It’s officially August, which means we’re approaching the fall hardware season, and two recent FCC filings from Amazon and Google may hint at a few products the companies may — or may not — unveil.
Google’s product is quite mysterious; the product is only described as “Wireless Device”. It appears to be battery powered – no AC connection – although it can be powered via a 5V USB connection and one diagram shows it connected to a laptop for testing. As 9to5Google notes, the document may indicate that this is some kind of Nest device — some Nest cameras use 3.65V rechargeable batteries, for example.
Google has already said that the Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, and Pixel Watch will arrive this fall, so whatever that “wireless device” is may be revealed when the company shares more details about those other products. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
We’re more certain about Amazon’s filing, which seems to point to a barely redesigned version of the company’s premium Echo Studio smart speaker. At first glance, there’s no obvious connection: the new product is loosely described as a “digital media receiver,” and if we dig a little deeper, the documentation shows that it has an AC power cord that allows it to plug into an outlet, and a Zigbee radio that commonly used to control smart home products. The filing itself doesn’t even appear to be from Amazon — instead, it was filed by a company with an obscure name, Flake LLC.
But Amazon often uses fake shell companies for FCC filings to keep its products secret, and photos of another Flake product filed with the agency — another “Digital Media Receiver” — are an exact match for the Echo Studio. And the newer documentation actually says that this Echo Studio and this second item are “electric [sic] identical’, except for a different MediaTek wireless chip. It’s not clear exactly why Amazon is swapping out the chip, but it may be doing so to deal with supply chain issues, like what some other companies have done before: Tesla swapped in alternative chips to keep up production, while Panic said last year that you will have to use a different processor in later shipments of your Playdate Pocket PC.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company often holds an event in September full of news about the devices, but given how minor the change seems, there’s a chance Amazon won’t say anything about it.
Add Comment