A mysterious battery-powered Google machine seems in FCC filings

It’s formally August, which implies we’re getting near the autumn {hardware} season, and two current FCC filings from Amazon and Google might trace at a pair merchandise the businesses could — or could not — reveal.

Google’s product is fairly mysterious; the product is described solely as a “Wireless Device.” It seems to be battery-powered — there’s no AC connection — although it may be powered over a 5V USB connection, and one diagram exhibits it linked to a laptop computer for testing. As 9to5Google observed, the submitting might point out that that is some form of Nest machine — some Nest cameras have used 3.65V rechargeable batteries, for instance.

Google has already mentioned the Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, and Pixel Watch will arrive this fall, so no matter this “Wireless Device” is, it may very well be revealed when the corporate shares extra particulars about these different merchandise. Google didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

We’re extra certain concerning the Amazon submitting, which seems to level towards a barely revised model of the corporate’s premium Echo Studio good speaker. At first look, there’s not an apparent connection: the brand new product is described vaguely as a “Digital Media Receiver,” and digging a bit deeper, the filings point out it has an AC energy cable, which lets it plug into an outlet, and a Zigbee radio, which is often used for controlling good house merchandise. The filing itself doesn’t even look to be from Amazon — as an alternative, it was filed by an organization vaguely named Flake LLC.

But Amazon usually makes use of faux shell corporations for FCC filings to maintain its merchandise secret, and the photos of Flake’s one other product filed with the company — one other “Digital Media Receiver” — are an actual match of the Echo Studio. And the newer submitting truly says that that Echo Studio and this second merchandise are “electrical [sic] identical” apart from a special MediaTek wi-fi chip. It’s not clear precisely why Amazon is swapping the chip, however maybe it’s doing it to deal with provide chain points, like what another corporations have achieved earlier than: Tesla substituted different chips to assist sustain manufacturing, whereas Panic mentioned final yr it could want to make use of a special CPU in later shipments of its Playdate gaming handheld.

Amazon didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. The firm usually holds a September occasion filled with units information, however given how minor the change seems to be, there’s an opportunity Amazon doesn’t say something about it in any respect.