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Google’s purported new Nexus devices teased in Android 4.4.3 code

Published May 9th, 2014 7:40AM EDT
HTC Nexus Flounder Tablet

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After Myce discovered in the Chromium issue tracker a fish-based codename (Flounder) for a Google device running an early-May Android version, speculating that Flounder may be the Nexus 8/9 tablet tipped to be made by HTC, xda-developers has dug deeper and found more evidence that HTC is the maker of Flounder. Additionally, what could also be a Nexus device codenamed “Molly” has also been spotted.

Digging through the Android 4.4.3 KitKat MR2 changelist, the publication found lines of code that associate Flounder to HTC, as seen below:

project device/htc/flounder/
f6f0fe7 flounder: fix KGDB port
d9a03bc flounder: take out conservative cpufreq governor a.o. extraneous stuff
091c1c1 flounder: add Power HAL
project device/htc/flounder-kernel/
6090a06 flounder: update kernel prebuilt

Interestingly, Molly was also spotted in the same KitKat MR2 build, although it’s not clear who will make the device – those lines of code follow below:

project device/google/molly/
60f0dd6 molly: keystore: add keystore hal
1dcb7b7 molly: correcting too wide permissions for certain devnodes
eadd23b molly: set permissions for nvhost-msenc
c554447 [molly][drm] Implement rules for Discretix module
787e5e7 Fix the file permission for mbtchar0
fe0c51a Update releasetools.py to support separate prod and test key bootloaders
e610c57 Set BT minor code to SET_TOP_BOX instead of HIFI.
5d64459 molly: Do not init p2p for wlan0 interface
c0626ba Disable throughput hinting for gpu frequency scaler.
project device/google/molly-kernel/
81386aa Update kernel
11ab4e9 Update kernel
9d7bca3 Update kernel
bea8097 Update kernel
55591db Update kernel
342aa11 Update kernel
481e0a6 Update kernel:
b904ad3 Update kernel
4d2f31f Update kernel
dc305ba Update kernel
d508d83 Update kernel
5668370 Update kernel

Google is expected to unveil an HTC-made Nexus 8 or Nexus 9 tablet this summer, possibly alongside a new Android 4.5 OS version, and a Nexus 6 smartphone in fall based on the LG G3.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.