Google Device Codenamed 'Flounder' Leaks Online: Is It Nexus 6 or Nexus 8?

Details of Google's upcoming Nexus device codenamed "Flounder" (purported to be the Nexus 8) have leaked online via the Chrome issue tracker, according to a recent report by Myce.

Google has traditionally named its upcoming Nexus devices after fish (manta, tuna and hammerhead being three recent devices), the next Nexus device could indeed be the Flounder.

The build fingerprint in the leaked document (above) points to Google/volantis, which could actually refer to a developing mobile software company called "Volantis" (acquired by another company in 2011).

The name Volantis also represents the flying dress recently launched by Lady Gaga and a city in Game of Thrones. So, it may not necessarily relate directly to the device.

However, the build string coded "AAV36B" clearly sheds some light on the software version running on the alleged Nexus device. The first two letters "AA" signify the development branch code for the Android SDK tools, while the letter "V" indicates that the build is from Q2 2014.

The number 36 in the build string represents the thirty-sixth day of Q2 2014, which is 6 May, 2014. Finally, the last letter "B" suggests it is the second build of that day.

In related news, folks at XDA Developers have unearthed further details about the Nexus device codenamed "Flounder", which includes the OEM name for the device, the type of the device (smartphone or tablet) and a reference to Google Molly via leaked Android 4.4.3 (KitKat MR2) changelist.

Here are excerpts from the KitKat MR2 Changelist document leaked via AOSP website (lines 239 to 245)::

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

Though there is still no word about the form-factor for the reported Nexus device cited in the document, the excerpts of KitKat MR2 changelog (above) clearly suggest that the device is built by HTC with the project reference (see below) to Google Molly (lines 214 to 237).

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

Given the sparse details in the leaked documents, it is uncertain if the reported Nexus device is a Nexus 8 or the upcoming flagship smartphone, the Nexus 6.

Do you think it will be Nexus 6, Nexus 8 or a device from another family called Google Molly? Please leave your comments below.