More Google genius.
If you haven’t heard about Chromecast (Amazon affiliate link–thanks for clicking through and buying), it’s a pretty cool idea. A little $35 part that plugs into you HDMI input on your TV and lets you broadcast from your phone (any platform–Android, iOS, etc.) directly from applications like YouTube, Netflix, Google Music, Pandora (coming soon), etc. But it doesn’t stop there–your phone is just where the broadcast initiates. Since the device is running ChromeOS, it can take over the stream from there so your device is freed up to do other stuff. And…you can broadcast from the Chrome browser too (for stuff like Amazon streaming)…provided your device will allow you to run Chrome.
Pretty smart. Pretty cool. And, they’ve made the SDK available for any app developer to sync up and stream from their apps. Again–it doesn’t matter what platform your device is running on.
That could make this a no-brainer device for every TV in your house. Especially for $35 each.
Why wouldn’t app developers want to include this functionality, right?
That’s a question Apple’s going to have a tough time answering. Because I’ll bet you dollars to donuts you will not see a ChromeCast icon in iTunes any time soon.
I think donuts may cost more than a dollar now, but I still like that saying.
We only have one TV, so I’ve only bought one so far. But Christmas is right around the corner.