Rumors are a dime and dozen, but when Bloomberg, Reuters, or The Wall Street Journal publish them, they’re not only true, they’re practically confirmed. I’ve learned this during my six years of writing about mobile technology on the internet.
With that in mind, here are the latest pieces of gossip from the WSJ.
Google is working on four devices:
- A watch, which isn’t too surprising since we heard this rumor way back in March from the Financial Times. Like the publications mentioned earlier, whenever the FT publishes a rumor, it’s pretty much fact.
- A games console, something along the lines of the recently launched (and universally hated) $99 Ouya Kickstarter thing. The WSJ says Google is doing this purely because they’re scared that Apple will one day enable app support for the Apple TV.
- A low cost Android smartphone meant for emerging markets. Motorola is working on the “high-end” Moto X, but Google themselves are building this cheap phone. Details are light. No specs, no price, no ship date.
- And finally, the device I didn’t include in my headline, a sequel to the Nexus Q. Remember that spherical pile of garbage that was announced but then canceled? It was basically an overpriced micro home theatre system. Why make a second attempt? Your guess is as good as mine.
The gossip doesn’t stop there. Google is also working:
- Android “K Release”, better known as Key Lime Pie. It has two key features, the first being something we already know about, that it’s going to be able to run on low end hardware. Apparently Android “K Release” is so lean that Google hopes companies will use it in appliances and wearable devices instead of building your typical phones and tablets.
- Now I’m not sure if this is “K Release” or not, the wording was vague, but the WSJ says Google is working on a build of Android that’s specifically meant to work on laptops. No, I’m not talking about tablets that come with a keyboard dock. I mean laptops. HP is said to be the first PC maker to be playing with this software.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my 380 word summary, but I highly encourage you to read the whole 1350 word article yourself. There’s a lot of context there that helps make the story flow.
