Google’s Chromecast isn’t any extra. With Tuesday’s introduction of its successor, the corporate laid to relaxation the model that kicked off 11 years in the past with a novel product that helped transfer streaming onto the middle stage of dwelling leisure. With the Google TV Streamer taking the baton, it’s time to look again at 11 years of Chromecast.
Google’s casting-centric model arrived on July 24, 2013, with the first-generation Chromecast. The streaming stick plugged immediately right into a TV’s HDMI port and lacked a distant management. As an alternative, you fired up content material utilizing a cellular gadget or pc.
Most significantly, the revolutionary gizmo solely price $35. This was when an Apple TV set-top field began at $99, and app-laden televisions have been nowhere close to commonplace. Even Roku’s same-generation Streaming Stick, which landed a 12 months earlier, price $100. Oh, and it required a TV licensed as “Roku-ready.”
When confronted with pricier choices, it was onerous to withstand the Chromecast. And many individuals felt that approach: The stick rapidly bought out. And it hung round for longer than most tech merchandise, as the corporate solely retired it last year.
Engadget applauded the gadget. Our overview praised it as a wholehearted recommendation “for anybody who’s been searching for a simple, unobtrusive method to put some brains into their dumb TV.” The gadget was Google at its greatest: Innovating in a extremely accessible, inexpensive and device-agnostic approach.
What adopted have been years of iterations as rivals pushed out competing merchandise, and Google responded with extra fashionable options and redesigns.
The second-gen model from 2015 switched to a dongle type issue with a magnetized again and HDMI plug. The identical 12 months, Google launched a music-focused sister gadget, Chromecast Audio (with a vinyl record-inspired look). Chromecast Ultra, the primary stab at a higher-end mannequin, landed in 2016 with 4K streaming and Dolby Imaginative and prescient assist. A third-gen model adopted in 2018 with sooner speeds, Nest speaker integration… and never a lot else.
This decade, we noticed the awkwardly branded Chromecast with Google TV (4K) in 2020 — now with a distant!! — and the Chromecast with Google TV (HD) in 2022. In hindsight, the unusual naming may now be seen as the corporate’s first nudge towards a rebrand.
This brings us to immediately, as Google bids adieu to its streaming wunderkind—at the very least below its previous identify. The Google TV Streamer, with its sleek wedge shape and unique hazel color option, is taking up in a a lot completely different panorama than we noticed 11 years in the past.
The Chromecast, particularly that revolutionary first-generation mannequin, helped push us into the streaming-first world many people have lived in ever since. That’s very true when you think about its impression on rivals. Roku’s second-generation Streaming Stick from 2014 dropped from $99 to $50 and ditched its doomed “Roku Prepared TV” requirement. In the meantime, Amazon noticed a gap and launched a Fire TV Stick (additionally in 2014) that price $39.
With out that first Chromecast mannequin, it’s onerous to inform how that panorama might have appeared completely different within the following years.
It isn’t too late to dip your toes into the nostalgia pool and decide up a Chromecast, as Google says the previous gadgets will stay in the marketplace whereas provides final. Crucially, the corporate’s promise of safety updates and assist stays unchanged, so there’s no want to stress when you lately picked up one of many soon-to-be-extinct gadgets.
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