The Chromecast is a media streaming device from Google, allowing you to play your favorite content from Netflix, Spotify, Google Play Music, Pandora, and countless other services on your television. The device is a small HDMI dongle, and retails for $35.
We’ve been hearing rumors of a YouTube streaming music service for quite a while, but now Android Police has published a report detailing Google’s streaming music plans. The report claims that Google will soon launch a new service called YouTube Music Key, as well as rebrand Google Play Music All Access to Google Play Music Key.
A few months ago, reports started circulating that Mozilla was developing its own streaming stick to compete with the Chromecast. The device was reportedly going to be marketed as a more open alternative to Google’s offering, but despite these reports, Mozilla today added Chromcast support to its Firefox browser on Android. For the time being, you must be running the nightly build of Firefox to use it, however.
You can download the nightly build of Firefox for Android from this page. Once you get the APK installed, Mozilla offers a test video casting page for users to visit. If a Chromecast icon appears on that page and your device offers the ability to cast the video, then you’re good to go.
Download the Firefox nightly APK here to get going.
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.
Happy birthday, Chromecast! That’s what Google is saying today as it announced the HDMI media streaming stick has been used to cast content 400 million times in the 12 months since it launched. The Chromecast, of course, allows you to stream content from services like Netflix, Hulu, and Pandora to your HDTV from your Android or iOS as well as your computer via the Chrome browser.
We’ve added hundreds of your favorite apps, including WatchESPN, Pandora, Hulu Plus, HBO GO and PBS Kids; announced new features like mirroring your Android device to the TV and expanded to 30,000 stores across 20 countries.
That’s certainly a lot of casting from the $35 accessory, and Google is giving all Chromecast users 90 days of its Google Play Music All Access service for free to celebrate. The offer to redeem 3 months of free access to the $9.99/month music subscription service will run from today, July 24th, through September 30th, for all existing Chromecast customers not already subscribed to All Access.
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In April of this year, it was announced that JW Player would soon be adding support for the Chromecast, and today the feature finally went live for everyone. For those unfamiliar, the JW Player platform powers a variety of popular websites including ESPN and millions of others. With today’s release of JW Player 6.9, it just got a whole lot easier to view web video on your TV.
Republic Wireless’ big pitch has been dumping your home phone and wireless plans in favor of its hybrid calling services that blends WiFi and on the go carrier calling powered by Sprint’s network. Now, the company is going after your local cable company, well sort of. Today, Republic Wireless announced a new promotion that bundles a Google Chromecast with the purchase of a new Moto X.
Google today updated its Chromecast website with a few notable and worthwhile enhancements. Previously on the site, you could only view a selection of the apps with Chromecast support, but with today’s refresh, you can now view all of the apps with support for the streaming stick. That number has been growing rapidly recently, but there is a search option on the new site, as well. Though, the search functionality is still rather limited and not as robust as the Play Store.
Just in time for the Commonwealth Games, the BBC Sport app for Android has been updated with Chromecast support. If Google’s media streaming dongle is embedded in your entertainment setup, you can now leaf through the BBC’s live and on-demand sports programming on the largest display in your house.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7nqP8AvXUg]
The ultra-simple setup offered by Chromecast leaves them vulnerable to being hijacked, with an attacker able to direct any content they want to your TV, says a security analyst – who proved the point by building a box to Rickroll any Chromecasts within wifi range …
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The ability to flag content on the Google Play Store as inappropriate, a feature long available on Android, has recently hit the Web version as well. The link to do just that can now be found on the web interface under Report within the Additional information section of the content’s description. While the feature is likely targeted toward apps that may violate some policy or have a lower-than-appropriate content rating, it does extend to other media like books, music and TV shows, and music distributed on the Google Play Store as well.
Google officially introduced Ireland to Play Movies less than two weeks ago and today the company is releasing its Chromecast media streaming dongle to the land of saints and scholars. In addition to Mountain View’s in-house movie service, Irish Chromecast owners will have access to YouTube, Netflix and several other cast-friendly applications.
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:
Controversial torrent streaming application, Popcorn Time has added Chromecast support for its Android app. This comes just one week after the software’s development team pledged streaming support for Google’s popular media dongle. If you’re not familiar with Popcorn Time, it’s like a black market version of Netflix’s video streaming service that uses peer-to-peer tech to get the job done. People often use the software to watch movies and TV shows that are still in only available in theaters, which of course is rubbing the motion picture industry the wrong way.
At I/O last month, Google announced that Android users would soon have the ability to mirror their device’s screen to their TV via a Chromecast. Today, thanks to an update to the Chromecast app, the feature is finally live. In a post on the official Android Blog, Google explained that the feature is still in beta and warned users not to be alarmed if it didn’t work properly 100% of the time.
Google has released an update for the Google Cast SDK, bringing full closed caption support to Chromecast on Android, Chrome and iOS devices. A new version of the Media Player Library (0.8.0) is also available. Moreover, the receiver SDK, the default receiver and the styled media receiver now also have closed caption support.
A detailed list of changes are outlined in the official release notes.
If you’re not familiar with Popcorn Time, it’s an app that allows you to stream movie and TV show torrents without any of the hassles usually associated with torrents – what you get is an interface which looks just like Netflix or Hulu. Thanks to a popular forked version, you’ll soon be able to watch that content on your TV when Chromecast support is added …
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Google is developing new ways to connect your mobile devices to its Chromecast and one of these alternative methods will be through ultrasonic sounds. The company recently announced support for off-network casting during its I/O developer conference in San Francisco and Chromecast engineering manager John Affaki said during a presentation that Google was looking to refine the platform’s social experience.
Yesterday at its I/O developer conference, Google introduced its new take on bringing the power of Android to the living room with Android TV. Google’s new “L” version of Android will power set-top boxes and full TV sets from Razor, Asus, Philips, Sony and more bringing voice control and gaming capabilities to the entertainment experience.
In addition to making an Android TV SDK available later today so developers can create software for Android TV, Google has already released a remote control app on the Play Store for use with Android TV when it’s available later this year. Google notes that the app is intended to work with the ADT-1 Developer Kit. The app features both a d-pad and touchpad for using your Android device to maneuver around the Android TV interface. Android TV Remote Control is available today on the Play Store.
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Not only did Google discuss Android TV at Google I/O, the company also discussed its Chromecast HDMI stick that connects content from your smartphone, computer, or tablet to your TV. Rishi Chandra, Google’s Director of Product Management Chromecast, noted that the Chromecast “consistently outsells all other streaming devices combined” at Best Buy and similar retailers. He pointed out that Chromecast tops Amazon in a several countries as well. Since its launch last year, usage has jumped 40% with the majority if views coming from YouTube. A new dedicated site at chromecast.com/apps will now present a list of compatible apps.
Using “the cloud”, Chromecast users can now share content from devices to a Chromecast-connected television without being on the same WiFi connection. A new feature called Backdrop coming later this year will present information like news, weather, and photos on a blank Chromecast to make it useful to have connected to your TV even when you’re not sending content from a device. The Chromecast will also support mirroring from Android on supported devices from HTC, LG, Samsung, and Nexus devices.
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Google this morning announced that its $35 streaming stick now supports four new services. Starting today, you can now cast content from PBS Kids, DailyBurn, Stevie, and Deezer to the Chromecast. DailyBurn users will now have access to all of the service’s HD workout videos to stream to the Chromecast. DailyBurn offers virtual workout classes raining from 15 minutes to over an hour-long with a variety of activities, such as cardio, yoga, and dancing.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS0VUOfrycw]
Video gia GigaOm
Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox web browser, is working on a stream stick set to directly compete with Google’s Chromecast and other similar products, according to GigaOm. The device runs Mozilla’s own Firefox OS, originally designed for smartphones, and is apparently referred to as “Netcast” within the Firefox browser.
Unlike Google’s current offering, the Netcast would allow developers to integrate the technology into applications on a wide variety of operating systems and hardware devices, including many platforms not currently supported by the Chromecast. In a statement to GigaOm, Mozilla noted that anyone is welcome to work with Firefox OS and that hardware running that system does not necessarily have to come from that company.
The streaming media app AllCast received a hefty update this morning with some much needed features. Koush, the developer and creator of the app, updated AllCast to version 1.1.1.6 on the Play Store. New with the update is a new tablet interface. The tablet design has a split view that allows you to browse your media selection on one side of the interface and control playback on the other side.
Canadians who purchase a Chromecast between June 9th – 30th will receive a $20 CAD Google Play credit from Mountain View. The deal is available on purchases made through Google Play and authorized retailers. To redeem your Google Play credit, you’ll need to set up your Chromecast before July 30th and visit the device’s special offers page.
Google’s $35 Chromecast has slowly built up its app portfolio since it was released, and now the device looks like it will be getting another huge service implemented. According to a post on the official VideoLAN forum, discovered by GigaOM, VLC’s developers are currently working on implementing Chromecast support to its media player.
“In addition to the iOS variant, we are also working on a Windows / Linux / Mac implementation, which will take a bit longer because it’s harder.”
