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Google Nexus Q: Apple TV for Android

Google Nexus Q outed: Apple TV for Android is coming

Google Nexus Q, an Apple TV-esque service for Android phones has been outed ahead of the Google I/O 2012 conference in San Francisco.

A YouTube video uploaded yesterday shows off the Nexus Q, a black sphere-shaped object, streaming all of your music and entertainment from the cloud around your living room.

Google is touting Nexus Q as the “first device that lets you create social playlists with your friends.” We beg to differ but Sonos did that first…

But the Nexus Q isn’t just about music you see. Movies (via Play Movies and TV) and YouTube (via, erm, YouTube) videos can also be streamed to a connected TV over the same Wi-Fi connection. Hopefully this will apply to files you’ve stored in your Google Drive and not just content accessed through Google Play and YouTube.

Nexus Q: The first social music sharing device

All you apparently need to get jiggy with Nexus Q is an Android device and connection to the same Wi-Fi. Hopefully this device will make it to the UK the same time it launches elsewhere – Google’s suffered from Rest-of-the-world-itis a few times in the past, with things like Google Music and Google Wallet initially being US-only deals.

No doubt we’ll hear more about this as it develops at Google I/O this evening.

Just in case Google yanks the vid before any kind of official announcement, here’s the blurb from the YouTube video to go with your screengrab.

“Nexus Q streams your favorite entertainment directly from the cloud to your living room. Just use the Google Play and YouTube apps on your Android phone or tablet to surf an ocean of music, TV, movies and music, and Nexus Q will play it all on the biggest speakers and screen in the house. There are no downloads, no syncing, no running out of space. Just the stuff you love — at home and out loud.”

Update: It’s official, Google’s just taken the wraps off of Nexus Q.

It’s going to cost $299 and will be available in the US ‘first’, with the unspoken assumption that it’ll roll over to the UK at some point. That price currently coverts to £190, which undercuts the Sonos Play: 3 by about £40. 

In lieu of some hands-on pics, here’s what we were able to nab from the livestream:

Google Nexus Q: Apple TV for Android

Nexus Q’s NFC capabilities demoed.

Google Nexus Q: Apple TV for Android

Sending music requests to the Nexus Q wirelessly. It looks like what would result if Marvin the Paranoid Android from the Hitchhiker’s movie and Samus Aran’s Morph Ball got together and had a baby.

Google Nexus Q: Apple TV for Android

Four connections thread out of the back of the Nexus Q, above the power cord. The trailing dreadlocks ruin the smooth spherical look somewhat but for the most part they’d be tucked out of sight.

Google Nexus Q: Apple TV for Android

Nexus Q supports multiroom play, that is, if you’ve got one Nexus Q in the living room and one in the bedroom, the garage or the bathroom, you can dictate where in the home the music gets piped. Different rooms can have different soundtracks or you can have the entire house jumping to the same beat.

Here’s the specs as announced by Google so far:

Nexus Q Specifications

Processor: Texas Instruments OMAP 4460

Inputs: Optical digital audio, micro HDMI, micro USB (to to encourage ‘general hackability’)

Connectivity: Dual band Wi-Fi, Ethernet, NFC, Bluetooth

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