Remember the mystery entertainment device that we told you Google was testing in the States? The Wall Street Journal is claiming to have the low-down on exactly what it is that the Big G has up its sleeve: "a home-entertainment system that streams music wirelessly throughout the home and would be marketed under the company's own brand".

Is Google about to enter the hardware arena then? Or has it gone down the Nexus route as per its branded Android handsets and teamed up with a manufacturing partner?

We'd guess at the latter, although the Journal says it is going it alone. What is clear though, if the WSJ speaketh the truth, is that this is a move that will see the web giant taking on the likes of Sonos and Apple by offering a streaming media platform.

The initial FCC application mentioned users connecting their device to home Wi-Fi networks and using Bluetooth "to connect to other home electronics equipment" utilising "a standard Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module".

At its Google I/O event in San Francisco last year Google came clean with its Project Tungsten / Android @ Home platform, hinting that it wanted to control everything in your home with a magic box.

It looks as if the mystery media device could be the first fruit of those ambitions and that 2012 could be the year that Google devices take over your living room.

Picture credit: The Verge