Google’s casting platform is massive, and works with hundreds of apps and services, and just as many different types of hardware. Google introduced a tool over a year ago which made controlling cast media a bit easier on Android, and now that notification is getting a big revamp in functionality…
Those lucky enough to live in a city with Google Fiber will soon receive an update that essentially turns their current TV Box into a Chromecast. As the TV Box is already hooked up to a television, users will be able to stream music, video, and apps without making changes to their current setup.
Back in March, Chromecast was renamed to Google Cast and Vizio announced the first Cast-enabled televisions. Philips just announced four new sets as part of the 6000 series Google Cast Ultra HDTV. Like recent affordable Android TV showings from RCA, these models start at $649.
Dish Network’s Sling TV has been around for a while, but one feature that was long been missing from its Android and iPhone apps was Chromecast support. Now, following Google’s announcement last month that the feature was on the way, watchers of live on-demand TV programming via Sling TV can finally sling that content onto their big screen…
Expand
Expanding
Close
Google’s Chromecast dongle for pushing digital content from ones phone, tablet, or laptop to a TV screen isn’t exactly a high-end device – the full retail price is $35, and it’s on sale constantly – but its unexpected to many been a huge success for the company. Over 17 million of the dongles have been sold, the Cast button has been pushed over 1.5 billion times, and Google says Chromecast users consume 66% more content per day than when the device launch in 2013. To push the network of Cast buttons and supported content even further, Google has released some new APIs for developers to build richer experiences.
Sony today has taken the wraps off of a handful of new products that will play nicely with Android devices. First off, the company has announced that its 4k Ultra HD televisions with support for Android TV and Google Cast will begin shipping in May. The TVs feature Sony’s X1 processor which lends itself to improved color, brightness, and upscaling. The TVs also feature the X-Reality PRO Picture Engine, which also contributes to improving those factors.
We told you back in June that ultrasonic pairing would be coming to Chromecast, and today the technology has officially arrived. Without any WiFi connections involved at all, Google has now given the green light for guests to be able to connect to your Chromecast and cast what they please.
The Chromecast’s capabilities just keep expanding, and today—as a special treat for those of us who actually use Google’s social network—you’ll find that you can now cast your Google+ feed directly to a Chromecast-connected device. The app has long been able to cast your photos, but apparently you can now send your entire feed full of posts and images to your TV to be viewed in their full glory (via iTechTriad).
After selecting your destination device, the app can automatically pan through all of your posts and you can just sit back and watch. But of course, if you’d rather have control, you can also flip through posts at your own pace. The updated app is supposedly being pushed through Google Play, but it appears that the feature is being flipped server-side. But once it’s on for you, you’ll be able to view photos, videos, and text via Chromecast at the tap of a button.
Google has released an updated version of the Google Chrome application for iOS today, bringing at least one interesting new feature to the app: mobile websites that have Cast support will now work with all of your Cast-capable devices. It’s unclear how the feature works at the moment, but according to the release notes, developers are going to need to add support to their webpages before they can take advantage of the feature.
Also, as will likely be praised by iOS users everywhere, the version 36.0.1985.49 update goes the way of Google Hangouts and finally gets rid of the infamous “lip” located at the bottom of the app icon:
Earlier this month, ClockworkMod previewed an app that would let Fire TV users stream a video’s soundtrack through their Android device, allowing them to watch content with a private audio feed. Today, the company has officially released this new software to Google Play, along with an updated AllCast app. When paired together, users can cast pictures, videos and music from their Android devices to their TV via a smorgasbord of platforms, including OUYA, Fire TV, Roku, Xbox 360 and even Apple TV. If you’re looking to add to some new weapons to your media streaming arsenal, these two free apps are definitely worth the storage space.
Sundar Pichai already made it quite clear that Google TV isn’t going anywhere despite its shiny new $35 Chromecast device unveiled during its Android and Chrome event yesterday. However, in case you were wondering whether or not the Chromecast and accompanying SDK would be supported through Google TV devices as well, Googlers have since confirmed that it will indeed support the Chromecast streaming standard in a future update:
With the exciting news about Chromecast we are getting a lot of questions mostly wondering if Google TV is dead.
No, in fact partners are continuing to launch new Google TV-enabled HDTVs and boxes. As we announced at I/O, we are working with partners to bring the latest experience of Android and Chrome to devices later this year. We believe there is ample room for both products to exist and succeed.
Sundar made it quite clear that going forward Google TV and the new Chromecast HDMI stick would be part of one product strategy, so its not surprising Chromecast apps will also be able to stream to Google TVs through the same standard. Chromecast hardware will focus on more casual video streaming on the cheap, while Google TV will continue its mission to bring a full Android experience into the living room.
