Because every company with even just a three-legged rat in the copyright race basically just shotgun sprays Google for takedown requests these days, Microsoft accidentally but very hilariously asked Google to censor… Microsoft.com. That’s got to be even worse than HBO giving Google a takedown request for VLC
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In science fiction movies, imagined futures and alternate environments become real places populated by humans. But even an existing cityscape becomes a fantastic spectacle in the hands of a talented director, which is why many of these films used real, existing architecture.
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Control Edward Snowden
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Google Chromecast was a surprise addition to the company’s range of own-brand hardware, a $35 streaming stick that, wounds licked after the Google TV and Nexus Q fiascos, promises a cheap and simple way to get browser and streaming content on your big-screen TV. So instantly popular as to sell out online in minutes, and already commanding premium pricing on eBay, the Chromecast could be third time lucky to get Google into the living room. Does it deserve the hype, however? Read on for the full SlashGear review.
Where Google TV left industrial design to hardware partners like ASUS, and the Nexus Q was a beautifully over-engineered orb of US manufactured aluminum, the Chromecast is an altogether more modest affair. A sturdy, if uninspiring, black plastic dongle that looks like an oversized USB key, its stunted lollipop shape has an HDMI plug on one end and a microUSB port on the other, the latter next to a button that’s the only physical control on the device.
In the box you get a short HDMI extender cable – more to accommodate low-profile HDMI ports that don’t leave space for the body of the Chromecast – along with a long USB cord and an AC adapter. You can power the dongle either from that adapter or, if you’ve got a TV with a spare USB port, from there instead.
From then on it’s pretty much hands-off from the hardware, unless you need to move it to another set (the power supply adds a little fuss, but you could still easily dump the whole thing in your bag when you’re traveling). Connectivity is via WiFi b/g/n though only using 2.4GHz, which is a missed opportunity since we’ve had better video streaming results with 5GHz networks generally.
Inside, you’re effectively looking at an Android phone, albeit a low-powered one. A Marvell chipset is its beating heart, paired with 512MB of memory and 2GB of storage, while wireless options include Bluetooth and FM alongside the WiFi, though they’re not currently implemented.
Actually hooking the Chromecast up to your WiFi network is done with the free app Google offers for Android, PC, and Mac. Beyond that, though, all control over media playback is done either within your browser (Chrome only, unsurprisingly) or through the streaming apps which support Google’s Chromecast standard; there are no “master remote” media controls in the setup app itself.
In use, the Chromecast basically offers two ways to get content onto your TV: from apps that support it directly, or by “Casting” content from the Chrome browser. So far, only three titles actually fall into the former category – Netflix, YouTube, and Google Play – though the solid experience they deliver leaves us hopeful that more will follow.
Effectively, you use your Android or iOS device (the Netflix and YouTube apps for iPhone and iPad support Chromecast, just like their Android counterparts) as a remote control and browsing pane, while the Chromecast dongle handles the video. Sifting through the catalogs of content, hitting the “Cast” button, and then choosing which Chromecast you want to stream to hands over playback duties, leaving your device free for more browsing, building a playlist of YouTube clips, or even switching to other apps or off altogether.
Just as with the communal playlist vision the Nexus Q proposed, more than one device can line up content in YouTube using the “Add to TV Queue” feature. In fact, any device with Chromecast support on the same network as the dongle can send video to it; there’s no way of limiting who can send what, and to which display if you’ve got more than one Chromecast.
It works well, for the most part. We had a couple of glitches at times, but 720p video streamed cleanly and there’s the option for 480p or 1080p depending on what headroom your network has. Switching between Netflix, YouTube, and Google Play takes a couple of seconds, no more frustrating than regular source-jumping on your TV.
The other option is more buggy, but arguably more interesting. A new Chromecast plugin for Chrome on PC, Mac, and Chromebook allows you to stream whatever is in the browser (or, alternatively, mirror your whole display) onto your TV. Just as with the dedicated Cast button in the apps, clicking the extension opens up a list of Chromecast dongles on the same network.
Google Chromecast demo:
Regular webpages look great – though you’ll likely get black bars if the aspect of the page doesn’t match with that of your TV – and there’s support for HMTL5 and Flash, though not Silverlight. It’s screen mirroring, rather than the independent streaming in the YouTube and Netflix apps, which means that if you navigate away in the Chrome tab you’ll also lose your big-screen playback.
However, it works well for most services yet to support native Chromecast streaming, and in fact thanks to Chrome’s support for playing local music and video files, also means you can quickly throw your own content over to the TV. Dragging and dropping media files into a browser tab opens them up on the Chromecast, with support for MP4, AVI, and MKV video and MP3 audio.
The downside is the reliance that all has on local processing. You need a machine with reasonable crunching power to encode the Chromecast stream, and if you’re on a Chromebook then it’ll really need to be the latest Pixel if you want anything more than a jittery mess. There’s always the option to step down to 480p, but it’s beta functionality and performs as such.
The world isn’t short on media streaming gadgets. Perhaps best known is the Apple TV, a $99 box to put not only iTunes content on your big-screen, but anything streamed from iOS or OS X using AirPlay. As a standard – and one baked in at OS level – AirPlay is more established than Chromecast, and it works with more apps and services, too, though you’ll have to be an Apple user since there’s no official AirPlay support for any other platform.
If it’s Netflix streaming you want, there are various boxes from Roku, Netgear, WD, and others. Most competitive on cost and 1080p streaming support is probably the Netgear NeoTV with a street price of $39, though you don’t get screen sharing with that; models with support for Intel’s WiDi screen-mirroring are available, but can be double the Chromecast’s price.
Google TV stagnated. The Nexus Q was (sensibly) axed before it had a proper launch. With the Chromecast, though, it’s hard not to be swayed. Yes, only a few native apps have Cast options yet, but the Chromecast is just $35. True, the browser integration can be unstable at times, but the Chromecast is just $35. The whole streaming system might be naive in places, but – in case you’ve forgotten – the Chromecast is just $35.
If you’re hoping to get your online content onto your TV, without stringing cables or splashing out on a digital media player (or, even more expensive, a home theater PC), then the Chromecast is one of the easiest ways to do it. It’ll take Google persuading developers and content providers to adopt its cross-platform streaming standard to push it into the mainstream, but even in day-one form the Chromecast has us convinced.
Google Chromecast Review is written by Vincent Nguyen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Calm yourself, Breaking Bad isn’t back yet (that will be in next week’s listing for August 11th), but football fans can look forward to the beginning of the preseason. The Cowboys and Dolphins kick things off with the Hall of Fame game Sunday night on NBC, while Discovery Channel begins its usual celebration of Shark Week and Star Trek The Next Generation season four comes to Blu-ray. Look after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Kickstarter success Vaavud is a thing of beauty. Created by a Danish team of enterprising inventors, it plugs into your iPhone or Android device’s headphone jack and connects with an app to tell you the current wind speed. It uses no power, and actually talks wirelessly to your phone via the built-in magnetic field sensor that ships with modern smartphones.
The Vaavud is shipping as of July 30, and goes on sale at bitemyapple, Grand St. and other fine purveyors of gadgets and gizmos, but I got a chance to test one out early. The Vaavud blew through its tests in fact (see what I did there?) and definitely told me how fast the wind outside was, or how effectively I was blowing on the thing when trying it out for my own amusement indoors. Which I did plenty, because it’s very fun.
The Vaavud ships with an internal mechanism that works with most smartphones out of the box, and a kit to change it over to handle the Samsung Galaxy S2, which requires a slightly different design. It also comes with a soft carrying pouch complete with carabiner, since this thing is designed to be carted with you as you scale mountains or brave rapids.
You can use the Vaavud with the app created by the company itself, but third-party apps are also supported, starting with the first to leverage the API, Weendy. That app is about crowdsourcing weather conditions, and draws from people using Vaavud around the world to build wind speed profiles of locales. It’s the perfect integration, but as Vaavud is pretty niche, don’t go expecting a lot of that data to pop up for most spots just yet.
Data seems to be accurate, but it’s hard to compare as I don’t have any other kind of wind meter technology nearby to compare it to. The charts produced by the native Vaavud app are attractive and easy to read, and the fact that no batteries are required is pretty awesome in terms of using it in outdoor and remote locales where it’s probably most useful. At €40.00 (roughly $61 U.S.) it’s a little pricey for a novelty, but anyone conducting environmental research or just really keen on weather will definitely get a kick out of it.
A lot of Kickstarter projects, both successful and not, aim at a particular niche; it’s part of the reason they aren’t good candidates for traditional funding channels. The Vaavud is likely going to appeal to a small segment of the population, but unlike most Kickstarter projects, it’s smartly executed, well-built and elegantly designed. If you think you need a Vaavud, don’t hesitate to go ahead and get one.
It looks like Spotify is about to launch an entirely new way for you to browse its catalog with more sophisticated playlists. While the subscription music service hasn’t officially launched the features, they’re live on Spotify’s web player. If like a lot of people you get lost in Spotify’s catalog, you’re going to love what could be coming soon.
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Headphones come in all shapes and sizes, yet offer more or less the same functionality. The folks behind Muzik aim to change this, announcing the soon-to-be-available smart headphones that allow users to natively share the song they’re listening to on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere. This is the first of what will be a line of different wearable technology devices, says the company’s vice chairman John Cawley.
Unfortunately, not much was revealed in the way of specifications, with the announcement instead focusing on what Muzik offers that is different over other headphones on the market: Social Smartware functionality. As such, the headphones are being touted as the first-ever that allow listeners to share what they’re listening to on social networks from the device itself.
The company hints that the sharing functionality expands beyond just Facebook and Twitter, saying that in addition to sharing on those two networks, the headphones also allow users to “send a song anywhere in the world.” Furthermore, the Muzik website speaks of an Android and iOS app that “learns” while users listen to music.
As far as actual design goes, the headphones are over-the-ear and feature capacitive touch controls. Neither pricing nor a release date for the headphones have been released, but the company promises that a pre-order announcement will be made “shortly.” As for the actual launch, the device will hit shelves some time in the fourth quarter of this year.
Muzik President and CEO Jason Hardi said: “While the music industry has seen its challenges, technological advances have also created a world of opportunity, which Muzik is seizing to create an entirely new category. Headphones will never again just be for listening to music or talking on the phone – our headphones will improve the way we socially discover, share, listen and experience music. In addition to music exploration, I look forward to working with the developer community to create amazing applications leveraging smart headphones.”
SOURCE: Newswire
Muzik smart headphones let audiophiles share on Facebook and Twitter is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Will it put Nokia in the frame?
(Credit: Nokia/YouTube Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)
When someone is finally honest with you, it’s refreshing.
All these years, Apple and Samsung have been selling us phones that really aren’t phones at all.
We don’t make calls on them. We fiddle about on them like mini-computers.
Finally, Nokia has taken steps to admit that its new phone isn’t a phone. It’s a camera. A really, really good camera, at that.
In the launch ad for its new Lumia 1020, the company explains that Finns aren’t what they used to be.
No one does any phoning or texting or surfing the Web. The sole reason to buy this (hopefully) wonderful gadget is the camera.
In this ad, Nokia is trying to adopt the familiar pose of film directors when they’re trying to frame a shot with their fingers.
Related Links:
Windows Phone tweaks back Lumia 1020’s 41MP camera
Here’s why the Lumia 1020 is stuck on AT&T
Nokia Lumia 1020 pops up in AT&T inventory list
What’s old — and new — about the Nokia Lumia 1020’s camera
Nokia’s ‘reinvent zoom’ event: Join us at 8 a.m. PT Thursday (live blog)
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So one of these guys has a GS4. The other is dull and bald.
(Credit: Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)
Whenever you get on a plane, you always want to know what your phone seatmate’s got, don’t you?
You slide one eye across just to check whether they’re as tastefully forward as you are.
If it’s a phone you’re interested in — and your seatmate doesn’t smell so bad — you might ask about it. If it’s a BlackBerry, you go back to texting your lover that you miss her more than ten-color rainbows.
This is the encounter upon which Samsung has based its latest attempt to make iPhone users feel a touch inadequate.
Related Links:
Apple, Samsung’s latest phones face antitheft stress test
iPhone 5 trumped Galaxy S4 on user complaints at launch — study
Thief steals iPhones, leaves Samsung Galaxy
Cell phone buying guide
More work ahead in Apple, Samsung antitheft crack attack
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