As the battle for the living room rages with a proliferation of smart TVs and streaming media devices, Google may be entering the fray with a contender of its own. No, it’s not a third version of Google TV. A new rumor says Google is building a living room device that focuses on music.
The Wall Street Journal reports Google is working on a home entertainment system that would stream music wirelessly through users’ homes.
If true, the effort would mark the first time that Google would delve into hardware, a dramatic development for an outfit that has never produced hardware in any capacity. Unlike Android Nexus products — de facto Google reference designs, but branded as Samsung gear — Google will market the streaming music product under its own brand name, the Journal reports.
Details are scant, but it sounds incredibly similar to Google’s Android @Home initiative, first announced last May at Google’s I/O developer conference. At the time, Google engineering director Joe Britt demoed Android @Home using a Motorola Xoom tablet to control lighting on-stage, in cooperation with a partner company, Lighting Science, which provided the peripheral hardware.
