Google Introduces Chromecast For Your TV

Chromecast

TV boxes are nothing new, with companies like Rokku, TiVo, Apple and even Google itself competing with their own TV boxes, attempting to connect your large screen TV to the Internet. In the case of Google TV, it was not a huge success and we haven't seen much updates lately. But today, the company introduced a brand new device which may just make Google TV, and all previous TV boxes, obsolete. Chromecast is a tiny $35 stick which can be plugged into the back of your large screen and broadcast Internet content for you. It uses technology different from previous products, and that may be key to its success.

Most boxes like the Apple TV allow you to stream content from one device to the next. For example, if you have a tablet and watch a movie, then want to send that movie to your large screen TV, the iPad can use AirPlay to stream the content from the portable device to the Apple TV directly. But Chromecast doesn't work like that. Instead, you simply send a command from your tablet, phone, PC or other device to the Chromecast telling it to fetch the media directly from the Internet. That means you're not just mirroring your phone on your TV, you're fetching the high quality media directly from the web.

This distinction allows a couple of nice features. First, unlike previous TV boxes which were restricted on which devices can control them, the Chromecast can accept commands from any Chrome browser. That means as long as it runs Chrome, any device can control your Chromecast, from a PC to an Android phone or an iPad. Then, you also aren't limited in the selection of content. Not only can you stream Netflix or YouTube on Chromecast, but you can also display any Chrome tab on it, meaning that you can view any web page, image or video from the Internet. And at $35, the price is quite attractive, since this is in essence nothing more than a small hardware key, which you then control from your other device. Both Google and Amazon started selling the device right after the announcement, and as of now, they are both out of stock.

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