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As the Nexus 5 launch nears, we’re getting one more confirmation that Google is getting all its ducks in order before pushing the big chocolate KitKat covered GO button and releases the new smartphone to the public Read more at http://www.gottabemobile.com/2013/10/30/google-play-store-changes-prepare-nexus-5-launch/#TT4suQTKYz828wl6.99

What's the meaning of that expression?

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It's not “getting all its ducks”, it's getting all its ducks in order, that is, putting them in order.

ODO has a similar expression under duck:

get (or have) one's ducks in a row
North American informal
get (or have) one’s facts straight; get (or have) everything organized:
    I want to have my ducks in a row before I go in there and confront them

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  • is it just a complicated manner of say "everything in order", isn't it?
    – user29020
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 10:37
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    Idiomatic and metaphorical, not complicated.
    – Andrew Leach
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 10:44
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When baby ducks walk behind their mother, we tend to think of them as walking in single file. To get one's ducks in a row is to prepare for an important task by organizing and taking care of affairs related to that task.

There's a connotation that you haven't been keeping these affairs in order as you went along. It's even possible that perhaps you should have been keeping them in order, but you didn't, and so now you have to go back and correct that.

In this article's case, Google is preparing to release a smartphone. The "ducks" are probably things like regulatory paperwork, late-stage testing, final marketing documents, and so on.

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