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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.

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After weeks of leaks, rumors and speculation, the NVIDIA Shield Tablet and Wireless Controller have officially been announced this morning. NVIDIA posted a series of videos on their YouTube channel promoting the new device with the slogan “high-performance gaming everywhere”.

In terms of aesthetics, the device looks like we imagined. It features dual 5MP cameras, dual front-facing stereo speakers, and an 8-inch, 1920×1200 display. The specs under the hood are equally impressive. The device boasts an NVIDIA Tegra K1 GPU, an ARM Cortex A15 CPU clocked at 2.2GHz, and 2GB of RAM.

In terms of pricing, there are two different models of the device. A 16GB WiFi variant and a 32GB WiFi + LTE version, selling for $299 and $399, respectively.  Both models will ship for a July 29th release. 
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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.

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Google has began rolling out an experimental feature on its search engine that makes it easier to find live events on YouTube or Hangouts on Air. A live event will begin showing up in search results up to 3 hours before it starts, providing users with a link that takes them to the event page to watch. A card-like box appears at the top of Google when searching for the name or author of live events. 
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RBC analyst Mark Mahaney has put together a cheat-sheet (via re/code) to help make sense of Google’s earnings call, due later today.

The tl;dr version is that gross revenues above $15.65B will be viewed by the market as positive, below $15.55B seen as negative and anything between the two business as usual. The market consensus is for a neutral announcement at around $15.61B and earnings per share of $6.25 – ad growth offset by lower revenues due to more mobile ads, which typically cost less … 
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Earlier today, access to Google’s variety of web services was finally restored in China, after weeks of them being offline. This evening, however, Reuters reports that once again, the Mountain View company’s services are being disrupted in China. This includes tools such as Google Search, Maps, Gmail, advertising services, and more.

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YouTube has established itself as a mainstream platform for streaming video content online, but its ambitious goal of reaching 1 billion “watch time” hours per day through 2016 is reportedly lagging behind expectations. The Information has learned that YouTube has less than 300 million viewing hours per day, up from the 100 million daily hours of watch time when the goal was set in fall 2012. 
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It’s official. Google has purchased music streaming service Songza (Play Store). Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but a report broke last month that Google was offering $15 million to acquire Songza. The deal follows Apple’s announcement earlier this year that it bought music streaming service Beats Music and headphones and accessories maker Beats Electronics for $3 billion.

The service is expected to improve Google’s own Play Music service as well as YouTube (and could possibly benefit YouTube’s potential music service) and other services, and Google says that nothing will change for Songza users in the immediate future.

If you’re not familiar with Songza, the service offers curated playlists in a music streaming service across various platforms including Android, iOS, and the Web. Playlists are chosen in several ways including based on moods and occasions.

Check below for statements on the acquisition from both Google and Songza…

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YouTube may be in the process of starting its own music service, however the Google-owned company will soon be making the jump to radio as well. Yep, you read that correctly. Earlier today, Mountain View’s video streaming platform announced that it has made a deal with SiriusXM that will bring tracks from some of its featured up-and-coming recording artist to a weekly show aptly named YouTube 15.

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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.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d36cIFCJvQs

Google announced a variety of new services and products today at Google I/O, including the “L” version of Android, Android Auto, Android TV, Google Fit, and Android Wear. In an effort to help us all digest this onslaught of news, Google this evening posted a 2-minute video on YouTube showing how all of those services can seamlessly work together to make your life easier.

The video, seen above, shows a man performing daily routine, but with all of Google’s new services. He’s using an Android “L” smartphone paired with an Android Wear watch, paired with a car with Android Auto, paired with Android TV. And, of course, an obligatory cute dog. The video makes it look like it all works pretty seamlessly together. But unfortunately, we’re still quite aways away from this becoming reality.

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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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YouTube is currently working on its own paid music streaming service that will let users watch videos and listen to tunes without ads. As intriguing as this may sound, it could come at the expense of the outlet’s relationship with several indie bands. Historically, the Google-owned video streaming platform has been a major springboard for independent record labels looking to gain mainstream exposure, but this could soon change. According to Financial Times, YouTube will start blocking videos from record labels that haven’t signed licensing deals with the company’s subscription-based service.

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Venkat Panchapakesan has been named YouTube’s new head of engineering, according to Re/code. An internal hire, Panchapakesan is shifting from his role as head engineer at Google’s apps division. He’ll be taking over for former product head, Shishir Mehrotra who vacated his position earlier in year and went on to become an adviser for the company.

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