Google has been trying to get into the living room for a few years now, but has yet to find much success in being the company behind what you watch on your television. That may be set to change now, however, with the launch of the Chromecast HDMI dongle.
It is about the size of a USB-stick and plugs into an HDMI port on your TV, and once there pairs with your Android, iOS, or Windows device letting you send the content you’re watching on your phone or tablet up to the big screen.
Out of the box the device will work with YouTube and Google Play (obviously), will also work with Netflix meaning you can watch those streams of Arrested Development on your TV now with ease. More services like music streaming app Pandora are reportedly already in the pipeline as well.
The major flaw in all internet enabled TVs to date has been the horrible user interface, and that you can only control it through the remote with numbers and up and down arrows. Terrible. With the Chromecast, you simply find the content you want to watch on your tablet or smartphone, and with the click of a button that content will appear on your TV.
The content is not being streamed from your device either, but streamed directly from source to the Chromecast dongle, meaning less delays and buffering, and also freeing your tablet or smartphone back up to use as your second screen or just browsing the web.
Best of all is that this little USB-connected dongle that will turn any HDMI tv set into a proper internet content streaming device will only cost around £25 when it launches in the UK. It is already available in the US where you can buy the Chromecast for just $35 on Amazon.com.