‘The Tortoise Lays on Its Back, Its Belly Baking in the Hot Sun, Beating Its Legs Trying to Turn Itself Over, but It Can’t, Not Without Your Help. But You’re Not Helping. Why Is That?’

So the new Google Phone identifies itself as “Nexus One” in its user agent string. Nexus is the brand name of the series of androids (a.k.a. replicants) in Blade Runner and Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. The story concerns escaped Nexus-6 models; in the movie, you-know-who is a prototype Nexus-7.

Update: Sony calls their custom Android UI “Nexus”.

★ Saturday, 12 December 2009