I don't get it. I have an HTPC, and I watch Youtube on it all the time. I will often pause what I am watching to look something up related to the video I am watching. I don't have a personal phone as I get by fine with my work phone. It's a blackberry, so not compatible anyway. Also, when watching TV, its with the family, and we all are interested in what we look up. As far as I know, this only does some video, and doesn't send web pages to the screen. Yes, it's $35, but it's pretty limited from what I can see.
This is a different strategy. The idea here is to not make the tv the UI/smart device. Instead, the phone or whatever else is the UI/smart device. The TV remains a dumb display. Personally, I think it's a better strategy. We'll see what happens.
It's limited compared to what you can already do, but that's because you have a HTPC. Same for people who have a Google TV device, an Apple TV device, a Roku or whatever media box or media center plugged in to their TV. To you and me, who don't mind learning how to use a media center device, this doesn't really change anything.
The Chromecast is a device for your mom; something where she can just take her iPad and press "send to TV" and it appears on her TV.
I don't have much interest in this and was just skimming over the comments but I have to thank you -- your comment got my attention.
My mother (on the complete opposite end of the "techie" spectrum from me) watches soap operas on her iPad every few days while laying in bed. I'm certain she'd much rather watch them on the huge TV across the room instead.
> The Chromecast is a device for your mom; something where she can just take her iPad and press "send to TV" and it appears on her TV.
I was trying to figure out what I'd use this device for and you've answered that question for me. I'm ordering one of these for mom.
I realise it's twice the price, but an Apple TV will be much simpler to use, and will work with almost all apps on her iPad that play video (and audio). That includes all the built-in apps and nearly all store-bought apps.
There's a strong possibility your mother's soaps are being played in a way that's unsupported by the Chromecast.
> I realise it's twice the price, but an Apple TV will be much simpler to use
But it's made by Apple and will require you to install iTunes and iCloud on everything you own and it will only work if you throw away all the equipment you already own and replace them with Apple-made devices.
That's potentially quite a grab of money.
But that's just the smallest cost: The only reason ever to buy Apple is if you're willing to go all in. Choosing Apple is trading away your freedom. And as a guy who likes having options, that's a cost I will never be willing to pay.
I bought the iPad for her this last Christmas. She has yet to "install iTunes and iCloud on everything [she] owns" and is getting along just fine.
(Side note: I'm an open source zealot, my e-mail address ends in @gnu.org, and my primary laptop runs Debian GNU/Linux. I also own a MacBook Pro and an iPhone. I like having options too.)
But to use an Apple TV to play or display anything from your network, you will need to publish it via a "iTunes library".
This will require you to install iTunes. If on Windows, iTunes will completely hijack your machine, steal all file-associations and if you're lucky (like I was) completely molest all ID3-tags when attempting to clean up music-metadata, meaning the only "good" copy left of my music's meta-data was the iTunes library. How convenient is that for Apple, eh?
I had to manually go and tag 10000+ MP3s to make them usuable again outside iTunes. But I did that, because to me, choice matters.
If I need to go through that shit again to get an Apple TV to work.... Yeah. Not happening. Ever.
Fuck that shit. I don't say that often on hacker news, but seriously: Fuck that shit.
the easiest answer I've come up with is that yes... WE have been doing this for quite some time. I have several devices I can push to including an HTPC that requires more finagiling than it should.
This takes those this us media geeks have been doing for years and empowers those that don't want to deal with the early adopter hassles and makes it just work.
Not to mention the end result is more attractive and usable.
