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Google is discontinuing the Chromecast line
(www.theverge.com)
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this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2024
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They're replacing it with a very similar product. Nothing to see here.
A more expensive, clunkier product, with a bunch of needless fluff in it.
Enshitification 101
You mean twice the ram (1 gig more than the shield), 4 times the storage (32 gigs), and a better remote (chirping find my remote feature, programmable button, and less shitty volume buttons)?
Yep. Sure sounds worse considering it also supports all the same features of the chromecast 4k and AV1 decoding.
My Chromecast has no storage and no remote. It's fine.
Cool. Keep using it.
until they decide that their new device needs more sales, so they depricate the protocol and you can't use it anymore
Deprecate the casting protocol? Sure Jan. The new device still supports casting.
They killed support for the first gen Chromecast and the YouTube "app" has been broken for 3+ years. They'll just stop supporting it one day and you'll have to buy a new one.
Oh no, my $40 device won't work after ELEVEN years. I'm being abused!
Truly a golden era
You haven't been paying attention to Google in the last few years, have you?
Chromecast ultras are already broken if you try to use your own DNS.
That's the only reason I had to replace my previous 2 steaming devices.
The streaming backend got updated and the app in my device no longer supported it. And there was no updated app made available for that device.
Until services stop supporting it.
None of which changes the fact that it's more expensive and clunkier, and none of which feels necessary.
I don't need any of that. I just need a cheap dongle that can run one app
Most of the appeal of the Chromecast is that it's a dongle you plug in once and never have to see again. It doesn't need high performance and 32 gigs of RAM. It needs to play video. That's its entire purpose. It's controlled by any phone on your wifi, it doesn't need a remote.
For most users, this is an expensive downgrade.
The remote was the biggest upgrade for me on the Ultra though. I always struggled to find my phone and do stuff on it just to watch some YouTube or Netflix videos. And the Kids don't even have a phone and they want to watch on the TV in the livingroom too sometimes. With the remote it's easy for everyone to use it without fiddling with the Phone.
My parents have the one without the remote and they basically never use it because my mom doesn't have a mobile phone and my dad newer has it with him, it's always not charged or in some other room.
And ethernet port!
Yes! I hadn't seen that highlighted anywhere in articles really, only saw it on the damn Google Store after looking just now.
Seems an all around solid update on the previous device.
Just gotta stick FLauncher, SmartTube, Jellyfin, and Stremio on it and it seems solid.
You can get an Ethernet adapter for the Chromecast
Regular Chromecast work perfectly as YouTube jukebox.
It's also twice the price of the Onn 4k Pro (Walmart house brand) that's built on the same chip and has the same features running the stock Google TV experience.
For which they will be able to offer subscriptions in a year or 2.
Now with AI!
I'm not sure why they didn't just call it the chrome cast gen whatever though.
So you could just ask it for anything and it could make it up?
"Google, show 'Ow! My Balls!'"
I wonder how far away we are from AI being able to create video on demand like that?
I think overall it'll never be able to create quality entertainment.
But Ow! My Balls! isn't quality entertainment. I'm sure it can create all kinds of clips of things smashing into groins for ultra low-brow entertainment. Probably today.
Similar product that costs 4 times as much and has AI features...
Like they do with messengers every couple of years.
Or music streaming apps.
Seemed monthly at one point 🤣
and before that they already replaced it with google tv with chromecast