Google has shown that it's serious about hardware, especially hardware that carries the Nexus name. The Nexus 4 phone and the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets are all as good as or better than anything else out there -- powerful, attractive, and competitively priced devices that define the Android experience. What, then, to make of the Nexus Q? As more Nexus devices roll out this week, it’s easy to forget that Google's streaming-media player ever existed.
In fact, we’ve heard nothing about the Nexus Q since the company decided to delay it nearly three months ago. When the Q was unveiled at the Google I/O developer conference in June, the small matte-black orb was touted as the “first ever social streaming device.” It was also the first piece of hardware Google had designed and built all on its own (the phones and tablets are done with partners like Samsung and LG). It was a small Android-powered gadget that plugged into a TV to stream music, movies, TV shows and YouTube videos from the cloud.
But there were problems with the Q -- namely its price and feature set. At $300, the Q cost three times as much as competing products from Apple TV, Roku, and Boxee, yet it was much more limited. It could stream content only from Google Play and YouTube -- no Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, Rdio, Spotify or anything else -- and users could control it only with an Android phone or tablet. The Q, sadly, was a non-starter before it even went on sale.
But Google gave away about 5,000 Nexus Qs at Google I/O in June, and when the company announced that it was delaying the product, it went ahead and shipped out free Q's to everyone who had pre-ordered. So there are a lot of them out in the wild. And those who have them have done some inspired hacks that suggest just how much more the Q could be. It's clearly not too late for Google to save the project. Here's what we hope the company will do with it.
Make It a Google TV Nexus Device
Google is starting to do some really amazing stuff with Google TV, but consumers don't have access to all of it. Google TV needs a Nexus device -- one gadget that delivers the latest and greatest software and feature sets directly from Google, with no chance of being botched up by hardware partners. The Nexus Q can be that device.
On Tuesday Google announced new voice search and user interface features for Google TV. Now, instead of having to remember channel numbers or wade through ugly and slow-loading menus to find a station, users can just say what they want to watch, and Google TV will find it. But the new feature is dependent on the user's remote having a built-in microphone -- something only LG offers for now, though Vizio and Sony have compatible remotes in the works. An app-based solution will come eventually, but that'll take months, and those who bought earlier Google TV set-top boxes or enabled TV sets will likely be left in the dust.
So Google has designed a great software experience, and almost nobody can get to it because hardware support is inconsistent. Where have we heard this complaint before? Oh, right -- Android. This is exactly why Google sells Nexus phones and tablets -- to get the best of Android out to consumers on its own terms. Google TV has been languishing since its launch in 2010 because the effort has lacked a true "halo device." The Q, if loaded up with Google TV and shipped with an appropriate remote, has everything needed to be that device.
Tomi Blinnikka, a director of front-end platforms at the Apollo Group, built both an app to control the Nexus Q's ring of LED lights, so he could use the Nexus Q as a clock, and a remote control app so he could operate the Q from a PC. Blinnikka's QRemote app even allowed him to change the colors displays on the Q's ring of LEDs. Aside from that, Blinnikka says he hasn't found much that the Nexus Q does right now that Google TV and other competing products don't also do at a lower price.
"When Google delayed the Nexus Q launch, it made me question how much of a skunkworks project it really was," the Oakland resident told Wired. "You have to wonder what is the actual product they're actually trying to create. And the overlap with Google TV -- why would one be better than the other? The Nexus Q has no killer feature really, and I think they need to investigate what problem the Nexus Q is really trying to solve that can’t already be solved 1,000 other ways."
The Q needs a killer feature and Google TV needs killer hardware. Make it happen, Google.
Give Us Apps and Games
But there's no reason to stop at Google TV, especially if Google wants to keep that $300 price tag in place. That's why Google should open a Google TV-equipped Nexus Q to more Android apps.
Google TV is built on Android, and the Nexus Q has the horsepower needed to run full-fledged Android and just about any app out there.
Jason Parker, a systems administrator at Rackspace in Austin, got the Nexus Q running Android just a couple days after getting his from an I/O attendee in June. With just a few hours of tinkering put in, Parker got the Nexus Q running Android in full high-definition on his HDTV. The hack gave the Nexus Q its own graphic user interface, freeing it from having to be tied to a phone or tablet. From there, Parker was able to launch Netflix, surf the web and play Angry Birds. He posted a video of what he'd done on YouTube, and that caught the eye of both the Android developer community and Googlers, some of whom Parker met at Dallas' Big Android BBQ developer event back in October.
"I was approached by a lot of people in the Android community who want me to continue on this project," Parker told Wired. "And there were two Google employees at the BBQ who made it very clear to me that Google is interested in what the developer community is doing with the Nexus Q."
But Parker says he didn't ask them what Google had planned. "I don't know what they're working on, and I didn't ask really," Parker said. "I respect the people at Google enough to not ask them to tell me secrets, but they were definitely interested in what I'm doing. But at the same time, Google can't rely on the developer community to save the Q. They've got to make it a better device themselves if it's going to sell."
Loading the Q up with Google TV and then enabling it to run proper Android apps would put the little orb ahead of the Apple TV, Roku, Boxee and others. Who doesn't want to take their game of Nova 3 or Need for Speed from their phone to the TV? The appetite is there. Just look at the more than $8 million raised on Kickstarter by Ouya, an Android-powered videogame console company that has yet to ship a single piece of hardware.
Best of all, the Nexus Q's hardware is built to handle all this. The insides of the Nexus Q feature many of the same parts seen in Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone -- a dual-core Texas Instruments OMAP 4460 processor, a SGX540 graphics processor, and 1GB of RAM. The Nexus Q even has 16GB of local storage.
"I realize I'm not the general consumer, but as a hacker it's just really neat seeing what Android is on a 1080p screen," Parker said. "It forces me to take the concept of what Android has been for years and makes me rethink what Android could be."
Ditch the Android Requirement
A Nexus Q running Google TV that plays games and can receive voice commands will need a good controller. Currently, the Nexus Q can be operated only with an Android phone or tablet. If all you've got is an iPhone or a Surface, you're out of luck.
Yes, Google should allow Android owners to control the Q with their Android devices -- especially when it comes to playing games or using voice search to find the latest action movies through Google TV. But a proper controller of some sort, so the Q can work as a standalone device, is a must. It would have to have a built-in mic and be easy to use -- more like Apple or Vizio's remotes and less like Sony's Google TV remote.
While building an app to control a Google TV-equipped Nexus Q would be wise, such an app should be made available for at least Android and iOS, if not Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8, too. If the Q is able to run apps on its own and be controlled by any mobile device (similar to how Microsoft’s Xbox SmartGlass apps should work), the Nexus Q would entice more people to buy into the orb. After all, the success of both the Nexus Q and Google TV will be measured by how many people actually use these products.
The hardware is there. All Google has to do is load it up with Google TV and Android, then let everyone in on the fun.
