Posted on 07/31/2013 12:17:59 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Thinking of C-SPAN from their Archives.
*********************************
By Carol Kopp
Here’s what all the noise was about on Monday morning.
At Netflix headquarters, people were cheering. At the big cable companies , they were shaking in their boots. At Amazon , one executive might have been trying to explain what went wrong.
At Google , they were just quietly smiling.
It was all about a thumb-size, $35 gadget called Google Chromecast that came out last week with little fanfare, almost as an afterthought to the announcement of a new version of its Nexus 7 tablet.
It’s sold out already, with more stock due in three or four weeks.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Early reviews from a couple people I know who have them were favorable. It doesn’t do everything, but what it does do, it seems to do well.
I was thinking the same thing at first. I have three devices with smart tv apps loaded (TV, bluray, and Wii). But I also have unlimited 4g Internet on my phone which is enough to stream content most of the time; so I am thinking I may get this for convenience at home but also as a small portable device I could hook up to other people’s HDTV to stream content that I either subscribe to or have stored in the cloud.
It also might affect what streaming services I use. Looks like Redbox and Vudu will be on board shortly. Amazon Prime has not announced anything yet. But I can immagine carrying this thing over a friend’s or family member’s to watch a movie. They would not need to have a subscription to able to use the services I have.
Hmmm.....thanks
Well - I’m running it off an apple so I’m afraid I can’t help you much. I just plugged it in, it asked to download the app - which I did. Then when I want to use it I open the app, sign in on the website. It basically is a key to a website that has the content connected. Sorry I couldn’t help...
Thanks Ernest. This product looks like a cross between “me-too” and “solution in search of a problem”.
I thought I’d like the Boxee — but the setup was a POS, and the config interface was a POS, and the tuner wasn’t configurable unless the box was hooked into the www first. THAT was moronic. A quick search just now turned up two things, one, the company (or those assets anyway) were sold to Samsung; and two, there’s a gadget called SimpleTV that appears to offer a similar, cloud-based DVR thing.
I guess none of these companies has ever heard of Roku. My only bitch about any of the streaming boxes (including Roku) was and is, no digital tuner for local broadcast channels. And my bitch about Boxee was their incompetent approach to the idea.
Google Chromecast offers more questions than answers
http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/31/technology/innovation/google-chromecast/
And I was ready to get one and get going...
Man....what a thicket of ...STUFF!!
A roku with a tuner card built in. Oh yah, that would be very nice! And if they could have a neat little app for your smart phone to control the whole thing, it would even allow casual web surfing without a faux mouse and keyboard.
later.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.