Nobody really came out and said this, but everyone's thinking it:
Google just took another swing at Apple. A couple, in fact. Today saw the announcement of a new Tablet (called the Nexus 7) that is already getting some good feedback, in part thanks to it's tiered offerings. But the one I'm most interested in is this new thing called "Chromecast." It's a device that allows you to stream from any device into your television - not exactly a new idea. But retailing for about $35, it's by far one of the most affordable devices for pulling it off.
Google started integrating their technology into televisions years ago, when they partnered with certain manufacturers to get their software built right into the TVs themselves. To help narrow the gap even further, they released apps for most gaming consoles that allowed you to stream YouTube to your television, and mobile apps to make it easier to control.
None of it had an immediately perceptible endgame in mind, though. It was almost as though Google was throwing stuff at the wall to see what would stick, even if in a fairly sophisticated and bug-free way.
The Chromecast is different. It looks to be a point of solid focus for Google, at least for awhile, anyway. If they give it regular updates and additional features, they'll be ahead of Apple, who's Apple TV product (which retails for $99) has not been the box-top replacement we all thought it might be, even
hoped it would be.
The Chromecast resembles a car charger, but plugs into your television's HDMI port and uses your wifi connection to stream whatever is on your phone or computer to the bigger screen. The major difference is that Chromecast does not require the Operating System across all devices, and actually uses the Chrome browser to provide the connection between devices. Early demonstrations showed streaming of YouTube, Netflix and audio from Pandora. There's the promise of more to come, as Google is releasing a developer preview and SDK that will let other apps support streaming.
To show how serious they are about it, Google is offering the Chromecast with three months free of Netflix, and will be selling the item on Amazon and in Best Buy stores by the end of the month. It's also available to purchase on Google Play, but ran out of stock very quickly.
The Verge reported that
The Washington Post has already began integrating a coming video product called
PostTV into Chromecast, and that the channel will be launching later this month.
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