Early this year Google rebranded the Chromecast app to Google Cast, a new name to better suit the ecosystem of devices compatible with the technology. At the time it made sense, keeping Google’s physical and unique Chromecast family separate from the speakers and TVs which also packed the technology. Now Google is going back on that.
If you’re using Google’s latest software, Android 7.1, you may have noticed that Google removed the button to check for new system updates. However, that button is coming back with the latest update to Google Play Services.
As expected, Google has today begun rolling out an update to its Google Cast app, appropriately renamed simply “Home”. The update includes a minor visual refresh and reorganization, and quietly adds the backbone for enabling Chromecast Ultra, the actual Google Home hardware, and support for controlling all of these Cast devices via Google Assistant…
Remember the Chromecast? Yes, of course you do. Google’s highly successful $35 dongle has been a hit among consumers, but its virtues may expand far beyond that. According to an exclusive Variety report, in fact, it may well have proved to be a proper Trojan horse for Google, who’s now seeking partners’ attention to build yet more appliances around its technology…
We are less than a week away from Google’s event on October 4 and it looks like the company has already started preparing its current products for things to come. A Reddit user noticed the mentioning of a ‘Google Home app’ while reconnecting their Chromecast to Wi-Fi after updating to the latest firmware available through the Chromecast Preview Program.
Lately, Google has been more often letting its customers beta test different software features before they roll out to the masses. Now, according to a new Chromecast support post, Google will soon let anyone enroll their Chromecast into a “Preview Program” for access to early and unreleased features…
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Today Vizio has announced a new selection of home speakers with integrated Google Cast, the SmartCast Crave 360 and the SmartCast Crave Pro. These new speakers are designed as potential competition to Sonos (and others), offering multi-room functionality and more…
Soon, the Google Cast extension will do nothing but add an extra button to your Chrome toolbar. Beginning with Chrome 51, Google Cast is built directly into the desktop browser and Chrome OS. And in addition to no longer requiring a separate extension for casting, Google is also adding the ability to mirror a Chrome tab directly into Google Hangouts with version 52…
Google Photos is arguably one of the best photo services available today, however one feature it’s been missing since launch is the ability to play a slideshow. Whether you missed it or not, the feature is now finally here.
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.
To reflect the recent expansion of its Google Cast streaming platform, Google’s Chromecast app is being renamed to the “Google Cast” app. Google is also announcing some new Google Cast-enabled speakers and TVs from Vizio.
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Since its launch in 2013, Chromecast has been a hit success for Google and its attempt to capture the media streaming market. Starting today, developers will get access to analytics about their Cast applications.
Android’s showing at CES has diminished when compared to earlier years, but Google is making it up with many companies announcing Google Cast and Android TV devices. The former is a cheap alternative to Sonos and the latter is becoming the defacto OS for TV makers who don’t want to deal with software.
LG has unveiled a new range of audio products for both home entertainment and for parties. As Google fans, it’s the home entertainment range we’re most interested in, and that’s because the company’s new sound bar systems include baked-in support for Google Cast. The SH8, SH7 and SH6 sound bars will be shown off in more depth at CES next month, and come with a boatload of wireless connectivity options…
During the announcement of Google’s Chromecast Audio yesterday, the company made sure to mention that music subscription leader Spotify will soon be one of the many music streaming services supported by the platform. With many Apple Music subscriptions renewing (or not renewing) and Google unveiling a $35 dongle that retrofits our existing home speakers with Wi-Fi, some are rightfully wondering: What about Apple Music?
According to statements from one Googler (via TrustedReviews), Google has no bar on any platform joining in on supporting Chromecast, and the Mountain View company has already directly asked Apple to play along…
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Popular music streaming service Rdio is today announcing an expansion of its support for connected speaker systems and smart TVs, including Google’s new Google Cast for Audio platform introduced earlier this year.
In addition to supporting speakers that integrate Google’s Cast for audio platform, the music service is now available on Harman/Kardon, Denon, and the DTS Play-Fi Whole-Home Wireless ecosystem featuring leading brands such as Definitive Technology, Phorus, Polk Audio and Wren. The company also noted that it’s now available on Samsung smart TVs and arriving soon on smart TVs from LG and Hisense.
Previously Rdio was only available on Sonos speakers and setup boxes like the Apple TV and Google Chromecast.
Rdio is available free with ads or as an ad-free service for $9.99/month unlimited or on certain devices for $3.99/month with a limited number of on demand songs per day.
Apple and Google products don’t always play together nicely, but when they do, it’s normally because a third party has created an application or two to get them talking to each other. That’s exactly what Reflector 2 for Mac does (among many other things). If you’ve been wondering how you can get content from your Android smartphone or tablet mirrored or streamed to your Mac (and Windows PC, if you’re into that kinda thing), this is one really easy way.
After first introducing new 4K TVs using Android TV back in April, Sony today announced its new X900C model is now available for pre-order.
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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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q0yZomXuSw
Google today announced Google Cast for audio, which the company says takes advantage of Chromecast tech to send audio to third-party hardware like speakers, A/V receivers, and sound bars. The feature will allow users to tap a “cast” button from within music and radio apps on Android, iOS and the web to stream audio to Google Cast enabled speakers.
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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.
After making the Google Cast SDK public and launching a dedicated forum for Chromecast, Google has announced a public beta version of the Google Cast extension available in the Chrome Web Store.
The Google Cast extension allows users to beam content from a Chrome tab on their desktop to a Chromecast or other devices that support he Google Cast standard. Like Google’s beta versions of Chrome and other apps, the public beta release will provide devs and anyone else that downloads it to the latest features and APIs.
More info on the new beta is available from Google Developer Advocate Shawn Shen on Google+.
