The Nexus Q is not a music player for human beings. Seriously, it’s a terrible idea. It’s a music player where anybody can add a song to your party playlist. One arrogant music snob who thinks you “just need to listen to this song again” or one jerk who thinks it’s hilarious to put music you hate on your playlist and the party’s ruined.
It also happens to be overpriced in a market of $100 streaming boxes at $300. But that’s a moot point for early adopters, since the Bocce ball in question has been indefinitely delayed and everybody who pre-ordered is getting a free one anyway.
Technically Google is shipping “dev units” to the five people who preordered this thing. These will be the same thing everybody at Google IO got and then threw away because they already had a Roku, an Apple TV, and a game console that did the exact same thing. The delay will be to give the Nexus Q new features, but nobody knows precisely what:
It’s unclear whether the improvements being made to the Nexus Q involve changes to the hardware—which would necessitate a new manufacturing run and possibly render the dev units obsolete—or simply changes to the Q’s software.
You may have detected that I’m ever so slightly down on the Nexus Q’s chances to be the hit the Nexus 7 was and you’re correct. You need an Android device to control it and its main feature is that it allows your “friends” to be complete tools.
So, yeah, I’m down on it. But hey, at least most of the people meaning to buy it will get it for free.
image courtesy Google