an alphabetical order for quite some time. In 2008 Android 1.0 was launched without a name. In 2009 we saw Android 1.1 without a name too. Then came Android 1.5 Cupcake, Android 1.6 Donut and Android 2.0 Éclair. In 2010 we saw the launch of Android 2.2 Froyo and Android 2.3 Gingerbread. 2011 saw the launch of Android 3.0 Honeycomb and then came the OS that unified Android for the tablet and smartphone, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Last year, in 2012 we saw Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. We are still waiting to hear a launch date for the next Android OS, Android 4.4 KitKat.

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Vine For Android Updated With Push Notifications

An updated version of the Vine application is now available for download for the owners of Android-based devices, namely version 1.3.3, with some appealing improvements packed inside. With the newest version, Viners now have the ability to share user profiles through more than just the SMS app (hopefully all Android apps with sharing capabilities will be available). Users can also look forward to push notifications, so they never miss a mention or re-Vine. Furthermore, the new application release provides the possibility to share any public post to Twitter or Facebook, while also delivering a variety of other bug fixes and improvements. For those of you who don’t keep up with the social media, Vine is an app that allows you to create 6 seconds of video in a looping feed that you can tag and then post. Owned by Twitter, consider this the video version of the social messaging app, if the messages continued to repeat over and over again. Vine for Android is available through the Google Play store for free and it is compatible with devices running Ice Cream Sandwich and later platforms.

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