Rumors surrounding new Nexus devices are certainly nothing new, but this year we’ve been hearing something a little different. Instead of releasing a revamped Nexus 7 this year, the word is that Google is to release a Nexus 8, following the trend of other tablet manufacturers. Shipping a device with a slightly larger display would appeal to a lot of users and perhaps appease those still waiting for a new Nexus 10 model. While we’ve yet to hear anything concrete surrounding a Nexus 8, or too much surrounding a new Nexus smartphone, it looks like Google is testing something.
As Myce reports, the Chromium issue tracker has let slip a previously unknown device codename, ‘Flounder’. As Nexus fans will tell you, Google users types of fish for their codenames, with last year’s Nexus 5 being dubbed ‘Hammerhead’. In a bug report found in the tracker, a device with the new codename was listed, but other than the name itself there’s very little to go on here.
It’s possible that this is an upcoming Nexus 8, but it could be something else altogether. With Google I/O fast approaching, could ‘Flounder’ be a new device the company is readying to unveil this Summer? Chances are slim, as Google has done their best to revert I/O back to the developer conference it was always meant to be, rather than a place to announce new products, but anything could happen.
‘Flounder’ is indeed the name of a fish – of the flatfish variety, for those curious – which could very well mean that Google is testing a Nexus device at sorts. That is at least, if we’re to follow the same sort of codenames Google have been using for years now. Dogfooding devices and new services (like the upcoming Stars service) like this is pretty common for a company like Google, and this probably isn’t going to be the last time we see the ‘Flounder’ codename.
