Google’s latest software release, the Chromebox, has finally arrived and its catalog of apps is growing. Initially limited to Google’s carefully selected partners – Youtube, Netflix, and Vevo – the company released a Chromecast Software Development Kit (SDK) allowing app developers much more scope. Now, Chromecast apps are saturating the marketplace and it makes the small HDMI dongle a much bigger potential influence on the home entertainment market.
The technology has been available for purchase in the US for some time now and it’s available from numerous retailers and manufacturers.
What is Chromebox?
Chromecast is a simple device that enables users to plug a streaming dongle into the HDMI port on their television. Effectively, the tool lets you access online media easily and quickly and users can watch video, access their music, photos and apps making their TV a big, bright and colorful internet-enabled device.
The service acts with a number of pre-existing apps, but there’s also the option of opening a Chrome tab allowing users to access any content they want from the internet. This may not seem that big of a deal, and users with smart TVs already have this feature, but Google’s Chromecast runs on an open platform.
This means that apps are designed for TV in general, rather than a specific make and model of TV.
Supporting More Video, Music and Photo Formats
The relatively new Chromecast received a recent update from Google. It can now support more video, music and photo formats and even has 5GHz Wi-Fi and new TV services. Due to the open SDK format, any developer can and will take advantage of Chromecasts almost untouched software. Apps can get Chromecast support through the addition of a simple line of code, meaning that the service will receive updates from both developers and Google.
With so many software developers adding their apps to the service it’s worth having a look at some of the best.
Play Snake
This may not be the most productive app to add to your Chromecast system, but for those looking for some nostalgia, this app gives you the opportunity to relive the Nokia 3310 days. Simply install the app and use your TV remote as the controller. Perhaps best of all the app costs very little, so take your chance and beat your decades old high score.
Beam a webpage
There’s a handy extension for Chromecast that’s still in beta. It’s promising however and it lets users beam the current tab or webpage from their desktop or portable computer to their TV screen. You can do it with one mouse click and as such, it’s an easy and useful app for presentations or just simply showing off some old photos.
It seems that the Chromecast has a marked emphasis on being wire free so the beam a webpage option really works hand-in-hand, and supports the ethos of, this new technology.
Tailored videos, just for you
The increasingly prevalent Stumbleupon has added its voice to the conversation in the form of an app. 5by is a video portal that works very much like Stumbleupon. Users simply inform it of preference, likes, dislikes and what they’re currently up to. 5by will then develop a personalized playlist for you containing loads of unusual and unique video content pulled from all over the internet.
This is a valid alternative to the standard TV channel-hopping experience and it’s a new take on an old format. However, now the TV channel form is tweaked and tailored just for the viewer based on the information they give it. It’s data exchange on the TV set and an exciting avenue for potential marketing and advertising efforts.
Draw on TV
There’s an arts package available for Chromecast users which works in relationship with your phone. Users draw on their phone screen and the work is reproduced on the TV screen. It’s a simple idea and one with plenty of different applications. Pictionary becomes a much easier family pastime and office meetings and the requisite presentations could be given with much less fuss.
Chromecast has a voice
Just like Apple’s Siri, Chromecast uses speech input and supports voice commands and responds in a synthetic female US accent. You can ask her for a news story and she’ll even read it back to you. It’s a good addition to the service but it’s not quite good enough yet. Ideally, there will be some sort of application for speech dictation making your TV just as productive as your laptop.
There are loads more apps and even more being developed, ensuring that Chromecast is a technology worth adopting. Currently it can be a bit hard to navigate the Google Play store, but the developer community has a solution in the form of Cast Store. This provides a directory of Chromecast apps and at the moment there are 80 available, and this number is rising.
More and more Americans are beginning to cancel cable, thanks to the swiftly emerging Pay TV market. Which will you choose to combine to give you the best that global TV has to offer?
William Thompson
William Thompson is the Marketing Manager at Power Admin, a server monitoring software business in the Kansas City area. You can find him on Google+ and Twitter. William has been a professional in website design, digital marketing and 3D/graphic design for over 20 years.