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Google Media Wireless Networking Hardware

Google's Nexus Q Successor Hits the FCC 56

With the kind of cagey phrasing found in many such electronics approval applications, Google describes a device that some are taking to be the successor to its discontinued Nexus Q thus: "The device functions as a media player." From the article: "Some of the specs of the device includes a 2.4GHz WiFi b/g/n connectivity. The FCC report does not contain test photos so we do not know what the device looks like. It is likely that the H840 will support Google Play Music All Access and will have similar functionality as a Sonos media player that can be connected to external speakers."
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Google's Nexus Q Successor Hits the FCC

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  • Discontinued? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Sunday May 19, 2013 @02:57PM (#43768991)

    That thing died faster than the Kin - can we really refer to it as "discontinued" when it was pretty much stillborn?

    On the plus side, its successor has a very, very low bar to clear...

    • All it has to do is be able to stream local content and not be completely locked to google and we will have a winner.
      • Re:Discontinued? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Sunday May 19, 2013 @03:32PM (#43769113)

        Roku boxes and Apple TVs can already do this AND offer access to external services like Netflix and Hulu - for under a hundred bucks. Heck, my LG television has a Plex client built in - no extra box is even needed to get at my own stuff.

        So I'm not sure why most people would be interested in a box that only handles local content - but maybe you mean "local" differently than I'm interpreting it.

      • All it has to do is be able to stream local content and not be completely locked to google and we will have a winner.

        Why? I can't see anything particularly good about it over existing products.

      • Correction: be able to stream local content, not be locked to Google, and be both rootable & reflashable so it won't end up in landfills like the Revue and original Nexus Q did.

    • by gl4ss ( 559668 )

      yeah, it's a bit of a fuck you to anyone who bought one to stop support in google play for it.

      I guess all those few people who actually got one should have instead gotten a cheap ass 80 bucks android-for-tv device and an amplifier. would have been cheaper too and more versatile. I got no idea why they had to appletvify it instead of just letting it have regular android.. it's not like "what's an android?" customers were going to buy it anyways.

      • Not really, didn't Google wind up just giving them away for free? They realized there were problems before they actually released it, and I thought that they had given them away.

        I personally hope that they have the good sense to not make it spherical again. Set top boxes are generally cuboids for a reason.

      • That would make a lot of sense - a more or less Stock Android TV box.

        Heck, I've been wondering why Apple hasn't opened the Apple TV up to developers, given its already running iOS.

        • by jrumney ( 197329 )

          Heck, I've been wondering why Apple hasn't opened the Apple TV up to developers, given its already running iOS.

          Perhaps because it is running the marketing version of iOS, not the developer version.

      • Re:Discontinued? (Score:5, Informative)

        by Bill Dimm ( 463823 ) on Sunday May 19, 2013 @03:38PM (#43769135) Homepage

        yeah, it's a bit of a fuck you to anyone who bought one to stop support in google play for it.

        Uhm, nobody bought one. Google gave them away for free [androidpolice.com] to anyone that pre-ordered them.

        • by gl4ss ( 559668 )

          yeah, it's a bit of a fuck you to anyone who bought one to stop support in google play for it.

          Uhm, nobody bought one. Google gave them away for free [androidpolice.com] to anyone that pre-ordered them.

          oh, missed that.

          so much for made in usa.

    • That thing died faster than the Kin

      I's argue it was never released(it was essentially a gift to early adopters)...and for some fairly obvious reasons. The price was high for a an arm box however many leds you have on it, when Rasberry Pi, Ouya, Android TV can be had for peanuts, and it had no real purpose...mystery media box.

      It was pulled early, and it was the right choice, in a manner respectful of customers. Google earned good Public relations from this from it.

    • It wasn't really discontinued, since it was never really launched.

      Frankly it's something lots of other manufacturers could learn from - even when you're ready and about to launch, if you realize the product is below par it's better to count your loses than to launch something substandard.

  • H2G2-42 (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mspohr ( 589790 ) on Sunday May 19, 2013 @03:34PM (#43769117)

    The summary left out the most important part! The model number is H2G2-42!
    This, of course, to everyone (except the submitter) is a not so veiled reference to Hitchhikers Guide.
    This article explains it better: http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/18/will-googles-new-nexus-q-the-h2g2-42-be-the-answer-to-life-the-universe-and-everything/ [venturebeat.com]

  • I so hope thy have this right this time. Powerful, Vanilla Nexus TV to show those cheap Android TV how its done. Hell look at those ports (not enough last time), and put in a killer chip this time. For god sake have some kind of plan for software...and please please think about the price. I bought an Ouya sight unseen, this I know is a better device, but that does not mean I am willing to pay three times the cost.

  • by Animats ( 122034 ) on Sunday May 19, 2013 @04:55PM (#43769511) Homepage

    Wonder how long "Google Play Music All Access" will last? Compared to PlaysForSure [wikipedia.org] (Microsoft), Zune Music Pass [wikipedia.org] (Microsoft), and WalMart Music Download Service. [walmart.com] Just having a big company behind it is no guarantee of success. Google has never had a successful consumer product that people had to pay for.

    List of discontinued Google products. [wikipedia.org]

    • Google has never had a successful consumer product that people had to pay for.

      You mean like the Nexus Range or Android perhaps the most disruptive consumer devices today. Although its list of successful products is legendary.

      List of Discontinues Microsoft Products http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Discontinued_Microsoft_software [wikipedia.org]
      List of Discontinued Apple Products http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_products_discontinued_by_Apple_Inc [wikipedia.org].

      The bottom line is though Microsoft destroyed playforsure (and its partners, to Apples Joy) for the sake of Zune (re-badged as Windows Phone :). Mus

      • You mean like the Nexus Range or Android

        The Android line is not a paid consumer product. It's a piece of middleware offered to phone manufacturers.

        • The Android line is not a paid consumer product. It's a piece of middleware offered to phone manufacturers.

          No it is defiantly a consumer product (Perhaps the most successful this year)...I would argue a collection of products. The most obvious one being the Play store...where consumers pay money towards Google in return for Applications, Movies, Books...ans in context of your ridiculous point Music. Its incredibly successful.

          However you paint it Google has been incredibly successful, at putting products into consumers hands, they fact that they have a variety of means to monetise its many consumer product is sim

          • You don't pay for any of the Android stuff, you pay for a device which can run it and then you get it. Sure, you can easily pay for software, but you're not paying for the basic functionality. All of that is gratis. At worst you go to goo and get the gapps for your device, and maybe twiddle build.prop such that you can actually use the store, and then google will happily treat you the same as any other user.

            Since you're not paying for Android, Android is not a consumer product. It's not like Windows where y

            • You don't pay for any of the Android stuff, you pay for a device which can run it

              Ignoring your waffle, and Ignoring the fact everything else is refuted so we are arguing semantics. I find it deeply ironic that anyone on here does not understand that that people are buying Samsung/LG/Sony etc hardware but Google software (the fact that Google does not get their money directly is irrelevant, they roll around on money from the play store, and have not only prevented bring locked out of a market by the old abusive duopoly they lead it, making more money in what they are good at.) especiall

          • No it is defiantly a consumer product

            Really, now?

    • by EdZ ( 755139 )
      Well, it's a streaming system not a download-to-not-own DRMed system, so a better comparison would be Pandora, Spotify et al. Personally, I'd rather purchase tracks and have them available offline to do with what I will (plus most of my music is not even available on streaming services, so I couldn't use them if I wanted to), but if you want to avoid the effort and would prefer something closer to a 'custom radio station' then subscription services are much of a muchness. With google backing it, and locked
  • Would be a change for them to have another product that isn't as Third-World encumbered as most electronics seem to be.

    • You have it wrong. The third-world products are mostly UN-encumbered. It's the products meant for sale in the US, Japan, and Europe that end up gimped and crippled into proprietary uselessness.

  • by m.dillon ( 147925 ) on Sunday May 19, 2013 @10:26PM (#43770897) Homepage

    If it doesn't have 5 GHz wifi connectivity it's worthless. 2.4 GHz connectivity interferes with bluetooth (read: music streaming over bluetooth), regardless of what fancy protocols they say they might be running to reduce interference. I have yet to find a 2.4 GHz wifi device that doesn't cause gaps in music playback over bluetooth.

    -Matt

    • by LiENUS ( 207736 )

      Why would you stream music over bluetooth when the Nexus Q was designed with an amplifier built in intended to be hooked up to your speakers...

      • Headphones?
        • by LiENUS ( 207736 )

          So you're going to use your phone as a remote controller (remember this device only streams media off of google play nothing local and it has no user interface so you need another android tablet to do this) to choose songs and then rather than just using your phone to play the media you play it through the Nexus Q but use bluetooth so you're stuck in one room and can't move around...

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