Today Google unveiled Chromecast. One might call it Google’s version of Apple’s AirPlay, or another attempt at the failed Nexus Q. What it is however is a device that you can connect to your HDTV and scream content from your device like a smartphone or tablet up to the big screen TV for viewing. Chromecast is cross-platform so you can use this whether you have an Android smartphone or tablet or happen to be apart of the iOS camp with an iPhone or iPad. You can also use this from a PC or MAC using the Chrome browser.
But why did I order one? I ordered it because I like the ability to be able to take content I’m looking at on my phone or tablet and shooting it up to whatever big screen TV that may be in front of me at the moment. With Chromecast currently I can shoot up videos from YouTube, Movies/TV show from Netflix, Movies/TV/Music from Google Play, and also shoot up videos I may be looking at via my Chrome browser. Now I’m not a big YouTube guy, but the videos I do come across I wouldn’t mind being able to quickly send that to my 47 inch, or 55 inch TV and watching on there instead of my phone. Or maybe I could be watching a movie on Netflix in route home and once I got into the living room, continuing quickly by sending or casting to the TV.
This works the same with music. I could quick send music to the living room set up which has the nice 7.1 surround when I didn’t feel like listening with my headphones. And as great as the speakers are on the HTC One, if I had to choose, I’d take the 7.1 surround system of my living over the smartphone. Chromecast allows me to quickly watch content on my TV vs the small screens I may have been using previously. I even like that if my TV was off, Chromecast once receiving the content would turn my TV on, switch to the correct input, and start displaying the content. And it is doing it from the cloud, so one less cabling solution I would need. No set-top box either, a small stick that hides nicely behind the TV.
But lastly why did I order the Chromecast, and why should you? Because Google Chromecast is selling for $35 dollars. At $35 dollars you don’t think about it, you just purchase it and figure out what you are going to do with it later. It is a no brainer people. I didn’t even mention that fact that Google has released a Chromecast SDK so that 3rd party developers can add this feature into their existing apps. So the potential for many of the other content providers that have apps on your device is there. So don’t think about it. Go to the Google Play store now and pick one up. If I truly like this, I personally will be picking up one for each TV I have in the house!
