Despite the soaring sales of smartphones and tablets, there is a big black box in your home that the big tech companies would love to get inside, and are struggling to do so.
With rumours of an Apple TV still swirling, Google today launch a simpler option for connecting your TV to parts of the web and it will only cost you US$35.
Chromecast, released only in the US at this stage, is a thumb-drive-sized dongle that plugs into the HDMI port of your TV and acts as the connecting point between your flat panel and whichever computer you have handy: be it a tablet, smartphone or laptop (PC or Mac).
Once connected, the dongle waits for a command to stream content from specific web-connected apps, including Chrome, YouTube and Netflix. You simply find what you want to watch and hit the 'stream' button to play it on the big screen.
Big screen, small computer
This works by having the dongle connect to the content itself using Wi-Fi and a modified version of the Chrome OS. Your other device, like your phone, is just a remote that points Chromecast to the content. After it begins playing, you can use your device for other things, and the content keeps playing on the TV, or you can control the content with the original device.
The big downside to this approach is that specific web applications will need to have Chromecast compatibility programmed in, similar to Apple's AirPlay. This definitely restricts which apps you can use it for now, though you can be sure Google will be chasing down big name developers to add in the functionality ASAP.
Chromecast is a long way short of Google's TV ambitions to be a one-stop hub for all sources of IPTV, but it is a great leap forward in making dumb TVs smart without breaking the bank.
Joseph Hanlon
Contributing Editor
Thousands of cell phone plans unpacked. All the facts. No surprises.
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