MORE FROM GOOGLE I/O 2012:

At a glance, the Nexus Q looks sort of like a magic 8-ball, though it substitutes a host of audio and video ports for a purple-tinged window. Google engineers Joe Britt and Matt Hershenson said that it's designed to connect to the best speakers and TV screens in the house, allowing the Nexus Q to stream music and movies from the cloud - in this case, the Google Play Store - and play them back on any available home entertainment systems.

"You use your phone or tablet to control it, but you're not actually streaming content from your device to it. Instead, Nexus Q pulls your content directly from Google Play. In other words, you use your phone or tablet to control the cloud," Britt said.

Hershenson said the Nexus Q boasts a built-in "audiophile-grade" 25-watt amplifier, which "can fill a room with beautiful, clear crisp sound."