Google already dabbles in STBs (Google TV) and audio equipment (Nexus Q), and we all know the smartwatch rumours. But is it also working on a videogame console, as The Wall Street Journal suggests?
The WSJ gives no further details on the console, other than that Google is "watching the efforts" of Android-based console maker Ouya. Similar devices Google might also be looking at include the Nvidia SHIELD and the Mad Catz M.O.J.O. recently seen at E3 2013.
Why is Google even working on a console in the first place? The WSJ sources claim it is "reacting in part to expectations that rival Apple will launch a videogame console as part of its next Apple TV product release." Readers with long memories will surely remember Apple already tried takiing on consoles once with the Pippin (a 1995 co-production with Bandai), while rumours repeatedly suggest the iPhone maker is working on a smartwatch of its own...
In further rumours, as part of the next Android release (apparently called "Key Lime Pie") Google is working on low-cost smartphones for emerging markets and pushing the OS more aggressively into laptops and household appliances. The WSJ names HP as developer of Android-powered laptops, designed to compete with similar offerings running on Windows 8.
The company is also supposed to be working on a second version of the Nexus Q, the spherical Android-based audio streaming device revealed back in 2012 but still is to hit the market.