The Chromecast works similarly to the Apple TV's AirPlay feature, which lets users control the content they watch using their iPhone, iPad or other Apple devices.
The dongle is plugged into a television's HDMI port, and allows users to stream media from smartphones, tablets and computers. Plug it into any HDTV and control it with your existing smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Send your favorites from Google Play, YouTube, Netflix, and Chrome to your TV with the press of a button.
Using the Chrome browser, you will also be able to project whatever website you are seeing on your laptop to your Chromecast device and TV. Google said Chromecast will work with many types of mobile devices, not just their own. Chromecast works with devices you already own, including Android tablets and smartphones, iPhones, iPads, and Chrome for Mac and Windows. Google Chromecast will cost $35 (£23) starting Wednesday from Amazon, Google Play and Best Buy. There is as yet no word on international launches. However the Roku or Apple TV are both much better options with more content options. Google says Pandora music streaming is coming soon, and other services will follow. But Google also released a "preview" version of an SDK, or Software Developers’ Kit, which would allow developers to enable their existing offerings to work with Chromecast. |
In other words, a site like Hulu could build the connectivity into it’s website with ease, so that people using the Chrome browser on their PCs or Macs could “cast” video to their TVs. Hulu could also use the same tools to allow their apps on iPhones and Android devices to work in that way, too.
At $94.99 (Amazon), Apple TV has always been very affordable. It’s not cheap, but it seems like a reasonable amount of money for what it does, and it’s an amount of money someone can find if the product has value for them. "Affordable" may no longer be good enough, though, because the Chromecast is an impulse buy at $35.
At $78 for Roku 2 XD, a set-top device that uses a wireless remote for the interface and has access to pretty much any and every streaming media network on the Internet. It’s an impressive little box, but for many non-tech savvy consumers, boxes like these can seem tricky and somewhat overwhelming.
