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Android Google Software

Android M's Official Name Is Marshmallow 92

Posted by samzenpus from the chocolate-soon-to-come dept.
An anonymous reader writes: As they've done in the past, Google has revealed the name for the upcoming version of Android with a new statue in front of its headquarters. Android's sixth version will be called Marshmallow. Dave Burke, Android's VP of engineering, unveiled the statue on Twitter. Google has also released the Android 6.0 SDK and the final M preview.
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Android M's Official Name Is Marshmallow More

Android M's Official Name Is Marshmallow

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  • Missed opportunity (Score:5, Funny)

    by jandrese ( 485 ) <kensama@vt.edu> on Monday August 17, 2015 @02:41PM (#50333631) Homepage Journal
    I was really expecting the statue to be an androided version of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man. The statue is a little disappointing.

  • That's amazing (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    It will usher in a whole new era of mobile experience. Or maybe people have long stopped caring about Android names and version-diarrhea.

  • Perfect Name (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bughunter ( 10093 ) <[ten.knilhtrae] [ta] [retnuhgub]> on Monday August 17, 2015 @02:48PM (#50333689) Journal

    'Marshmallow' is the perfect word for a label that carries no content, is all fluff, and whose sole purpose is to appeal to people with simple tastes.

    (Note that I'm not talking about the OS, but the practice of giving each version a cute name. Android is not alone in this practice, but with 'Marshmallow' they seem to have achieved the pinnacle of its banality.)

    • Re:Perfect Name (Score:5, Insightful)

      by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Monday August 17, 2015 @02:57PM (#50333769) Journal

      I don't mind cute names, and I don't mind version numbers.

      What I can't stand is the arbitrary mixing of the two, especially as sometimes minor versions get a name bump and sometimes they don't. I seem to continually have to keep refering to a list of "version name versus number" lists when it's stated that the feature is new in KitKat and I'm wondering if it's there (oh no wasn't in Jellybean, but was in KitKat but only fixed in the second, unnamed release).

      • If the minor version of Android Kit Kat ever goes beyond 4, someone failed.

        • If the minor version of Android Kit Kat ever goes beyond 4, someone failed.

          The multiple point releases didn't have separate names, even though they have different bug fixes which of course not all handsets pick up.. But of course other versions do. Jelly Bean spanned 4.1 to 4.3 which really saw some rather massive changes, to the point where referring to it as a single name is kinda stupid.

    • Re:Perfect Name (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Monday August 17, 2015 @05:23PM (#50334859) Homepage

      'Marshmallow' is the perfect word for a label that carries no content, is all fluff, and whose sole purpose is to appeal to people with simple tastes.

      Maybe I have simple tastes, but I like the idea of relatively unique and absurd version names. If you search for "debian 8 <my issue here>" I could get any kind of old crap, because the number eight has so many other uses like that this page was made the 8th of August 2008 or whatever. If I search for "debian jessie <my issue here>" it's extremely likely the page has been updated with information relevant to my version. Simply because prior to the announcement, there was very little if any reason to use "jessie" on any debian-related page and it's fairly memorable as a unique version identifier for both writers and readers.

      TL;DR don't confuse nonsensical with useless

      • "If you search for "debian 8 " I could get any kind of old crap, because the number eight has so many other uses like that this page was made the 8th of August 2008 or whatever."

        I think you underestimate the capabilities of Google of recognizing word collocations that often occur in queries and web pages. Right now, your statement is true because nobody starts a forum thread or mailing-list subject with "fubar issue in debian 8".

        If you google something like "fedora 22 nvidia", you won't see much posts dated

    • And remember, Marshmallow is made from gelatin and, as the Simpsons taught us "Gelatin comes from the skin, bones and hooves of only the sickest horses".

    • Wait, Doctor Who loves marshmallows...

  • >> Marshmallow

    Can we ever escape the influence of Disney's Frozen movie?
    http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net... [nocookie.net]

  • M&M (Score:2)

    by X10 ( 186866 )

    I was hoping for M&M. I don't like Marshmellows.

  • Bah (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Godai ( 104143 ) * on Monday August 17, 2015 @03:01PM (#50333793)

    Milkshake would have been more fun, if only for the image of an Android filled with chocolatey goodness and a pair of straws for antennae.

  • not marzipan? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I was so hoping for marzipan.

  • Broken in Kitkat, still broken in Lollipop. Not every Android device will live its whole life in sight of the cloud! Portable file system access is a must!

    • They're holding out for the next version. One bug at a time keeps the upgrade treadmill running full speed.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        Next version, hell, the manufacturers are getting worse and worse on upgrading the OS in phones. Still waiting to see kitkat on a note 3 in Australia (never pay premium for a pseudo premium phone because you are just paying for premium advertising). Android start doing elemental updates, update elements of the Android OS rather than 'claiming' updating the whole OS so that people can get them without breaking warranty of lame manufacturers. That way you can get some elements of the phone OS upgraded even i

    • Isn't FAT32 mostly obsolete due to volume size limitations?

      • You can have 48 hours of music in MP3 in 32GB, and for the most part, no worries about security.

        Sneakernet still uses FAT32 for the most part because of the huge number of operating systems that can read it.

      • FAT 32 has been completely obsolete since Windows Vista came out. The reason for Vista is it was the first Windows version to support write access for UDF without additional drivers. At that point, every major OS and quite a few minor ones all supported a common filesystem format which supported large sizes, proper long names and a bunch of other features.

        • Makes me think of DVD-RAM, which is about the only place you use UDF. Remember DVD-RAM? I've never seen one.
          Double-sided 8cm DVD-RAM in a cartridge, that would be kind of cool.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by tepples ( 727027 )

            All DVD uses some flavor of UDF, even a stamped DVD Video.

          • You can also format a USB stick with UDF. Needs a little care because Windows has bugs when it comes to the partition table, but it will give a sane FS on Windows, Macs and Linux.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Isn't FAT32 mostly obsolete due to volume size limitations?

        Well, FAT32 supports up to 2TB filesystems.

        Windows artificially limits it to 32GB to promote NTFS, but you can use Linux to make a FAT32 partition bigger than that. You can even bring it over to Windows and format it FAT32

        Anyhow, Google really likes to avoid patents. They avoided the Apple "rounded corners" patent[1] (because the launcher part of that patent was different). Their Nexus devices don't have SD cards and thus can conveniently skip FAT32

        • Or you can run any of third-party programs to format your volume under Windows, which otherwise doesn't have a real limitation.
          A tiny and simple one is called "fat32format". I used to have an 8GB ntfs Windows XP partition and bulk storage as fat, with the swap file and temp on one of the fat partitions which was also DOS bootable.
          Simpler times. With the OS on a real file system there was no great danger of corruption in case of crash (the PC was crazy stable anyway)

      • Yes, it is. But it is also unencumbered by patents, is widely compatible, and the limitations are less problematic on a mobile device (though it's definitely a problem if you want to do stuff like watch high-def movies on your tablet).

    • Broken in Kitkat, still broken in Lollipop. Not every Android device will live its whole life in sight of the cloud! Portable file system access is a must!

      Android has portable file system access but it is not the obsolete FAT32. Use UDF, it doesn't have the file or volume size limitations and it's supported by all major operating systems.

  • ...Android: Other M?

  • Since Android phones can be hacked with a simple text [npr.org], I was going on the presumption the M stood for Mine, as in, "Your phone is mine."

  • Who cares? (Score:1, Troll)

    by 0123456 ( 636235 )

    Still no support for the Nexus 7, which was on sale less than a year ago.

    If that's Google's idea of customer support, I'll have to replace it with an iPad.

  • Fast adoption certain! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Just Some Guy ( 3352 ) <kirk+slashdot@strauser.com> on Monday August 17, 2015 @04:05PM (#50334323) Homepage Journal

    Its predecessor, Lollipop, clawed it way to 18.1% share [android.com] in just 9 short months! In fact, Android versions released since October 2013 (KitKat) account for a whopping 57.4 share! With quick adoption like that, you should plan to upgrade your current phone to Marshmallow any day now.

    (Achievement unlocked: I typed that whole thing with a straight face.)

  • get this update?' requests in 3,2,1...

    Yeah, your manufacturer does not care, since {insert your device name here} does not have:

    - Fingerprint sensor (too cool to do without)
    - NFC (for Android Pay) (more revenue for them)
    - 3+GB RAM (they don't want to figure out how to shoehorn it into your old {insert your device name here}
    - USB-C (too cool) (new cables to buy) ( more revenue for them)
    - and the OEM ROM, of course, to get the OTA flash

    So don't bother to ask. Wait for some of the millions of lemmings floodin

  • Field of marshmallows (Score:3)

    by pubwvj ( 1045960 ) on Monday August 17, 2015 @04:58PM (#50334671)

    Did you know that marshmallows are a real plant? They're a flower growing out in our fields. It's the original plant used for making real marshmallows candies, the white puffs. Pretty and cool. Very easy to grow.

  • One more version behind! (Score:3)

    by TechyImmigrant ( 175943 ) on Monday August 17, 2015 @05:57PM (#50335061) Homepage Journal

    So this puts all the people who brought their android phone from a US carrier one more version of Android behind their expectations.

  • Name schname. They're at letter 13 out of 26! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Sloppy ( 14984 ) on Monday August 17, 2015 @05:58PM (#50335065) Homepage Journal

    Android's total history has reached the half-way point, unless you know the name of something sugary that starts with a left bracket.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by arielCo ( 995647 )

      100 Grand
      3 Musketeers
      5 (gum)
      5-Hour Energy (I've had phones like that)
      7-Up

      No love for even numbers ):

  • This is still a fantastic smartphone that is more than capable of running Android Marshmallow. If Google abandon this phone it wont be encouraging any of us to upgrade our hardware, but instead move to Cyanogenmod or other ROMS.
  • Kristen Bell as Veronica Mars.

  • How many Android users will be running Marshmallow?

  • The fark... why?? Didn't Google release Android L ("Lollipop") less than a year ago? Why, couldn't this just be Android v5.2 ??

    Oh wait. This is the post-Chrome rapid version number churn era... unless a product is updated by big, big, major version numbers at least three times a year*, "consumers" will consider it outdated and old-hat. Right?

    ( * Along with simplified, condescending changelogs ("coz, technical words scare people!!!") that basically boil down to "we updated your experience and fixed some "

  • What will be the name of the next version of Android? Sugar?
    Jokes aside, I found pretty cool Marshmallow name.
    I had many problems with the Kitkat version, but were resolved with the lollipop version, it is now expected that the new version does not bring complications!

    No way, we have to wait and see what's new!
    Decoração com Balões [decoracaoc...oes.net.br].

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