A mysterious Google product has just been approved by the Federal Communications Commission in the U.S., which is generally a sign that a commercial release isn’t too far away.
The listing is a particularly intriguing one as it includes almost no details at all about what the product is, however.
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As spotted by Android Police, the filing describes a “Wireless Streaming Device” with the model number GJQ9T, which is so vague that it could apply to almost anything. Indeed, the timing makes the site speculate that we could be looking at a new Chromecast, given the recent Chromecast with Google TV had its FCC approval last August with a similar sounding model number of GZRNL.
But, equally, there are reasons to be skeptical of this claim. Indeed, one possible flaw is highlighted by Android Police in the same report: the FCC listing for what proved to be Chromecast with Google TV described it as an “Interactive Media Streaming Device”, rather than a “Wireless Streaming Device,” which means such hopes could be misplaced.
In fact, the truth could be a lot more mundane. Just because the word “streaming” has become synonymous with video on demand amongst users, doesn’t guarantee that’s the meaning here, and streaming could simply refer to footage being fed to devices across a local network, via a security camera, say.
That’s 9to5Google’s theory. The site notes the similarity between the new listing and one that emerged in March which is now assumed to be for one of the new Nest cameras announced last week. By the site’s count, we’ve only seen three related FCC listings, so it’s possible that this is just the filing for one of the four already confirmed devices – most likely the Nest Floodlight or wired Nest Cam, as these are due to arrive later than the others.
This will be easy to prove or disprove in time: when devices start arriving, the model numbers can simply be compared to the listings, and we’ll have our answer. But for now there’s a degree of mystery, and we can still hope that Google has something new and unannounced up its sleeve, to make this fall’s Google Pixel 6 Made by Google reveal party that bit more exciting.
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