This week Google has introduced several new products in both the software and hardware realms, one of the oddest of these being the “first social streaming media player” called the Nexus Q. This device was shown off at Google I/O 2012 and was part of the Developer Pack given to all attendees. It’s also currently on sale at the Google Play store online and will be shipped very soon – but you may be asking yourself still: what on earth is it?

This device is an Android ball… the end. Actually the Nexus Q is essentially a ball that streams music, movies, or anything else you’d like. It’s a media streaming device, a media center, and more all wrapped around the world of Android. This is a small part of what Google probably has planned moving forward with Android@Home, only this is just the beginning. The styling and device design is a unique one to say the least, but feels extremely well made and like a premium product.

Essentially what we have here is a social media streaming device that can be controlled by any of you or your friends various Android devices. Sitting at home you can start up Google Play Music and stream audio through your surround sound. Or while relaxing on the couch you can fire it up and watch a Play Movie rental with ease. It is all controlled by your phone or tablet — and one day Google’s Project Glass. Here’s us unboxing it and all the goodies we were given.

Will full audio options, optical audio, micro-USD, HDMI and more this device is fully capable of all your living room needs. The whole device has a capacitive touch sensor for muting as well as off/on, you’re working with a Texas Instruments OMAP4460 (dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU and SGX540 graphics core) inside, and both 1GB LPDDR RAM and 16GB NAND flash memory under the hood. We’ll continue to check it out over the next few days so stay tuned. Be sure to hit our Google IO Portal for all the news, or buy one today for $299 from Google Play.