Apple Won't Introduce New Apple TV Box Next Week, Will Upgrade Software

There are very, very good odds you're going to hear about new iPhones at Apple's event next Tuesday.

But if you're looking for a new Apple TV, you're going to be disappointed.

Despite speculation about new Apple TV hardware on the way, Apple won't be unveiling any new boxes next week, according to people familiar with the company's plans.

That said, the company will be tweaking the software inside its Web TV box. Apple has already said that it will be bringing its new iTunes Radio service to Apple TV. And it has been adding new content partners, including Disney and HBO, throughout the summer.

Expect to hear about more changes next week.

Sources said that one new feature in the works will let people who've bought content from Apple play that stuff on other users' Apple TVs, via Apple's Airplay system and Apple's server. So if you bought a TV show or movie from Apple's iTunes store, you could watch it at a friend's house by calling it up on your iPhone and telling your friend's Apple TV to start streaming it. (The files wouldn't need to be stored on your iPhone or iPad)

You could have previously accomplished this by getting your friend to log out of their Apple TV box and then logging in with your own credentials. But that's awfully cumbersome - particularly with Apple's minimalist Apple TV remote. And you can already do a variation on this, though not as elegantly, with some Apple TV apps like HBO Go.

But if this makes it that much easier to watch "Pain and Gain" with your pals, then that's a good thing. And if that makes you less inclined to buy a $35 Google Chromecast and treat that as your Web TV device, then that's good for Apple.

No comment from Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr.

No Internet? No Problem: YouTube Getting Ready to Let You Watch Videos Offline, on Your Phone.

YouTube streams more than six billion hours of video a month. Soon it will let people watch some of those videos even if they're not connected to the Web.

Next month, Google's video site will let viewers save clips on their phones and other mobile devices for up to 48 hours, so they can watch them when they're not online.

The videos will still be free, and Google will run ads on the clips, which will be available via its mobile apps.

That's a big change for the eight-year-old company, which has previously required a live Web connection to watch its videos (though there are plenty of workarounds).

YouTube announced the move in a blog post published late last night, and started telling its partners about its plans via email, as well; YouTube said it will allow uploaders to opt out of the offline option.

The practical benefit for YouTube viewers is that they'll be able to watch videos in places where they've previously been unable to do so, like planes or cars.* This should presumably boost overall viewing for the site, which already generates more than a quarter of its views - that's more than a billion views a day - via mobile.

If so, that may put more pressure on YouTube's ad rates by opening up more inventory.

Here's the text of YouTube's post announcing the move:

We're always exploring ways to bring more viewers to your content. As part of this effort, later this year we'll launch a new feature on YouTube's mobile apps that will help you reach fans - even when they're not connected to the Internet.

This upcoming feature will allow people to add videos to their device to watch for a short period when an Internet connection is unavailable. So your fans' ability to enjoy your videos no longer has to be interrupted by something as commonplace as a morning commute.

This is part of our ongoing updates to give people more opportunities to enjoy videos and channels on YouTube mobile. Check out the YouTube blog when this launches in November for more details on how this will work for viewers.

* I'll check, but I don't believe the move is relevant to Google's Chromecast gadget, which is designed to work in conjunction with mobile devices, but which relies on an Internet connection to play content on your TV. UPDATE: That's correct.

The Latest From Chrome and Android at Google Launch Event

Google will show off the latest in its Chrome and Android lines this morning.

It's no secret that there should be a new Nexus 7 - in fact, Best Buy already has the tablet on sale in 16 gigabyte and 32GB configurations.

Android itself is due for a modest update, as well, going to version 4.3 with improvements in Bluetooth and tweaks other areas.

We're also expecting something called "Chromecast" from Chrome, which will offer another way to get content from a mobile device on to a TV.

Earlier:
9:06 am: Sundar Pichai, SVP of Android, Chrome and Apps, takes the stage.

"At Google I/O, we talked about the fact that we are living at a pivotal moment in computing," he says. "Laptops, tablets, phones, televisions - it's a multiscreen world.

"Our goal is to deliver an experience that is seamless."

Pichai says, "Between Android and Chrome, we have a solution for all the computing devices that users have in their lives."

Two things coming today: A new Android device, a new Chrome device.

By the end of 2013, consumers are going to buy more tablets per year than personal computers. How is Android doing? More than 70 million activated so far.

Almost one in two tablets sold worldwide is based on Android.

A year ago, 20 billion applications downloaded on Google Play. Today, 50 billion. And, revenue per user is up 2.5x in a year. In that year, Google Play has gone from half a billion apps to 1 billion apps.

Pichai: We've worked closely with Asus - the CEO, Jonney Shih is here. The Nexus 7 accounts for more than 10 percent of tablets sold. In Japan, it was the single highest-selling tablet in the holiday season, accounting for 45 percent of sales.

Android exec Hugo Barra hops on stage. We can see he has a tablet in his back pocket.

It's tiny and thin. Barra: It's 2 millimeters thinner, with the same display size but reduced side bezels of 3 mm on either side. And it's 50 grams lighter. "It's a much more comfortable grip, and of course, it fits easily into your purse or jacket." It has the same soft touch with added gloss.

It has higher resolution - from 216 pixels per inch to 323 per inch - the highest of any in the market.

It can show a 30 percent wider range of colors, and has stereo speakers, with Fraunhofer virtual surround sound.

Even more specs: 1.2 MP front camera, 5 MP rear camera. 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro, 1.8x CPU, 4x GPU, doubled system memory to 2 GB. Dual band Wi-Fi, BLuetooth 4.0, 4G LTE for any U.S. network. HDMI, NFC, wireless charging. Some extra power compared to the original - 9 hours of HD video and 10 hours of Web browsing.

And it's shipping with Android 4.3, the new version of Jelly Bean.

It has multi-user support with restricted profiles that give control over content and apps at a user level (for example, for parents).

Now Barra is showing off a jigsaw puzzle app on his tablet ... scintillating demo material.

The app hides all the purchasing functionality and only exposes content to the restricted profile that has been approved.

And supporting OpenLG ES 3.0 to support graphics in games.

Here's Ina Fried's dedicated post on the Nexus 7.

Barra says they're going to show car racing with "jaw-dropping visuals." These demos are always a little strange because we're watching them projected on a huge screen, not the tiny tablet.

As a lady shoots people while riding a motorcycle amid lens flares, Barra says it's all rendered in real-time in native 1080p resolution.

Plus, there are new DRM APIs to restrict content access, which Barra says he's "thrilled" about. Really? Oh no, he's actually "thrilled" that Netflix has designed for it. Their new app supporting Android 4.3 is already available.

So when is Android 4.3 coming? They're pushing an update over the air today.

Barra switches over to talk about native Google Apps to show how they look on a tablet. They've redesigned Google Docs, with support for offline spreadsheet editing, etc. Chrome now has "print-quality" text and 15 percent more screen space. It also includes automatic translation.

The new Google Maps includes an "Explore" feature. Barra is gushing about how the layout is "awesome" especially at such a high resolution. And lastly, Google Hangouts - it also includes screensharing so people who are video-chatting can watch each other edit docs on their tablets.

Google Play product manager Ellie Powers shows how tablet apps are featured, and says hundreds of games have added the Google Play game services shown off at Google I/O. She demos some games and leaderboards. For instance, a game that looks like Mario Kart on jet skis now features responsive splashes on the windshield, and a game with a guy jumping across rooftops, parkour-style, has the shadows on the buildings change as you shift perspective.

Google Play will have a textbook section starting in early August, she says, with books from all five major textbook publishers. It'll include purchases as well as rentals for up to an 80 percent discount.

The prices are $229 for 16GB, $269 for 32GB and $349 for unlocked LTE. The first two will be on sale on July 30 at Best Buy, GameStop, Walmart, etc. The 4G model will be available "in the coming weeks," as will international launches in countries like the U.K. and Germany.

After a kind of odd Nexus 7 commercial about a kid with braces giving a speech in front of his class and then Googling "how do I ask a girl out," Pichai is back. He's talking TV. He says every single month more than 200 billion videos are watched in the world. And Netflix and YouTube combined have 49.4 percent share of all peak downstream Internet traffic in America. And lots of that is happening on non-TV devices.

A product dude whose name I didn't catch says Google's goals for TV are: "Make it fast and easy to set up, with nothing new to learn, and it works across platforms and devices."

He holds up what looks like a little USB stick, and says it's called Chromecast. It's running a simplified version of Chrome OS. It plugs into the HDMI port on a TV.

Let's say you want to watch YouTube on your TV, he says - you'll go to that site on your phone/table/PC and see a "Cast" button on the screen. When you do that, it's pulled from the cloud and played directly on the TV. Your device doesn't push the content, it comes direct from YouTube.

For the demo, Rishi Chandra comes onstage. In the past, he's the guy who demoed Google TV.

Interestingly, this TV effort is built around Chrome OS, where the previous Google TV was built on Android.

Here's Ina's pullout story on Chromecast.

Oops, and I missed her Android story. She's a busy lady.

"If you know how to use YouTube on your phone, you know how to use YouTube on your TV," Chandra says.

He adds, "Even in sleep mode, the videos continue to play. We don't drain your battery."

But, he says, "we recognize that not everyone has an Android phone. And we need a solution that works for everyone. Let's pretend my wife has an iPhone (heh)." It works the same.

The Cast button can also be used to bring a video back to the phone - if you click it, you can switch to your phone screen and the video will keep playing from the place you left it.

This also works for Netflix. This is the third Netflix callout of the presentation - unusually strong support for a single partner.

Chandra plays the "House of Cards" credits, which are in my opinion possibly awesomer than the show. This demo is to show that you can direct the content from any device that's connected to the Chromecast on the TV.

In this game of dueling remote controls, you can control content between an iPhone, a Nexus 7 and a TV. It's not exactly clear to me how this is coordinated - perhaps it's just the fact that they're on the same Netflix account.

This can also be used for Google Play Music and Pandora, Chandra says. The "Cast" button - which is a little rectangle with arcs in the corner - shows up there, too.

And lastly, a beta feature: You can project any Chrome tab from the browser to the TV.

"We'll project what's on your local device right onto the television - not the entire desktop or the URL bar, but what you want to look at." Chandra keeps emphasizing that the TV is the best screen in the house with the best speakers in the house, so it's ideal for content.

This will work with most Windows and Mac laptops as well as Chromebooks.

Developers won't need to build a new app to work with the Google Cast SDK, which is out in developer preview today.

Actually, the Pandora integration is still under development.

It will retail for $35 and can be ordered today from Amazon, Best Buy and Google Play.

And it will include three months free of Netflix (another Netflix plug/tie-up!) if you buy now.

That concludes the presentation. Bye for now!

Google's Chromecast Lets You Watch TV on the Web on Your TV. Guess Who Doesn't Like That?

One of the cool features of Google's new Chromecast device: It lets users move whatever they can see on their computer's Chrome Web browser onto their TVs.

One group of people who might not think that's cool: TV executives, who are still trying to draw a distinction between things you watch on your computer and things you watch on your TV.

For example: Chromecast's mirroring capability poses an issue for Hulu. The video website has tried to restrict user's ability to watch its free Hulu.com service on TV screens; instead, it sells the ability to watch Hulu on a TV as part of its $8 a month Hulu Plus service.

Hulu says it is working with Google to bring a Hulu Plus app to Chromecast, and when it does it will be an "optimized" viewing experience.* And not all of Hulu Plus's content is available on free Hulu. But a lot is. So in theory, that should make Hulu Plus a harder sell for Chromecast customers.

Google may also hear from HBO, which is fine with people watching its HBO Go service on big screens - but only with the explicit approval of the pay TV channel. For instance, HBO prevented Apple TV users from streaming its programs from its iPads and iPhones until February; last month, Apple added a dedicated HBO Go app to Apple TV.

Of course, anyone with any common sense, who doesn't work in legal or biz dev at a large entertainment company, knows that it's silly to argue that something that's on one screen shouldn't be on another. And anyone who wants to buy a cable and connect their laptop to their TV could already do this.

Which is exactly what Ossama Alami, a manager in Google's developer relations group, told my colleague Liz Gannes when she asked him about the issue today.

There is one solution for content owners who don't want people using Chromecast to fling stuff to their sets, Alami noted: Stop distributing their stuff on the Chrome browser. Not that he's suggesting they should do that.

It's worth noting that this move comes as Google is floating the notion of an "over the top" pay-TV solution, and talking to content owners and networks about licensing their stuff. And it comes after Google has already irked some content owners with earlier versions of Google TV, supposedly because Google didn't work hard enough to keep pirated content off of those devices.

You'd think that if Google were serious about its latest TV push, it would take extra care not to ruffle the TV guys' feathers. So maybe it doesn't think this is a ruffle-worthy issue. Or maybe it just doesn't care.

--

Only tangentially related: Google's first ad for Chromecast is pitch-perfect. Shows you what the product does and different use cases for it, in realistic settings (check the clutter in some of these TV rooms - these look the kind of places real people live, and watch TV, in).

And it portrays TV-watching as a great thing to do with people you like. These people are "constantly directing their attention away from one another," but what they're mostly doing is having fun, with other people.

Smart.

*Google is also describing the current version of Chromecast as a "beta" version. Of course, "beta" can be a long-standing condition at Google.

Sundar Pichai on the Difference Between Chromecast and Google TV (Interview)

Sundar Pichai

Google has two operating systems: Chrome and Android. And now it has two living-room devices: Chromecast and Google TV.

There's a good reason for that, argued Sundar Pichai, Google's SVP of Android, Chrome and Apps, in an interview after the event.

In fact, Pichai took over control of the Google TV project in March of this year. It had previously been the domain of YouTube head Salar Kamangar, but it was internally seen as better aligned with Android and Android partner relationships, sources said.

(Pichai, who has a reputation for being good at managing partnerships, gained a bunch of power at Google at that time, adding all of Andy Rubin's Android on top of his previous domain of Chrome and Apps.)

So why two different devices? The new Chromecast dongle will be a sort of lightweight way to stream video on a television. Google TV, you probably already know about - though you probably don't own as it's not super popular. Soon, "it will be a full-fledged Android for television," Pichai said, noting that he expects to announce many more partners at CES early next year.

The Chromecast costs $35 and has just 256k 512 megabytes of memory. But that doesn't mean it streams low-quality video; the default resolution is the industry-standard 1080p.

The new Google Chromecast

Where Google TV can provide "an immersive experience" that's appropriate for gaming, Chromecast will have too much latency for gaming, Pichai explained.

So why make a new device that doesn't do as much? To try to popularize the activity of watching Internet TV on a real living-room TV, said Pichai.

"It is shocking how much video is consumed on phones, tablets and laptops, but the TV usage just breaks off," he said. (During prepared remarks, Pichai cited Sandvine data showing that YouTube and Netflix account for an estimated 49.4 percent share of all peak downstream Internet traffic in the U.S.)

"Whereas TV is the most-used device at home, by far. People watch 4.5 hours of television per household in the U.S. So there is this gap, and you have to figure out a way to converge it." But simplicity is key, he said. "We should never set up expensive boxes and call someone to say how do I connect all this?"

Google's "Cast" protocol, which adds streaming options to apps while they are running on devices using the same Wi-Fi network as a Chromecast dongle, allows for playing video with no installation needed.

A Vizio Co-Star, one of the devices integrated with Google TV

"Effectively, the Chromecast is a Web media player," Pichai said. "Once you say, 'Play this YouTube video or Netflix video,' it is actually pinging YouTube or Netflix over Wi-Fi, going through the Internet backbone, and they are just sending it like they would send it to a browser."

Internally, Pichai said, his team calls this process "flinging" content. Flinging is intended for video and music apps, and outside developers are welcome to build in support for it.

Chromecast will also support a second behavior: "Mirroring" Web pages, though that will be in beta for the next few months. With mirroring, whatever you do on your phone, tablet or computer is synced up with the display on your TV. That way you can pull content from any website, not just supported apps - though you'll draw down the battery on the device that's being mirrored. My colleague Peter Kafka suspects that some TV companies will not be pleased.

These features aren't limited to the Chromecast device, Pichai said. Google TV will also support Google Cast, Pichai said today.

Google's two-pronged approach actually parallels competitors like Roku, which offers both boxes and streaming sticks for certain TVs. However, where Google might have an advantage on the works-like-a-browser front, Roku is ahead on the content deals. In addition to Netflix and YouTube, it has Amazon, Hulu, HBO Go and other channels. Chromecast doesn't yet.

"I fully expect more partners to join us, because it makes a lot of sense for their content to be seen on the television," Pichai said.

Correction, July 29: This article incorrectly reported the amount of memory that the Chromecast has; the correct number is 512MB.

Google Ends Netflix Chromecast Promotion

A day after announcing a promotion that gave Chromecast buyers three free months of Netflix, Google has pulled the plug on the offer. Google told the Los Angeles Times that it quashed the giveaway "due to overwhelming demand for Chromecast devices," which move video from the Internet to the TV, and which retail for $35.

Google's Answer to the Great Chromecast/Netflix Giveaway Mystery: There's No Mystery -- We Sold Out

Why did Google kill its Chromecast/Netflix promotion a day after it launched?

It didn't, exactly. And neither did Netflix.

Here's a new statement from Google on the end of the deal, which gave Chromecast buyers three months of free Netflix: "Due to overwhelming demand for Chromecast devices since launch, the 3-month Netflix promotion (which was available in limited quantities) is no longer available."

And here's a tiny bit of clarity about what that means, as far as I can tell after speaking to people at both companies: Google bought a fixed amount of Netflix subscriptions to bundle with its $35 Web TV gadget, and it sold out.

Feel free to wonder whether Google dramatically underestimated demand for Chromecast, or if it is very happy to have sold out in a day (right now, Gabe Rivera and his robots think this is the most compelling story in tech).

Also feel free to wonder whether the end of the promotion will do anything to dampen enthusiasm for the Chromecast.

My hunch: At an effective price of $11, it was basically free, and thus a very attractive impulse buy. And, at its list price of $35, it is still very, very cheap for a piece of consumer electronics. And it's probably going to continue to sell well.

(Image courtesy of Shutterstock/Humannet)

Yet Another Way to Get a Super-Cheap Web TV Box

What's that? You say you're intrigued by the notion of a Web TV box, but $35 for a Google Chromecast is too rich for your blood?

Here you go - if you live in the U.K.: Satellite TV service BSkyB has rolled out a Web TV box for 9.99.

That works out to about $15, and what that gets you is essentially a rebranded Roku HD box - BSkyB invested in Roku last year, and once again this spring - tailored to support BSkyB's Now TV streaming subscription service. That also means that the box won't support BSkyB rivals Netflix and Amazon/Lovefilm.

You can see more specs and details here, but the big picture is that this shows yet another approach to distributing Web-to-TV hardware: Rather than have consumers buy the gadgets directly from the manufacturer, a programmer/distributor sells the box and subsidizes the cost.

Expect to see more of this in the future. For starters, note that Roku's other investors include 21st Century Fox, Dish Network and Hearst, which owns both TV stations and stakes in TV networks including ESPN.

Meanwhile, Apple is in talks with Time Warner Cable about an Apple TV tie-up; for now, that deal doesn't call for the cable operator to sell Apple's boxes, but you could certainly imagine a pact where it does.

And remember that Amazon, which tried to buy Roku last year, has its own TV box in the works, which will be optimized for Amazon's own video offerings.

Google Suggests Web-TV Thingies You Can Buy Instead of Google's Sold-Out Chromecast

Google has not only sold out of Netflix giveaways to bundle with its Chromecast device, but it doesn't have any Chromecasts to sell right now, period. If you place an order on Google's site, you'll be told there is a two- to three-week wait before one will ship.

As a helpful AllThingsD reader points out, as of this morning, you could still buy a Chromecast from Best Buy's website. That's no longer the case, either.

But if you do end up looking for a Chromecast on BestBuy.com, you will find a list of other ways you can watch Web video on your TV.

The list is provided by Google, via its AdSense ad units, which means that, even if Google can't sell you a gadget, it might still make money by getting you to click on a link.

The list will change over time, and will vary depending on your browsing history. Here's one I just saw:

If you're in the market for a Chromecast, you might very well have heard of Roku, which offers gadgets that do similar things, but at a higher price point.

It's interesting to note that Google's auction/algorithm thinks you might also want to check out devices from Western Digital, which has had a hard time getting attention for its streaming boxes. It's also interesting to see that Aereo, a subscription service that can't show up on your TV without help from Apple TV, Roku (or, theoretically, Chromecast), is on the list, too.

Google's Chromecast Offers Another Way to Get Content From Mobile to TV

Google on Wednesday announced plans for Chromecast, which the company says is an easier way to get video and other content from a mobile device to a television.

The approach is centered around a two-inch fob that will sell for $35; it plugs into any TV's HDMI port and connects to a home Wi-Fi network. Interestingly, Google opted to use a modified version of Chrome OS for this effort, while Google TV was Android-based.

Google's Sundar Pichai said that nearly half of peak Internet traffic is coming from YouTube and Netflix, but most of that is going to PCs, tablets and phones.

"The television is missing from the picture," Pichai said, despite the fact it is the best and most immersive display. In any given week, he said, only 15 percent of U.S. households stream video to their TV.

Chromecast works not only from Android devices, but also from supported apps on iOS devices, including YouTube and Netflix. It also works with Macs and PCs, as well as the Chrome OS-based Chromebook Pixel.

While the streams are launched from the mobile device, they are streamed from the cloud, avoiding battery drain and allowing users to multitask on their mobile device.

Other apps, including Pandora, are coming soon. Meanwhile, Google is releasing an early version of the software tools that programmers will need to add Chromecast support to their mobile apps and websites.

The announcement came as part of a broader event that also saw updates to Android and a new version of the Nexus 7 tablet.

Google's Chromecast No Longer Comes With Free Netflix Because Demand Got Too Nuts

In what is a solid example of the best sort of problem to have, Google's just-announced Chromecast video streaming dongle is already proving too damned popular for its own good.

At yesterday's debut, Google announced that buyers of the $35 device would also be getting three free months of Netflix service with their purchase. Just 24 hours later, that deal is off. Sad trombone.

Why? "Overwhelming demand", says the Googles. Someone had to pay for that service in the end, after all - so if Google can't even keep these things on the shelves, they can probably get away with nippin' out the Netflix perks.

With that said, those three free months might have been a non-trivial part of why the device was getting snatched up so quick. A streaming-only Netflix plan costs $8 per month ($24 for three months) and Google's Netflix deal applied even if you were already a Netflix subscriber. For current Netflix customers (or for anyone who would be down to sign up for 3 months of free service) it brought the effective cost of the (already crazy cheap) Chromecast down to eleven dollars. At that point, there's not even a decision to make.

If you snatched up a Chromecast before Google killed the deal: don't worry. The LA Times got confirmation that Google will honor the promotion for all the early buyers, though it's not entirely clear where they plan to draw the line.

Update: Amazon updated their product page to say they'll honor the deal for anyone who ordered before 5:31 p.m. yesterday. Sucks for you, 5:32 ers!

[Disclosure: Google loaned me a Chromecast for the week so I can tinker with it. It's going back (read: I'm not keeping it), but I'd rather disclose too much than disclose too little. Review should be up this weekend.]

This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: Nexus 7, Cheap iPhone 4s, And Chromecast

Does the high-res Nexus 7 beat out the iPad mini? Why has Apple's average selling price gone down? Is Google's new Chromecast dongle an Apple TV/Airplay killer?

We discuss all this and more on this week's TechCrunch Gadgets Podcast. The show features John Biggs, Matt Burns, Jordan Crook, Chris Velazco, Darrell Etherington, and Romain Dillet. Packed house, I know.

So sit back, relax, and listen to us make fun of each other while discussing this week's developments in gadgetry.

Enjoy!

We invite you to enjoy our weekly podcasts every Friday at 3pm Eastern and noon Pacific.

Click here to download an MP3 of this show.
You can subscribe to the show via RSS.
Subscribe in iTunes

Intro Music by Rick Barr.

Gillmor Gang: Christmas in July

The Gillmor Gang - Robert Scoble, Kevin Marks, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor - celebrate Google's gift to StreamTV. ChromeCast is cheap, small, simple, and extensible, just in time to kickoff the run up to Apple's big move to the Big Screen. It's a win-win for everybody involved, except maybe Microsoft and its XBox offering. Suddenly 3 screens and the cloud has shrunk to 2, or maybe 1.

It's no cakewalk for Google, who must navigate and resolve desktop and mobile OSes and native hardware only seen briefly held to the ear of Eric Schmidt. But Chromecast altering the landscape, making the new Nexus 7 into a peripheral controller for the TV rather than the other way around, will shake up Hollywood's world view just as Netflix is reprogramming our kids' attention from channels to apps.

@stevegillmor, @scobleizer, @kevinmarks, @kteare

Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor

Live chat stream

Hands on with Google’s Chromecast, a tiny set-top box for the Web

Google has started shipping its first batch of Chromecast devices, its HDMI TV plugin that lets you stream online video content onto your television.

I received a review unit from Google after its press event yesterday and think that it's a worthwhile device with enormous potential - particularly because it's simple enough to take on the likes of Airplay, Apple TV, Roku, and even blu-ray players.

Yesterday, Google's Android and Chrome chief Sundar Pinchai said that the 2-inch hardware device would help create the easiest way for people to "enjoy online entertainment on the TV." Based on what we've seen and experienced, Google looks to redefine what a universal remote control is.

Available for just $35 in the Google Play store, Amazon, Best Buy, and other retail stores, this dongle fits easily into any television set, turning it from being "dumb" to "smart". And the instructions are pretty simple:

• Plug the dongle into your television and change the input setting accordingly
• Log onto the Chromecast setup page on any device and follow the short set of instructions
• Click the watch icon on any supported site or using the Chrome extension to begin streaming to your TV

When I tested the device last night, there was a bit of lag in getting movies from YouTube and Netflix to play on the television, but it was tolerable. In using my Macbook Pro, I loaded up a Gabriel Iglesias comedy clip on YouTube and hit the Chromecast button and voila, it worked. If you close the browser tab, the media will still play on the TV.

Something that might interest users is the fact that Chromecast appears to have the ability for different media to be streamed to different devices. Just like with Sonos devices, I can elect to have a TNW video with Tim Ferriss stream on my living room TV and have Psy's "Gangnam Style" music video play on the TV in my bedroom - that is, if I have multiple Cast devices.

Of course, since this is version 1, there are obvious limitations, such as the inability to push offline content, like movies and songs, to your TV as you would with Apple's AirPlay. I wish the Chromecast would allow me to "cast" my local movie files over to my TV. I have digital copies of The Muppets, Transformers, Up and others scattered between my iPad, Macbook Pro, and desktop computer. Being able to consolidate those and push them to the TV to watch would be great. Some may say that you could create a web address to cast from, but for the average person, this makes things a bit complex.

Update: Some local files do work by activating a cast on a Chrome tab that's opened a file, but native media plugins such as Quicktime and Silverlight are not supported, so not all movie files will work. For instance, a video recorded on an iPhone caused an error, but one from a GoPro streamed after a short load time.

Since the device is an HDMI plugin, for those without a port on their TV, the Chromecast is unfortunately not for you.

Currently, users can stream anything using the Google Chrome browser extension, as well as YouTube, Netflix, and movies from the Google Play store. That may be a tad limiting, but if it's available on the browser, it should be possible to stream Vimeo, Spotify, Pandora, and Hulu, albeit it won't looks as clean as you'd like.

The device is a pretty good investment, especially seeing that it costs just a fraction of what you'd pay for an Apple TV, Roku, or blu-ray player. In fact, when installing the Chromecast, I unplugged my Roku, seeing that it would be a better experience with the Google device.

As for remotes, who needs another one in their living room? Chromecast doesn't come with one because the way to control it is with existing technology: your laptop, desktop, tablet, and phone. And since it's Google, the device will be supported by Chromebooks in the future.

Overall, the Chromecast is a good buy and shows promise, not only for the price, but also the potential use it could have in the future with other applications.

See related:

Chromecast streaming will be supported by Google TV: Can both platforms coexist?

All of These Google Chromecast Ads Are Awesome

Lots of smart people I know are very, very excited about Chromecast, Google's new TV-streaming gadget.

I think it's pretty cool, too. But only as an iterative step: Maybe I'm not smart enough to figure out The Big Picture, but to me this seems like a cheaper version of Apple TV and Roku's boxes, both of which do very similar things.

But Apple TV and Roku were pretty cheap to begin with, and now Chromecast is just about free. Google is selling it for $35, but it's giving you three free months of Netflix (even if you're already a Netflix subscriber), which brings the net cost down to $11. If you smoke cigarettes and you live in New York City, you will pay more for a pack of Marlboro Lights.* [UPDATE: That was fast: A day after announcing the Netflix deal, Google has pulled the plug. So now it's back to $35 -- or the price of four movie tickets (not in New York, though).]

So if Chromecast's main contribution is that it makes this kind of Web-to-TV box something that literally everyone can afford, then that's still pretty important, because it makes Web-to-TV that much more commonplace. As long as it works.**

And if Chromecast is going to become the device that lots of people buy, it will be in part because of Google's super-smart ad campaign, which does a brilliant job of quickly explaining the Web-to-TV concept, and making it look like something normal people would love to do.

I've already raved about the main Chromecast ad, but Google has a whole set of these up and running, and they're all awesome examples of great story telling. In 15 seconds, no less.

* Don't smoke cigarettes!

** It's worth noting that Roku also has its own "streaming stick," which looks just like Chromecast (minus some features). But it doesn't push that device - instead it is focused on the Roku 3, which has a bigger footprint. I wonder why that is. (Ah! Thanks to Zach Seward and Steve Kovach for the quick answer: Roku's stick won't work with most TVs.)