Until Steve Jobs came along, apple was the name of a popular fruit often portrayed as the fruit that Biblical character Eve offered to Adam, which resulted in the two being banished by God from the Garden of Eden.

Although the Bible refers to that fruit as coming from the Tree of Knowledge, the use of the apple as a symbol was actually introduced only by renaissance artists.

In a sense, the Apple company that the late Mr Jobs established is like a Tree of Knowledge by providing to techies the world over easier access to learning through the many devices that the firm introduced to the world such as the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and iMac.

But why did Mr Jobs named his company Apple? Why not Orange? Or Mango?

Mr Jobs used to work in a company called California Apple Farm back in Oregon. During the time he was about to register the business he established, he could not think of a name and so decided to use Apple.

The company he found, now one of the most valuable companies in the world, is not the only one with an interesting name history.

The competitor of Apple's iOS, the Google Android, has its versions of operating systems revolving around food names.

Android, the operating system used for mobile devices, was founded in Palo Alto, California in 2003 and then acquired by Google in 2005.

Over the years several versions of Android OS were released, namely:

Version 1.0: Released on Sept. 23, 2008, which is used by the HTC Dream (G1).

Version 1.1: Released on Feb. 9, 2009. T-Mobile G1 has this version.

Version 1.5 (Cupcake): Released on April 30, 2009. HTC Droid Eris uses this version.

Version 1.6 (Donut): Released on Sept. 15, 2009. HTC Tattoo uses this Android OS.

Version 2.0 (Éclair): Released on Oct. 26, 2009. ZTE Racer has this version.

Version 2.2 (Froyo or FROzen YOgurt): Released on May 10. 2010. Samsung Galaxy Mini has this. Actually most Android phones used this one.

Version 2.3 (Gingerbread): Released on Dec. 6, 2010. Samsung Galaxy S2 has this version. Upcoming smartphones will now use this Android.

Version 3.0 (Honeycomb): Released on Feb. 22. 2011. This is exclusive to tablet computers using Android OS.

The different versions of Android use food names for each successful independent version of the OS. Notice that the names are in alphabetical order from its third version. However 1.0 and 1.1 were not given names, but had it been named, it would surely start with A and B, respectively.

This has left the tech world speculation on the next version of the Android? It should start with letter "I." Iced tea? Icicle? Ice cream? Your guess is as good as ours.

Another operating system named after another fruit is Mango! It is an acronym for Multi-image Analysis GUI. Instead of calling it MANGU, it was named after the fruit because it sounded more beautiful and easier to recall. This software is mainly used for graphic and image rendering/editing. Linux, Mac and Windows use this software.

Before Mr Jobs died, Apple was in the thick of a legal battle with South Korean firm, Samsung Electronics, over patent infringement.

The name means three stars in English, and one of the company's first products was noodles. In 1938, Lee Byung-chull founded Samsung Sanghoe in Daegu City. It sold grocery items and produces noodles as well.

Today the small grocery store has become the largest company in South Korea and manufactures not only mobile devices and appliances, but is also into shipbuilding, finance, aviation and chemicals. Samsung has certainly gone a long way from noodles

Another interesting name in the tech world is Java, which techies could find in their Internet browser or games. It's actually a programming language and also the name of an island in Indonesia and a coffee bean variety.

Java, the programming language developed by Sun Microsystems was originally called Oak because of an oak tree outside of the office of Sun Microsystem's founder, James Gosling. Then, the name was changed to Green, and later to Java because the creators of the language consumed large quantities of Java coffee while perfecting the language.

Still, another interesting tech name - although not of a food - is the universal file transfer device in mobile phones named Bluetooth. Although there is no real blue tooth in the real word, the manufacturers of the device used a Scandinavian term which was an epithet used by King Harald I of Denmark to unite the dissonant Danish tribes into one kingdom. In the sense, the name Bluetooth reflects what the device does, which is to unite file transfer to most gadgets.

How techies name their devices only shows that in a fast-paced world made faster by the hardware and software they come up with, the more basic things in life such as food, locations and history still have a role to play.

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