A full 7.5 million years later, it arrives at the answer: 42.

Google appears to be referencing that bit of geek cult humor in a new device, the H2G2-42, that it is currently submitting to the FCC for regulatory testing. H2G2 is a Wikipedia-ish guide to “life, the universe, and everything” inspired by Adams’ books.

There’s little data available about the device, but Google does say it is a “media player,” and a “fixed base station” with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, which would make it almost certainly a replacement for Google’s failed Nexus Q. The Q was Google’s ”first social streaming media player” that met with almost universally negative reviews, underwhelmed users, and is no longer for sale.

Source: FCC

Google device H2G2-42 is in FCC testing

One change that seems likely: It appears that the H2G2-42 will allow users to plug in external monitors via provided USB ports:

Source: FCC

Google’s H2G2-42 may be connectable to external monitors

As The Verge notes, Google’s new streaming music app broke compatibility with the Nexus Q. The Google Play Music All Access product is impressive, enabling personalized “radio stations” and inexpensive streaming music. Google calls it “radio without rules,” and it seems reasonable that Google would want a shiny new device to go with this major new music push.

Photos are not yet available and more details will have to wait until 45 days after certification. And it’s unlikely that a music streaming device will be the ultimate answer to the ultimate question.

But meanwhile, enjoy:

Image credits: Google, FCC

If you’re looking forward to tons of new gadgets and big product news at this year’s Google I/O developer conference, you may have to adjust your expectations. But that could actually end up being a very good thing for Google.

The company’s new Android head, Sundar Pichai, said in an interview with Wired yesterday that there won’t be many new products shown off at I/O. That means no new version of the Android OS, and no new gadgets like the failed Nexus Q.

“Both on Android and Chrome, we’re going to focus this I/O on all of the kinds of things we’re doing for developers, so that they can write better things,” he said. “We will show how Google services are doing amazing things on top of these two platforms.”

While it may be disappointing for some, the focus away from big product blowouts at I/O may actually be better for Google in the long run.

If anything, last year’s blockbuster I/O showing was an anomaly for Google — and when it came to setting expectations for future events, it probably hurt the company more than it helped. While that insane live Google Glass skydive was indeed amazing, the company also wasted plenty of time, energy, and goodwill on the Nexus Q, a baffling product that Google (wisely) never released.

Ultimately, it felt like Google was trying desperately to out-Apple Apple with last year’s keynote. Perhaps this year, it won’t feel the need to try so darn hard.

There’s plenty of time for Google to host big media events. At I/O, the company would be better off selling the gospel of its services to the thousands of excited developers in attendance. In particular, Google needs to convince developers to prioritize Android more (most devs focus on iOS apps first) and to build more Google+ apps.

Apple may be taking a similar approach this year with its own developer conference (which sold out in just two minutes). Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that there won’t be any new hardware announcements at WWDC this year.

Here are a few things we expect to see at I/O this year, as well as several things we predict won’t show up.

More about Android’s future

Sundar Pichai got everyone thinking about Android again with Monday’s interview, and you can tell he was setting up the pieces for what Google will tackle during this week’s I/O keynote.

Pichai dismissed talk of combining Android and Chrome OS, but when it comes to Android’s biggest challenge, he noted an interesting dilemma: “Without changing the open nature of Android, how do we help improve the whole world’s end-user experience?”

It sounds like he’s trying to figure out new ways to move Android’s design forward without leaving behind too many Android devices. Android is already heavily fragmented — one quick glimpse at Google’s Android platform tracker shows almost half of the devices out there aren’t yet running Android 4.0 — so Pichai is probably worried about making that situation worse.

A new Nexus 7

Google’s inexpensive Nexus 7 tablet was by far the most significant announcement made at last year’s I/O conference. It didn’t have the flash of a giant skydiving sequence — but then it didn’t need it. The prospect of an inexpensive and powerful Android tablet was more than enough to prove its worth. The Nexus 7 proved a cheap tablet didn’t have to feel cheap, and it ultimately went on to become one of the most successful Android tablets.

This year, expect Google to show off a newer Nexus 7 that’s faster, thinner, and perhaps even cheaper. We’ve seen rumors circulating about such a revamp, and it makes sense for Google to announce a new Nexus 7 now. Just imagine the attention a $150 revamaped Nexus 7 would get. (And even better, imagine if Google could continue selling the existing model for just $100 or less.)

No new Nexus phone

The Nexus 4 debuted last fall, so it’s way too soon for Google to show off yet another Nexus device. I won’t rule out an LTE Nexus 4, though — the lack of LTE was my biggest gripe in my review of the Nexus 4, and by this point Google may have managed to score LTE support with carriers.

There’s also word that Google-owned Motorola is working on some killer smartphones for this year, which could end up overshadowing whatever new Nexus is in the works. Don’t expect those Motorola devices at I/O either — if they’re as interesting as we’re hearing, they’ll get their own blowout media event in a few months.

No more Nexus Q talk

Come on, now.

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We’ve seen the clash of titans in mobile as Apple, Google, and Microsoft have released new phones, tablets, and mobile operating systems. We’ve seen a single network connect over a billion people worldwide. We’ve seen the once-great mobile company of the far European north forced to hawk its headquarters to raise cash. And we’ve seen social media move from cutting-edge to mainstream as the Obama campaign celebrated four more years.

In every year, we see winners and losers: companies, devices, or operating systems. Here’s our look at some of the biggest successes and failures of 2012.

The winners

	Android What more can you say about Android? With 75 percent market share in the third quarter of 2012, the free mobile operating system from Google looks poised to take over the world.
	Samsung  Not many companies sell 55 million smartphones in a quarter. Samsung did, and it will probably do it again.
	Galaxy S III Samsung is hot in large part due to its top smartphone, the Galaxy S III. With over 18 million units shipped in the third quarter, and 30 million shipped in five months, it’s easy to see why.
	iPhone 5 Sure, it was Time’s gadget of the year. But more importantly, iPhone 5 catapulted Apple back into the smartphone leadership position, at least in the U.S.
	iPad Mini We called it immediately: light, portable, awesome, and expensive. And it even looked better up close and person in our review. But we had no clue it would become one of Apple’s best-selling iPads. And now that it’s probably going Retina in April/May, it’s just getting better.
	YouTube YouTube continues to be the online leader, by far, in online video with 800 million visitors and billion-view channels created by individuals and brands. Despite getting the boot from iOS6, YouTube just continues to grow, with 25 times the video streams of its nearest competitor.
	Twitter 2012 is the year that Twitter went mainstream, reaching 500 million users mid-summer and just recently announcing 200 million monthly active users. And despite major new API restrictions that soured its relationship with developers, a very public spat with Instagram, and an evolving shift from social utility to media company, the company continues to grow and solidify its space in fast-breaking news.
	Instagram With a sale initially priced at almost $1.3 billion and an exploding user count, not even a tone-deaf terms-of-service change that spurred a class action lawsuit and a possible exodus of some users can keep Instagram off our winner list.
	Google Android is hot — 75 percent market-share hot. Search is still a massive strength for the iconic company that runs an ad 30 billion times each and every day. And so Google makes over $100 million a day – and hits our list of hot companies in 2012.
	ARM With the vast majority of the chips in smartphones running ARM processors, ARM has people wondering whether the mobile juggernaut will challenge Intel for CPU dominance. That’s still a stretch, but not nearly what it was just a few years ago.
	Reddit With 3.8 billion page views and 46 million unique visitors in October — double the previous year’s numbers — Reddit is continuing its torrid growth. And it doesn’t hurt when the POTUS himself chooses your site to do an informal meet-the-people session — which required 60 dedicated servers.

Next page: The losers

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Google has added some awesome new features to its YouTube Android app today that greatly increase the Google TV experience.

The YouTube app now lets you push any video you’re watching on your phone or tablet to a television that’s using the Google TV software (via set-top box or integrated within the TV itself). The feature is very similar to the Airplay feature Apple already offers to people who own both an Apple TV set-top box and an iOS device.

Additionally, the YouTube Android app turns your device into a remote control, allowing you to pause, scroll, skip to the next video, or see related videos. Not only that, but you can also connect multiple devices to the same Google TV-enabled television set.

The new features essentially turn Google TV devices into Google’s now absent Nexus Q (aka the TRON bowling ball) that debuted back in May at the company’s developer conference. The Nexus Q, which was delayed from launching to consumers, only allowed people to curate music and YouTube videos using their Android devices. And now that Google TVs can curate YouTube videos, the Nexus Q seems even more useless — especially when considering that a Google TV devices like the Vizo Co-star are about $200 cheaper.

Photo via Korosirego /Flickr

Tech giant Google is holding off on launching its expensive streaming media bowling ball, the Nexus Q, to the public, the company announced today.

Google first announced the streamer nearly a month ago at its Google I/O developer event. The $300 sphere-shaped Nexus Q lets users play media from their Android devices on TV sets and external speaker systems. It also lets users “socialize” by collaborating on music playlists and mirroring YouTube videos accessed on mobile devices. But beyond the Nexus Q’s cool TRON-like design, it doesn’t do nearly enough to justify the cost — as Google recently discovered.

“The industrial design and hardware were met with great enthusiasm. We also heard initial feedback from users that they want Nexus Q to do even more than it does today,” Google wrote in an e-mail to pre-order customers. “In response, we have decided to postpone the consumer launch of Nexus Q while we work on making it even better.”

Some of the things that irked us about the Nexus Q was that it required an Android device running Jelly Bean to work — meaning you can’t use the device on its own. The Nexus Q also didn’t provide support for third-party media services (Hulu Plus, Netflix, Spotify) and video games. To top it off, the $300 price is triple that of rival media streamers, including Apple TV, Roku 2 XS, and even a few Google TV-powered boxes (Logitech Revue, Vizio Co-Star). These are things that developers undoubtedly conveyed to Google.

Despite the delay, pre-order customers still have something to be happy about. Google is reimbursing any charges for the device for now. When the Nexus Q is ready for consumer launch, pre-order customers will get one sent to them for free.

In related news, anyone who endured ridicule from friends for wasting their money pre-ordering a feature-limited Nexus Q now has permission to gloat.

Via The Verge

Thanks to the hacker community, Google’s new media streamer, the Nexus Q, isn’t just an expensive Tron bowling ball with limited functionality.

In a developer forum, hacker kornyone revealed today that he was able to unlock the Nexus Q, install an Android app library launcher tool, and control the device with an external keyboard and mouse. Basically, anyone who uses this method will be able to access services like Netflix on their television sets, much in the same way a set-top box does. Kornyone specifically noted that he was able to stream 1080p-quality video to his TV using Netflix.

Directly out of the packaging, the Nexus Q seems like a rather limited device for the $299 price, as both VentureBeat’s Jolie O’Dell and I stated when Google debuted the product a few weeks ago. You can only use it in conjunction with mobile devices running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), and it only streams music, movies, and YouTube videos stored or accessed on your phone or tablet. The Nexus Q’s media sharing features are nice, but they pale in comparison to Google TV set-top boxes that have access to third-party applications. In short, it’s a huge disappointment.

However, the company did state at the Google I/O developer’s conference that it’s very interested to see how developers use the Nexus Q’s USB port to hack the device. Barely a day after the Nexus Q launched, a developer managed to hack the device to run (but not play) video games like Angry Birds, as VentureBeat previously reported. It’s nice to see Google taking this prohacking stance, especially when competitors like Apple unofficially frown on the practice.

For anyone that wishes to hack their Nexus Q, Kornyone has kindly produced a step-by-step how-to video, which we’ve embedded below.

Via The Verge

We’re still not sure what Google hopes to accomplish with its $300 Nexus Q media streamer (I suspect even Google isn’t sure), but that’s not stopping the folks at iFixit from ripping Google’s  bowling ball apart.

But if you were looking for some big revelation from the Q’s innards, you’ll probably be disappointed. Aside from the unique circular shape for many of its components, there’s not much to surprise even the nerdiest gadget geeks.

iFixit ranked the streamer with a repairability score of 8 out of 10, which means it’s fairly easy to fix. Though if you find yourself purchasing a Nexus Q, you should probably be more worried about your terrible buying decision than the device breaking. (Venturebeat’s Tom Cheredar and Jolie O’Dell both explained in depth why the Nexus Q isn’t worth your time.)

The repair gurus were able to open up the Nexus Q without any tools, and internal components are easy to replace, since they aren’t soldered in place. iFixit warns that the Q’s power supply is exposed once you start digging into the device, so that’s something to watch out for.

Google has made a huge deal about the Nexus Q being designed and manufactured domestically, and iFixit’s teardown didn’t disprove those claims. Of course, the company couldn’t avoid using some overseas components, including the RAM, flash memory, and USB/Ethernet controller. But Google never promised that every element of the Nexus Q was born and bred in the USA.

Photo via iFixit

By now, everyone has heard about Google’s shiny new media streamer sphere, the Nexus Q, but not everyone has seen what it has to offer.

It seems that the company has embedded a cool little Easter egg feature in the device that allows you to ask it questions using your voice — kind of like a more advanced version of the classic Magic 8-ball toy. To access the “Magic 8-Ball Mode,” users need only repeatedly tap the Nexus Q image in the device’s Android app. A screen then pops up with the following message: “Have a dilemma? Ask the Q.”

The responses are packaged, and you can’t really get a legitimate answer like you would if you were asking the new Google Now voice search feature or Apple’s Siri. Still, this goes a long way in showing the full potential of the Nexus Q — even if it doesn’t convince people to pony up the $300 for one when there are cheaper options out there.

Source via Eletronica; Images via Adrian Perez

Google’s freshly announced Nexus Q media streamer may be designed for music and movies, but developers have already used the device for something different: games.

Philippe Hausler, a developer at software company Apportable, managed to get the Android game Swords and Soldiers running on the Nexus Q. But there’s one problem: The game isn’t actually playable.

For that you can blame the Nexus’s Q’s distinct lack of touch controls, which is an obvious limitation for a device with no touchscreen. The same goes for games such as Osmos, which Hausler wasn’t able to get running at all.

Still, it’s not hard to envision a time when developers will find a work-around these restrictions. After all, they managed this hack less than a day after getting a hold of the Nexus Q.

Notably, Apportable specializes in helping iOS developers port their apps to Android, so a hack like this is highly relevant to the company’s skill set.

The Nexus’s Q’s hackability is owed to, in large part, its miniUSB port, which is an open gateway to the device’s innards. We’re sure to see a lot of interesting projects with Google’s Tron-esque orb of a device.

Photo: Christina Kelly

Design is determining the winners in everything mobile. The most successful players are focusing on one thing: How to make products, services, and devices as compelling and delightful as possible – visually, and experientially. MobileBeat 2012, July 10-11 in San Francisco , is assembling the most elite minds to debate how UI/UX is transforming every aspect of the mobile economy, and where the opportunities lie. Register here.

We had some time to unbox and set up our Nexus Q from Google I/O, and the results were what they were.

Basically, it allows you to use a Jelly Bean Android device to control videos, movies, music, and images in your home, either on a TV or through speakers, which can be connected through hard wires.

The setup is pretty simple, but once we got to the end of it, we were a bit underwhelmed by the results. This correspondent’s official stance has always been curmudgeonly but consistent: Until home media devices are as easy and intuitive as putting a record on a record player, home media systems (like Sonos and Nexus Q, in particular) aren’t going to see much adoption outside of hardcore nerds like you and me.

Unfortunately, most hardcore nerds like you and me likely already have complex and costly home media solutions in place. Here’s what our go-to media guru Tom Cheredar had to say about that in his initial review:

First of all, a number of competitors already offer this streaming functionality — and as a complimentary feature. The Apple TV’s Airplay enables TV screen sharing in addition to its support for several third-party media services like Netflix, YouTube, Vimeo, MLB, NHL, and more. And with the purchase of cloud-media startup mSpot, Samsung is also planning to offer this kind of functionality on all its devices, complete with a Google Play-like digital media store. It’s worth noting that Samsung is also one of the most popular sellers of Android-based mobile devices. All that said, plenty of other platforms/devices offer far more than the Nexus Q.

We’ll be sending our Q-ball (haha, see what we did there?!) off to Tom shortly for further review, but so far, our conclusion is that this little fella still has a long way to go.

The company announced the latest version of Android, Jelly Bean. (I was hoping J would stand for jalebi; maybe us Indians can get K for kulfi.) Google also announced a Nexus tablet, the Nexus 7, and a music and video streaming device, the Nexus Q.

Here’s my look at the risk impact from Google’s announcements on various competitors’ products:

Apple — Moderate. Although the Jelly Bean OS upgrade has some nice enhancements, nothing here is going to move the iPhone faithful over to Android. iPad has a similar stickiness to it. But a well-designed tablet (as the Nexus 7 seems to be) for less than half the price of the cheapest iPad will surely sway some people who were contemplating a tablet purchase.

Microsoft Surface — Moderate. Microsoft, a company with a reputation for vaporware, announced a tablet without a price or a ship date. Press at the launch event weren’t allowed to use the device. Google announced a price and ship date and gives away tablets to everyone in attendance. Fortunately for Microsoft, many enterprises are stuck with legacy systems that need Microsoft OSes. I can see consumers flocking to the Nexus 7, but I don’t see that happening for Surface. (Disclosure: I am long Microsoft. Maybe I shouldn’t be.)

Amazon Kindle Fire — High. Nexus 7 seems aimed squarely at the Kindle Fire. It’s all about content consumption. It has a similar form factor and price. The Nexus 7 is more elegant and noticeably lighter than the current Fire. We’ll have to revisit this when the updated Fire is announced; that’s expected to happen in July.

Facebook — Low. Google+ Events is the biggest threat item to Facebook. It’s possible that the “party mode” feature that automatically uploads photos to Google+ will cause users to shift their photo sharing activity to Google. That doesn’t seem very likely, though. Although photo sharing is what drove Facebook’s virality, that was at a different point in the social adoption curve. As much as Google touted the elegance of the invitations, having easy access to the people to send the invitations to is more important. The bigger threat to Facebook would be if Google started using interactions via phone calls, text messages, and IM to develop its own social graph automatically. The metrics that Google shared regarding Google+’s “success” were not only highly misleading, they were unimpressive, even if taken at face value. (Disclosure: I have various short positions against Facebook.)

Yelp — High. With the new search on Jelly Bean, Google is burying organic search results for certain local queries and instead highlighting reviews from Google properties such as Zagat in its cards. (In essence, this is the inverse of what Apple is doing with Siri, where Yelp results are being highlighted.) This creates a better consumer experience, but won’t help Yelp. Google also expanded its places API to allow third-party developers to access Google reviews.

Shazam — High. Shazam’s app is best known for a feature that can identify a song that’s playing. Google built that into Jelly Bean, eliminating the need for a separate app.

Flipboard and Pulse — Moderate. Google is building elegant news reading functionality into its apps and tablets. This would reduce the need for third-party apps. Pulse is also a pre-install on the Kindle Fire, which has Nexus 7 as a big competitive threat.

Sonos — Low. Google’s Nexus Q orb-shaped media streamer competes with Sonos’s music system in many ways. But there are so many bizarre design decisions with Q that I find it hard to believe it will convince anyone who was thinking of Sonos to switch. For the same $299 as the Nexus Q, you can get a Sonos Play:3, which includes speakers and will work with iOS and Android devices as well as PCs.

LG, Sony, and Vizio — High. OEMs that have partnered with Google for Google TV must be doing a big “WTF?” in response to Nexus Q. Although the products have different capabilities, the Nexus Q release raises serious questions about Google’s commitment to OEMs, just as Microsoft’s announcement of Surface did. Most people aren’t going to have multiple connected devices in their living room. The Q creates a lot of confusion in the marketplace … confusion that may lead people to buy a Roku or Apple TV instead.

Roku — Low. Roku is Silicon Valley’s little engine that could. They make a great, easy-to-use device at an impulse-buy price. At $299, Nexus Q is too expensive to be a meaningful threat. The varied interfaces among the different Google TV devices take away some of the potential of that platform.

Telenav — High. Apple kicked Telenav in the teeth a few weeks ago by announcing turn-by-turn directions for iPhone. Now Google is eliminating what little reason Android users had left to use the app by automatically generating directions and traffic estimates with Jelly Bean. Some of Jelly Bean’s features are reminiscent of features in Telenav’s Scout app, only they seem to be better executed. (Disclosure: my former boss is an executive at Telenav.)

And that was just day one. Overall, there were some great announcements … and some head scratchers.

Let’s see who Google decides to take on today.

Today, Google announced its slick-looking media streamer the Nexus Q, which allows people to share the digital media from their Android devices on a television. This is a feature that Apple began offering nearly a year ago via the Apple TV, but for some reason Google thought it would be a great idea to create an entire device for it that only works with Android-based smartphones and tablets.

I suspect this will prove to be an awful decision on Google’s part for a number of reasons.

First of all, a number of competitors already offer this streaming functionality — and as a complimentary feature. The Apple TV’s Airplay enables TV screen sharing in addition to its support for several third-party media services like Netflix, YouTube, Vimeo, MLB, NHL, and more. And with the purchase of cloud-media startup mSpot, Samsung is also planning to offer this kind of functionality on all its devices, complete with a Google Play-like digital media store. It’s worth noting that Samsung is also one of the most popular sellers of Android-based mobile devices. All that said, plenty of other platforms/devices offer far more than the Nexus Q.

Secondly, Google already has a streaming media platform in Google TV, which it’s fighting hard to gain support for among both consumers and developers. The Nexus Q’s functionality should have been a complimentary feature on the Google TV platform, which would make it more competitive with Apple TV. As it stands, Google TV doesn’t allow for this kind of screen-sharing “Airplay-like” functionality.

And finally, I don’t see the majority of people running out to spend $300 on a TRON-like Poké Ball for digital media — especially when cheaper alternatives exist. The Apple TV, like the Nexus Q, requires the use of mobile devices on its platform to enable the Airplay feature. However, the Apple TV is also $200 less expensive. For the more tech-savvy bunch, you can spend even less to get the Nexus Q’s functionality. A Roku LT costs just $49 and has support for digital streaming service Plex.

I’m not saying that the Nexus Q is worthless, because it’s obviously not. Being able to share the digital media on my mobile devices via television — while others are doing the same — is a pretty cool concept. And the design is actually really awesome. I’m assuming Google went with a sphere-shape for the Nexus Q to keep its Google TV hardware partners from getting nervous. But instead, those same partners are probably wondering why Google is holding out on them by not giving Google TV “Airplay-like” functionality.

Regardless of how the Nexus Q fares in the market, Google is unlikely to abandon its plans anytime soon. We first heard rumblings of a Google-branded streaming box back in February, thanks to a FCC document Google filed. The device was expected to be specific to music and audio streaming at the time, but clearly the company’s ambitions were much higher.

It’s unknown if Google will allow its Nexus Q to also stream/screen-share with Android apps or other third-party services on Android-based devices. Currently, the Nexus Q only offers support for Google Play media. I’m guessing that probably won’t change, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Will you be buying a Nexus Q when it goes on sale? Let us know in the comments.