Google and Apple continue to battle for a place at the top of the entertainment and technology food chain, and a recent report by the Wall Street Journal that details how Google is on the verge of releasing a home entertainment system that will allow its users to stream music anywhere in their home without the use of wires has caused quite a stir. Google has already excited its customers – and aggravated its competition – by recently releasing a streaming music server that allows you to transfer music from a CD to the device by tapping the CD against it. The device then scans the music directly into Google’s music storage locker. Google has been calling this wireless experiment “Project Tungsten” since last spring. Eventually they hope to be able to use Android at Home to power all the electronics in their users’ households. After that, all appliances, such as microwaves, refrigerators, and, of course, all the lights in the house. Over two hundred Google employees have been requested to be allowed to test the prototype device. The Federal Communications Commission has yet to reply. According to the company’s patent application, users of this device will connect it to their WiFi networks at home as well as utilizing their Bluetooths to connect to other electronics and appliances. It will then test the stability of the home WiFi networks to see if it can support the device. It will put Google’s music streaming service and its other product, Google TV, which provides television from the internet, at the forefront of its customers’ homes. Users would be able to control the variety of services with ease via their smartphones and other hand-held devices. Analysts report that Google will be challenged by its positioning this service as a platform instead of as a product, which means that it could get easily lost among a mélange of other home TV devices such as those marketed by Logitech. However, analysts also feel that this is new territory for Google to expand upon … if they handle the marketing properly. Many experts feel that this is impossible, especially since Google has so little experience in the field of hardware products or electronic devices. Despite criticism, certainly Google has done its homework, perhaps researching the
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