Google Nexus Player

For the past several years Google has been winning. The company is responsible for the world’s most popular search engine. Its Android mobile operating system has the lion’s share of worldwide smartphone shipments and the tech juggernaut’s advertising platform generates gigantic sums of money every year. So when a habitual winner like Google actually loses, it typically doesn’t handle defeat too well, and despite all of the company’s accolades, it’s been getting clobbered in one area for almost four years straight.

Google has successfully captured your desktop’s homepage and managed to work its software into the pockets of millions of people, however the Internet’s reigning search king has continuously struggled to find success in one very critical space — the living room.

Since 2010, Google has been aggressively trying to attach itself to your television, and despite several software and hardware revisions, the company has continued to come up short. However, when Google revealed Android TV during its annual I/O developer conference earlier this year, hordes of cord-cutting couch potatoes were optimistic about what the future might hold.

Fast-forward to today and Google’s first Android TV-powered device has been deemed fit for full duty by the company’s leadership. But does Google’s Nexus Player have enough bells and whistles to stand out in an extremely crowded space loaded with cable boxes, game consoles and other TV-friendly contraptions?

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About as quick as Google added its Nexus Player to Google Play, the company quickly pulled its new media player from its online store due to issues with the FCC. However, over the weekend, documents for the upcoming Android TV set-top box were spotted in an FCC database and today the search giant has restored Google Play pre-orders.

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Shoppers hoping to get one of Google’s recently-unveiled Nexus Players may need to wait a little longer. A change to the product listing on the Play Store (via Android Police) now lists the device as being out of stock. A notice hidden in the fine print on the Player website points out that the Android TV box has not yet been approved for sale by the FCC.

Until the FCC gives Google the greenlight, the device won’t be able to be sold in the United States, though international markets will have different criteria that may or may not already be met. Understandably, Google hasn’t been able to give a time frame for when this approval might come, as the entire process operates on the FCC’s schedule.

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Google just added all three of its new Nexus devices to the Play Store. You can pre-order the company’s new tablet (16GB $399, 32GB $479) and set-top box ($99) directly from the company, but its latest smartphone is listed as “coming soon.” Google officially unveiled Android 5.0 Lollipop to the world on Wednesday, along with its Nexus 6 smartphone, Nexus 9 tablet and Nexus Player media hub.

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AOL is brining its video app, along with original shows and movies to Android TV, the company shared the news in an announcement today following Google’s reveal of its new Nexus Player set-top receiver. Some of the content provided by the AOL app includes the short-form web series Park Bench with Steve Buscemi, movies from Miramax and clips from the outfit’s in-house media outlets like HuffPost Live.

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Earlier today, Google unveiled the Nexus Player, its latest combatant in the battle for your living room. As expected, Mountain View’s latest set-top receiver is attracting several major players in the entertainment software industry and Plex has announced that it’s coming to the search giant’s new media hub.

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Along with the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9, Google today unveiled the Nexus Player, the company’s official Android TV set-top box made by ASUS. The device, being the first Android TV hardware on the market, will be available for preorder later this month alongside the Nexus 9.

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