Googles Chromecast

Yet another Google’s creation. And this time it’s Chromecast. Chromecast is a small, USB-powered dongle that connects to an HDMI port on your television or a monitor. It uses the new Google Cast screen sharing technology to show Internet content, as well as some local content from devices running the Android, iOS and Chrome platforms.

The Chromecast is deceptively simple: you plug it into your TV, then stream video and music to it from apps running on your iPhone, Android device, or laptop. The Chromecast itself has no remote; whatever device you’re streaming from is the remote. The Chromecast has next to no user interface of its own, either; it’s got a single screen that shows the time and whether or not it’s connected to your Wi-Fi that appears when nothing is being streamed, but again, the device you’re streaming from largely acts as the interface.

The setup is simple. Download the Chromecast setup software to a PC and the Chromecast controller app to an Android tablet and install it. Once all these installations are complete, you are ready to get streaming.

Theres also a Chrome extension that allows you to mirror content from a Chrome browser tab to the Chromecast. This works a little differently, because youre feeding the data that is being displayed on the television from your browser to the Chromecast dongle. It appears that the Chromecast takes the tabs data, but the content in the tab itself comes from the Internet and not your computer. In other words, it follows the URL path. This means that if youre playing local content in a browser tab, like a video on your hard drive, youre sending it from your computer to the Chromecast. This means you can basically put any site or service on TV with just the click of a button.

Chromecast is definitely a cheap solution to get content from the web to the television without any wires or hassle.