Google's Chromecast just keeps getting better, for the same price
A new design, new hardware, and all-new features in the Chromecast app.
Among the phones and tablets unveiled at Google's Fall 2015 event in San Francisco last night was the ever popular Chromecast device. Chromecast is, at it's core, a device that lets you stream video from your smartphone or tablet to your television over WiFi. Chromecast has a new design, ostensibly to help it plug into TVs with crowded ports. It's more of a round disk now, with an integrated HDMI cable, so you don't have to worry about losing parts. It's also available in three colours; Black, Lemonade and Coral, despite the fact the it's supposed to sit behind your TV and ostensibly remain invisible. But, to each his own I suppose. There's also new hardware on board with the new 802.11ac 5GHz WiFi support with three efficient antennas that select the best radio frequency for optimal video streaming performance. There's also been a few tweaks to the Chromecast app, making it more intuitive. A new "What's On" tab shows you what videos are trending on YouTube, as well as which apps on your phone are streaming content right now. There's also a new "Devices" tab, that lets you pick which which device you're streaming to and use your smartphone as the remote. But most important among the new features is Fast Play. It not only loads your streaming apps that much quicker on your large screen, but also pre-fetches content. Basically, when you're watching an episode of your favourite show on, say, Netflix, the app will buffer the next episode as you watch, letting you jump right in as soon as you're ready.