Ten New Apps Arrive for Chromecast - And More Are Coming

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Summary: The Chromecast is getting more useful by the day with new media apps appearing. But the biggest improvement, screen casting from the latest Android devices, is still waiting to go on stage.

By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for Networking |December 11, 2013 -- 12:44 GMT (04:44 PST)

I'd been assuring people that the Chromecast would become even more useful soon and I was right. Google just announced that it's added 10 new apps, actually more like directly supported media services to Chromecast.

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The biggest upcoming Chromecast improvement, the ability to cast Android tablet and smartphone screens, is still a work in progress.

These are: VEVO, a self-proclaimed MTV for the Internet age; Red Bull.TV sports; Songza, an Internet music station; PostTV, the Washington Post's Internet TV channel; Viki, international TV shows and movies, primarily from Korea; Revision 3, techie TV shows; and BeyondPod, a popular podcast manager.

On top of that you can now use three media-server programs, Plex, Avia, and RealPlayer Cloud apps to watch your own local and cloud-based video recordings.

Plex is the most well-known of these media servers. Plex, a fork of the open-source XMBC can run on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. With it you can stream video in a variety of formats from local drives, network drives, and some cloud services.

You can, of course, continue to play many video files simply by opening their files from your Chrome Web browser.

Google didn't mention it this time, but it's also become clear that screen casting will be coming to Android soon. In the recent Android 4.4.1 update, there were hints in the code that the ability to "cast" an Android display to a Chromecast-equipped TV was on its way. This was further confirmed in the latest Android 4.4.2 where "Cast screen" is an option under the Display settings. Unfortunately, in my tests, this still isn't working. My 2013 Nexus 7 with Android 4.4.2 was unable to detect my Chromecast.

Still, it's only a matter of time before the newest Android tablets and smartphones will be able to share their displays to Chrome cast-equipped HDTVs.
 
Both Amazon and Best Buy now have the Chromecast down to $30, so you’ll save $5. It’s not a huge sale, but considering how cheap it already is, it’s quite a proportional savings. Hit the links to get buying, because I don’t know how long it’ll last!
Amazon: Chromecast
Best Buy: Chromecast
 
Both Amazon and Best Buy now have the Chromecast down to $30, so you’ll save $5. It’s not a huge sale, but considering how cheap it already is, it’s quite a proportional savings. Hit the links to get buying, because I don’t know how long it’ll last!
Amazon: Chromecast
Best Buy: Chromecast

The price is great the lack of functions is just horrible, to me not worth the drive to the store if google was giving them away. Stop goofing off google and for once produce a fully functioning device.
 
It still amazes me that the "inventor" of Android brings out this very limited device when the Direct from China companies can bring out a full Android device for the same amount. Why didn't Google just bring out a full Android device that could receive casts from tablets and phones, or be remote controlled by tablets or phones? It would have been so much more functional. The problems with the direct from China stuff is the lack of backing from Google to make sure all the apps run correctly, example of this is the android TV stick I bought a while ago and reported down at the bottom of the forum.

All that said, I'll probably buy a Chromecast soon.
 
All that said, I'll probably buy a Chromecast soon.

I wont, maybe after the sixth or 7th versions, once google has milked the suckers, umm customers dry then decides to release a fully functional update, that they could have released since day one, then I will get one.
 
Well, don't hold your breath. I'm still waiting for Google to release a fully functional tablet with all the customary ports.
 
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