Q is a sleek, titanium-hued ball that interacts via Android Beam with mobile devices to stream music or video from the cloud to high-quality speakers or TV screens. It will sell for US$299.

Engineering director Joe Britt said the Q is "the first consumer electronics device Google has designed from the ground up."

In the crowded lobby after the opening keynote at I/O, some developers found the device to be at least as exciting as the Google announced -- if not quite as exciting as the computerized glasses that co-founder Sergey Brin demonstrated by talking a team of skydivers through their dive and into the conference room.

Jay Lee with Dito, a Google Apps reseller, found the Q to be the most exciting announcement in a keynote that also presented the update to Android.

Combined with the Nexus tablet, the Q will integrate Google products more deeply into consumers' lives.