Mysterious battery-powered Google device appears in FCC files

It’s officially in August, which means we’re approaching fall hardware season, and two recent FCC filings from Amazon and Google could hint at some products that companies may or may not disclose.

Google’s product is very vague; The product is only described as a “Wireless device.” It appears to be battery powered – no AC connection – although it can be powered via a 5V USB connection, and a diagram shows it connected to a laptop for testing. as such 9to5Google notethe recording might indicate that this is some kind of Nest device – for example, some Nest cameras used 3.65V rechargeable batteries.

Google already said Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, And the pixel clock It’s arriving this fall, so whatever this “wireless device” might be, it can 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 confident about Amazon’s filing, which seems to refer to a barely modified version of the company’s Echo Studio smart speaker. At first glance, there’s no obvious connection: The new product is vaguely described as a “digital media receiver,” and, digging a little deeper, the files indicate it has an AC power cable, allowing it to be plugged into an outlet, and a Zigbee radio, which is commonly Use it to control smart home products. The the same deposit It doesn’t appear to be from Amazon – instead, it was introduced by a mysterious company called Flake LLC.

But Amazon often uses FCC filings to keep its products secret, and 1 more product images from Flake Submitted to Agency – Another ‘Digital Media Future’ – It is a perfect match for Echo Studio. And the most recent deposit actually says That the Echo Studio and this second item are “electrical.” [sic] identical” except for a different wireless chip from MediaTek. It’s not clear exactly why Amazon is swapping the chip, but it’s probably doing so to address supply chain issues, like some other companies have done before: Tesla swapped out replacement chips. To help keep up with productionwhile Panic said last year that it would need to use a different CPU in Subsequent Shipments of Playdate Handheld Game Console.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company often holds an event in September filled with hardware news, but given how minor the change was, there’s a chance Amazon won’t say anything about it at all.