6:29 PM
about.in
Just when it seemed like the reportedly imminent launch of the iPad 3 was going to be the big tech story of the week, Google came along and stole Apple’s thunder.
Now the piece of hardware that’s at the top of everyone’s minds (or at least the top of Techmeme) is a reported Google home entertainment system. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google’s new device will be unveiled “later this year, people familiar with the matter said.”
The new Google device described by The Journal would stream music wirelessly throughout a user’s home from Google Music and would be controlled by a smartphone or tablet. Such a device would compete directly with, and be cheaper than, the Sonos wireless music streaming system currently available on the market. Though no specific Sonos product is mentioned, the most expensive product on Sonos’s website is the $499 Connect: Amp, which can stream music from a home computer throughout any other speakers in the home and is also controlled by a smartphone or tablet.
Sonos coincidentally got a nice bump from the New York Times, with writer Nick Wingfield saying it’s better than Apple’s wireless music controlling options.
But back to Google: The Journal isn’t sure yet whether or not the new Google device would operate Android, Google’s mobile operating system, but that seems like a pretty safe bet. Google’s other operating system, the desktop, Web-based Chrome OS, has not been a big hit with consumers yet.
The Journal’s report is scant on all the other important details, though — such as when precisely the mythical Google Music device will be available, for how much, in which retailers and under what name.
The Journal recalled that back in May 2011 at Google’s annual I/O developer conference, the company showed off a prototype service called “Android@Home,” which would allow homeowners to control virtually any electrical appliance — from lights to dishwashers to outside sprinkler systems — using an Android smartphone or tablet. Joe Britt, the managing director of that project, also previewed “Project Tungsten,” two reference devices that The Journal says are “related” to the forthcoming entertainment system.
One of them was an Android-powered music player that used near field communications technology (NFC) to automatically scan CDs in their cases and stream the corresponding albums from Google’s cloud-based music library. Check it out on display at the 2011 I/O conference in the following video (starts at min 46):
Google is also using NFC to power its wireless mobile phone payement system, Google Wallet.
The New York Times, also reporting on the new Google device on Friday, adds a few more details: “While the initial purpose of the device will be for streaming music, the eventual use could be much wider,” also noting that the device has been in the works for more than a year, well before Google announced its intention to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.
Two other bits of news from earlier in the month suggest that while the new Google device is actually coming, it won’t be just another piece of vaporware. On February 3rd, GigaOmreported that Google had in December filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission to “to test a mysterious Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-enabled ‘entertainment device,’ in employees’ homes in four U.S. cities,” Los Angeles, New York, Cambridge, Massachusetts and Mountain View, California, where Google is headquartered. The company specifically requestedthat it be allowed to test 252 devices that “utilizes a standard WiFi/Bluetooth module.” As the FCC application continues: “Users will connect their device to home WiFi networks and use Bluetooth to connect to other home electronics equipment. “
And on February 4, VentureBeat reported that Google had recently managed to hire away Apple’s senior director of product integrity, Simon Prakash, who had worked for the company for 8 years.
As VentureBeat noted: “Now he’ll be working for Google on a secret project, presumably run by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who is in charge of a variety of secret research and development projects at Google.”
Although all the reports are pointing toward a Google home music system, the company could end up surprising everyone and possibly release something entirely different, such as a rumored Google videogame console. In any case, the company is enjoying an unprecedented amount of buzz at the moment, a buzz of, well, Apple-like proportions.
Posted in: 
0 comments:
Post a Comment