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Google's Nexus Player officially hits the UK on March 26th for £80
Google successfully invaded living rooms everywhere with its simple and cheap Chromecast dongle, and late last year announced its next product bound to the big screen: the Nexus Player. Running the TV-friendly version of Android OS, it does everything the Chromecast can and more, being a dedicated set-top box that doesn't require other devices to control it. With a nifty voice search feature and second job as an Android mini-console when paired with the gamepad accessory, it's Google's attempt to take on the Rokus, Apple TVs and Fire TVs of this world (the latter also having console functionality). And after a few months of being available stateside, it appears to be officially launching in the UK on March 26th for the agreeable price of £80.
Google Cast will soon send music to your networked speakers
Google's casting support has been great if you've wanted to send your phone's videos to your TV, but what about putting music on your speakers? You'll get that option soon. Google has just unveiled Cast for audio, a new spin on the technology that lets you send tunes to networked speakers and receivers. As before, you'll just have to tap a button in a compatible Android, iOS or web app (Google Play Music, Pandora and Rdio are some of the early examples) to get the party started. The audio device itself handles the streaming, so you don't have to leave your mobile gear turned on while you enjoy an hours-long playlist.
Android TV is Google's latest shot at entertainment glory (hands-on)
For Android, smartphones and tablets are only the beginning. Google believes that there are so many other categories of hardware that could benefit from its mobile OS, so it announced that it's building extensions of Android onto the TV, car and smartwatch. Each genre will require special hardware to be truly beneficial, but the former may have the greatest potential in terms of reach -- after all, more people are looking for a solid television-watching experience than putting a "computer" on their wrist, and it's going to be a long time before Android Auto goes mainstream. Sadly, TV is also an area that Google has struggled with in the past (see Google TV), so it's hoping that lightning will strike with its latest effort, called Android TV. We had a chance to check out the company's first official piece of hardware, simply called the ADT-1. Since it's a developer kit, you won't be able to buy it -- but that won't be an issue once manufacturers begin selling their consumer-facing devices later this fall. Naturally, the version we checked out is considered pre-production, so a lot of things will likely change between now and its final release, but at least we have a good idea of what to expect from the experience.
Google targets Amazon's and Apple's set-top boxes with Android TV platform
Google's already well-acquainted with the living room, having launched its Google TV platform at the I/O conference four years ago. It's safe to say the set-top box software has fallen out of favor (with all but Sony, anyway), and Google's been experiencing more success of late with its simpler Chromecast dongle. Well, today the search giant's revealing its next play in home entertainment with Android TV, a brand-new platform that's part of Android L, and it's bringing Google's OS back to the big screen.
Chromecast update breaks local media streaming in third-party apps (updated)
We hope you aren't depending on your Chromecast for local media playback. If you are, the device has just become a paperweight -- temporarily, at least. Google's most recent Chromecast update disables playback from external video sources, breaking third-party apps like AllCast and Fling that use the code for local-only streaming. Developer Leon Nicholls is hopeful that functionality will return when the official Cast SDK is ready for public apps, although we wouldn't count on it. As Android Central notes, Google isn't promising local media support on the Chromecast; for now, it's focused on the cloud. Update: In a statement mentioned by dnengel84 in the comments and posted by The Verge, Google says that it's willing to support local content; these are "early days" for the SDK, and the feature set is likely to change. Read the full statement after the break.
Hands-on with the Google Chromecast
The backordered TUAW Chromecast finally arrived yesterday evening from Google. We apologize for the delay in this write-up, but we simply didn't have a unit to test with. I felt, that for the sake of celebrating our native blog culture, I had to give it a proper unboxing. The Chromecast ships in a rather nice box, with the cast unit on top and the power cord and "bits" underneath. An internal flap offered getting started directions, while a firm plastic insert held the dongle itself. While not quite Apple-level of packaging (and despite a rather odd smell that pervades the box), the packaging was clean and professional. Getting the $35 unit working involved several quick and easy steps. First, I plugged the dongle into a HDMI port. Google provides a small HDMI extension cord -- and I mean small, perhaps 3" long -- in the box. Use this if you need to keep plugging and unplugging your dongle on a regular basis, so you can travel with it. The cord provides an easier access point, especially when reaching around the back of large television sets. Next, I plugged the unit into power. You must supply that power through a micro-USB port, the standard these days for many devices especially in Europe. Google provided an in-box wall plug for this, but I tested as well with a USB hub and with a portable battery pack. In fact, the reason I ended up using these workarounds is that in the heavily tech area of my office, I experienced major interference when using the plug. Switching to battery or hub cleared up the reception immediately. Testing on our family TV, which is where I performed the initial setup and exploration, offered no similar charger issues. It was only when I brought the unit down to explore iOS development that I encountered problems. I'm using a standard USB 3 hub to power the now office-based Chromecast. You must, of course, switch your TV input to the dongle's active HDMI port to begin setup. There you're greeted by a screen prompting you to connect to google.com/chromecast/setup. I did this on my Mountain Lion Mac, downloading both a standalone Chromecast configuration app and a Chrome browser specific plugin. I had to confirm a 4-character connection code, as you might with a Bluetooth connection, provide my SSID and password details, and was quickly ready to rock and roll. I honestly am not quite sure how the unit was able to announce itself and connect without using my Wi-Fi network, which is password protected. The Wi-Fi setup was the last part of the setup and my upstairs TV was well out of what I consider normal Bluetooth range when communication first began. It's a mystery that I'd love to unravel. [Update: Commenter SaintNicster unpacks this process for us. "The Chromecast, when first initialized, creates an ad-hoc WiFi network with the device you're using for setup. The setup process breaks the current WiFi session temporarily and then connects to the Chromecast. The setup then copies the previous WiFi information and sends that to the device. Once it has this information, the ad-hoc network is disabled and it reconnects to the normal WiFi." Thanks!] In all, the entire setup process took maybe a few minutes. It was really quick and very easy to get through to the "ready to cast" screen that greets you. As an OS X user, you'll want to work in the Chrome browser, for which I installed a Cast extension. After adding this, a Cast button appears at the top-right of every browser page. This button lets you select a Chromecast unit (yes, ours is called "Maisy"; my son picked the name), choose playback options and reach a help menu. The in-browser options are pretty simple. This is where you choose a projection quality and enable or disable fullscreen zoom and browser resizing. As you cast, your active Chrome browser tab mirrors to the Chromecast unit, appearing on the connected TV. You switch tabs or end casting using the browser pop-up. I found this feature to be occasionally buggy (yes, it's a beta). I found that when Chrome is experiencing too many yellow warnings for this pop-up, you can try quitting and restarting the browser and unplugging/replugging the dongle. When working properly, the Stop casting and Cast buttons apply instantly. At times, you do want to stop casting to reduce the load on your local Wi-Fi network. The Stop casting button enables you to do this. The Cast this tab button lets you switch between tabs without closing them. To test, I loaded up a variety of media including movies, music, and PDF documents into Chrome. They all played over quickly without issue and minimal delay. That said, if you cast over text, I recommend using the Extreme 720p high bitrate option. Without it, text looks unacceptably jaggy, especially when displayed on large screens. Movies worked far better. My son happily watched Hotel Transylvania over Chromecast until bedtime. Since I casted a browser, the audio file I opened and played appeared as an embed. Similarly, when I visited Spotify, I had to watch the static web page. I'm pretty sure this isn't an ideal experience for my TV's screen health, assuming if I had kept listening over time as I did chores or used the treadmill. As I mentioned earlier, one of my first tasks involved creating a custom iOS app to play to my Chromecast. I initially assumed I could use the Elgato EyeTV as I do with my Apple TV. EyeTV enables me to place the HDTV input side-by-side on my desktop with my dev work. For whatever reason, I could not get it to work with the Chromecast. EyeTV went into an infinite "adjusting to new mode" loop, attempting to display 1080p at 60fps, and never synced to or displayed the cast data. Although I tried down-streaming to 480p and up-streaming to 720p, I just couldn't get this to work. Instead, I ended up using my second monitor in normal TV mode. Although prettier than a squeezed and delayed EyeTV, this made it impossible to take direct screenshots of the device in action. The final piece of the OS X-based Chromecast puzzle is the standalone app that enables you to manage your devices from a single place. Here, you can set up Wi-Fi, name your Chromecast, set a time zone, force a reboot, and factory reset a Chromecast (for return to Google or resale). It's also where you find one-button access to download the Google Cast browser extension. To my surprise and delight, I discovered my iPhone was already cast-ready. The latest version of the YouTube app easily found and transmitted to my Chromecast. I was able to set up a not-for-distribution sample app using Xcode and the developer API and start sending data that way as well. After finding my unit's MAC address, I quickly discovered (courtesy of OS X command line port scanning) that it communicates on port 8008. That discovery led me to the Chromecast hacks community on Google plus. With several weeks head start, these (mostly Java) developers have been pushing the Chromecast's capabilities, mostly on Android. They've reversed the Remote Application Media Protocol (RAMP) used by the device to the point where they have custom apps running: Sample Java source code for general device access is now available on github. Hopefully this will be quickly ported to standard C, enabling Mac-based casting. I'm particularly excited about potential VLC extensions. On the iOS side of things, now that I have an actual device to work with, it will be interesting to explore (time permitting!) how to push development beyond the grab-and-send-a-URL point I"m currently at. From a consumer-only point of view, for just 35 dollars, I found the Chromecast to be a really nice receiver solution for our family. I plan to use it extensively with my Mac/EyeTV setup. Instead of having to watch my recordings on the Mac in my office, I can now transmit those through the Chrome browser up to our (much nicer) HDTV. I can also see this being used for travel, as I mentioned in an earlier post. The video transmission quality was excellent, except when eldest daughter decided to start watching Crunchyroll episodes simultaneously over the same Wi-Fi network. A bit of shouting and bribery helped us negotiate those waters. Unlike Apple TV, Chromecast does not offer an Ethernet port. While we could watch and transmit Amazon Prime videos from Chrome (we're not Netflix subscribers, which offers its own iOS app with built-in support) with their somewhat dubious transmission quality, we could not get iTunes rentals to play over without extreme hackery. (I will spare you the details of the hackery. Suffice it to say that it involved Apple TV, Eye TV, and a lot of time.) In the end, was it worth the $35? Yes. Will I keep using this device past the review period? Yes. Is it as good as Apple TV? It's not a real competitor, and it fills its own niche quite nicely. The Chromecast extends desktop media playback to an external HDTV and it does that well.
Adventures in Google Cast development: Day 1
Google's developer preview SDK for Google Cast -- the streaming technology that's powering the Chromecast hardware -- is up and running. It looks like adding Google Cast support will be ridiculously easy with little coding overhead for anyone who wants to jump on the bandwagon. Although the Chromecast stick we ordered here at TUAW will take a couple of weeks (at least) to arrive, the iOS SDK is already live and an iOS-specific project can be found over at Github. It consists of an app that more or less runs (you may want to comment out the bits about the playProgressSlider) and transmits arbitrary media to a Chromecast receiver. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, you can't immediately use the receiver HTML on your local network to test transmission. Google writes in its Xcode README: Getting Whitelisted: App IDs and receiver location. You will have to be whitelisted as a developer before you can specify your own App ID and receiver URL, or test the included receiver. For whitelisting instructions, see https://developers.google.com/cast/whitelisting. You send along details about your testing device for whitelisting for your app. In all, it's a bit disappointing that you can't just simulate a receiver for immediate development and testing -- assuming I'm reading all the pages correctly -- without whitelisting a receiver URL and an app. Once you have a receiver URL set up and whitelisted for an app, you can use the receiver.html code included with the sample. I'd been hoping you could just use the built-in OS X Apache server without all the fuss and bother. The sample is remarkably simple even if it is a bit hard to read. You start listening for a device. If one is found, you establish a media protocol message stream; that is, you begin talking to the device. You point the media content to a URL and set yourself to listen for updates. At any point, you can push request like pause and play to the device or listen for status updates from the device using a delegate protocol. You can learn more about Google's developer preview at the Google Cast site. Fun facts: Google Cast uses SSDP for device discovery. Details are in the GCKDevice.h header file. You receive notifications as device appear online or disappear. You can buy an inexpensive router if your Wi-Fi reception is iffy. This one is cheap and reasonably well reviewed. You should also be able to create a network if you have a Mac along with you.
Why Chromecast may be cool after all
Today, in the TUAW backchannels, we've been discussing Chromecast, Google's sub-$40 streaming dongle for television sets. I like the idea and will probably buy one. If I'm understanding the early publicity correctly, Google has two really strong use cases, but I don't think it's any kind of "competitor" to Apple TV. It's another thing entirely. The real draw for Apple TV isn't mirroring. Sure it mirrors, and sure you can stream data out to it, but you do so with a lot of DRM issues -- with the motion picture and recording industries hovering over your shoulder and making sure you behave. (That's probably a big reason why Google isn't open-sourcing their SDK.) No, the reason people use Apple TV is the content. The draw is Netflix. The draw is Apple special events. The draw is music and slideshows. The draw is any of the other subscription services that let people like Dave Caolo watch baseball. You don't have to bring your phone to ship over compelling material, you just sit on your couch and watch. The Chromecast supports a few services pushed from mobile devices now, like Netflix (although the free ride is over already). Over time, more apps will appear, and one thing they'll all have in common is the device-to-dongle WiFi transmission. Chromecast does not provide a native interface the way the Apple TV does. While content streaming makes sense for some things -- presentations, sharing photos, etc. -- it's not always the best for high bandwidth TV shows and movies. That's why Apple TV comes with an Ethernet port and onboard services that let you catch up without having to mess around with your cell phone or tablet. Admittedly, some of the best things about AirPlay involve game playing, but in my experience -- and that of the devs I consulted with -- it's an extremely minor part of the marketplace, at least at this time. (Ask me again in the fall, when we start to see some of those custom controllers working with phones and iPads.) So where do I expect Chromecast to succeed? For travel -- both business and personal. First, I think it's just dandy for anyone who has business meetings. It is a small, inexpensive dongle without a lot of cords or overheads -- besides the power cords never shown in the promo photos. Still, it will be a mostly trivial affair to pull out your Android or iOS phone and get to presenting, especially with business-supplied Wi-Fi (or, in a pinch, with your own pocket router). I think that's a ridiculously strong and appropriate use of the system. [Note that not all business or enterprise WiFi networks are particularly Apple TV-friendly, depending on their security and routing configurations. It's yet to be seen if Chromecast will be subject to the same networking hurdles, but in the meantime bringing your own router or a 4G hotspot when working with either technology is a good safety net, as is an old-fashioned VGA or HDMI adapter. –Ed.] Second, for low-bandwidth (!) movies and TV shows and music, say when visiting a hotel and watching content from your phone or tablet? I can't see how that's going to be a bad thing at all. (Assuming the hotel offers an HDMI input on its TVs, of course.) I know I'm going way out on a limb here, but I could really see Apple following suit on this, offering an Apple TV 2 Go dongle. The idea of extending AirPlay to a dongle? I just really love that concept. I'm not sure how good or bad Chromecast will be, but I get why Google wants to go there.
Are you an iOS developer eyeing the Chromecast? You better ask permission first
Yesterday's announcement of Google's new Chromecast accessory could mean big things for iOS developers who want to throw their content on to the big screen without worrying about wires, but tucked away in Google's developer portal is a rather interesting note regarding the Google Cast API required to make an app compatible with the new device: You may not publicly distribute or ship your Google Cast application without written permission from Google, per the terms of service described below. This opaque requirement for Chromecast-enabled apps stands in stark contrast to Google's much more lax approach to open app development, and it's not particularly clear what type of content Google is hoping to filter out. If you happen to be working on making your own iOS app play nice with Chromecast, you'll want to get in touch with Google at chromecast-updates@google.com. Note: Google has since updated the Google Cast Downloads page to include notes regarding the Google Cask SDK, stating that the current version available for download is strictly for developmental purposes only. This may or may not explain the requirement that developers clear all apps with Google before moving forward. We've reached out to Google for clarification and will update if/when we hear back.
Google letting developers in on the Chromecast action with Google Cast SDK
Now that Google has let its $35 Chromecast HDMI dongle out of the bag at its breakfast press event, it's gonna need developers to chip in some apps for it. To help boost that effort, the company is releasing the Google Cast SDK to help those folks bring content from mobile and the web to TVs. By using the kit, developers won't need to build new applications for the big screen from scratch; they'll just need to make a few tweaks to their existing mobile apps. Mountain View expects Google Cast tech to be embedded in future hardware from its partners, with Chromecast being "the first instantiation" of such an ecosystem. You can now grab a preview (at the source) for iOS, Android and Chrome -- which is good news, since the wee dongle already appears to be sold out on Play.
