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.
Google is clearly serious about its intentions to make a sizeable push into the living-room market, as Android Police spotted a small clue revealing that Android 4.3 has added support for 4k displays.
Google has added a new DPI category to Android: XXXHDPI. This is for screens with an approximate DPI of six hundred and forty. Did you think we were stopping at 1080p?
Android engineer Dianne Hackborn is quoted as confirming the intent behind this:
A typical use of this density would be 4K television screens — 3840×2160 …
Expand
Expanding
Close
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.
The photos don’t really add much to what we know about the Chromecast, but here for the curious is what the $35 device looks like on the inside. There’s a Marvell DE3005 system-on-a-chip (SOC) with an AzureWave wifi chip and what appears to be 4Gb of flash memory …
Expand
Expanding
Close
At its breakfast event this morning, Google officially confirmed the Chromecast, which is a device that lets you “cast” content from your computer, smartphone, and tablet to your big screen TV. While most people don’t have their hands on the device yet, Google has just released the official Cast extension for Chrome.
The Google Cast extension enables you to find and play content on your Chromecast device from your Chrome browser. When on Cast optimized sites like YouTube and Netflix, you’ll see new options that let you play video on your TV via Chromecast – using your computer as a remote to browse for videos and to control playback. You can also cast any of your tabs in Chrome to your TV, letting you enjoy sites, photos, or even video from the best screen in your home.
The Chromecast itself is available from a variety of retailers, including Best Buy and Amazon.
Google just seemingly ‘cast’ its Google TV project to the curb. As a much simpler version of GoogleTV, the leaked Chromecast allows you to do what you can now do on Google TV: pushing content from both Netflix and Youtube to your TV. Unlike Airplay, the Chromecast stick allows the original device to turn off or go to sleep. It functions as a standalone streaming device, awaiting orders from an iOS device, Android device, or Chrome browser on a PC, Mac or Chromebook Pixel (strangely, other Chromebooks need not apply).
Google has also baked in iOS support, which will allow users of both platforms to control Netflix or Youtube. You can also broadcast a tab in the Chrome Browser.
Google Play music and movies can also ‘cast’ to the best speakers in your house as long as those are connected to your TV. Pandora is coming soon.
It will be available from Google Play, Amazon and Best Buy as well as other retailers. We’ll have a review up as soon as possible.
Earlier this afternoon, several eagle-eyed people noticed that an odd device dubbed “Chromecast” was listed on Google Play’s device list (via Droid-Life). Many people have since speculated that the device, which has now been removed from Google’s support site, is some sort of Chrome dongle for your TV.
Droid-Life reported on something like this a few weeks ago, though that device was called the Chromekey. It’s unclear how, or if, the two devices are related, but it seems likely that they are in some fashion. Droid-Life’s source told it that the Chromekey could “cast” your Chrome browser from another device (computer, smartphone) to your big screen TV.
Several people also interrogated Google support live chat with questions about the Chromecast device and were told that it’s a TV service that’s available “only in a few areas.” When asked how and where the device could be purchased, the Google support representative simply said that she is not sure.
More than likely, we’ll hear something about the Chromecast and/or Chromekey at tomorrow’s Breakfast with Sundar event, as he is the head of Chrome and Android for Google.
Expand
Expanding
Close
