A new “Wireless Streaming Device” from Google showed up at the FCC today, and there’s a good chance that means a next-gen Google Chromecast is coming soon. It could be a follow-up to last year’s Chromecast with Google TV, which passed through the FCC website in August, about a month before it was officially launched by Google as a media streaming dongle that sell for $50.

Update: 9to5Google makes a strong case that this item is not a new Chromecast. 

FCC label (via FCC.gov)

 

Last year’s Chromecast had the FCC ID A4RGZRNL, while the new device is A4RGJQ9T, and both support 802.11ac WiFi (also known as WiFi 5).

But it is worth noting that the original Chromecast with Google TV was described in FCC documents as an “Interactive Media Streaming Device,” so it’s possible that the lack of the words “interactive” and “media” in the new listing mean something… and that the new item is a different type of device altogether.

Perhaps it’s a gadget designed exclusively for streaming games from Google’s Stadia cloud gaming service, for example? Or maybe it’s related to Google’s Nest smart home product lineup, possibly functioning as an accessory for Nest cameras?

Update: Yep, it’s probably that last one. 9to5Google noticed that the product listing is very similar to FCC documents for other recently announced Nest camera hardware. 

But if I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably an updated Chromecast.

via MySmartPrice

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3 replies on “Next-gen Chromecast might have hit the FCC (Update: probably not)”

  1. Google only updates their Android phones and tablets (Nexus, Pixel) annually. Their other products – Pixel Chromecast, Chromecast, Nest smart
    home – get updated biannually (and sometimes not even that as we won’t get a Pixel Chromebook before 2022, though if it includes an ARM option with a “Tensor” CPU and 5G it may be worth the 1 year delay). As CCWGTV was only released in 2020 it is far more likely that this will be another “big speaker.” The Home Max was released in 2017 and the Hub Max was released in 2019. This may be their next crack at a premium speaker product.

    Granted we DO NEED an update for CCWGTV. All Android TV boxes are still using the same CPU tech that the original ARM Android TV devices – the Razer Forge TV and the Nvidia Shield TV – did way back in 2015: 32 bit ARM CPU made of 4 Cortex-A53 cores. (Granted it does have a much newer Mali-G31 MP2 GPU). Newer – and 64 bit – CPU cores are going to be needed for AV1. Giving us more than 2 GB of RAM, increasing the internal storage from 8 GB and providing a second USB-C port would be nice also. But that will have to happen in 2022.

  2. Probably just updating the Chromecast from an Amlogic S905X3 derivative SoC to a S905X4 derivative.

    S905X4 is slightly higher clocked and most importantly has the capacity to decode up to 4K 120 fps AV1 video in hardware.

    1. Very interesting detail, if it turns out to be correct.

      When I first saw the headline I was hoping for 4K upscaling like the Shield Pro, but I suppose that was a bit of a stretch.

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