This web page was created programmatically, to learn the article in its authentic location you’ll be able to go to the hyperlink bellow:
https://www.tomsguide.com/tvs/13-years-ago-today-the-usd35-chromecast-changed-tv-forever
and if you wish to take away this text from our website please contact us
It’s exhausting to recollect a time earlier than the Cast icon. It’s solely been 13 for the reason that debut of the Google Chromecast, however it’s probably the most universally identified icons on the planet of tech. It’s so ubiquitous that you would be able to’t go quite a lot of minutes with out seeing the emblem on a smartphone or pill.
I watched the rise — and inevitable fall — of the Chromecast during the last decade-and-a-half as Tom’s Guide’s Managing Editor and TechRadar’s Senior TV Editor, and to commemorate its thirteenth birthday I’m throwing collectively a brief retrospective on the machine.
While it hasn’t lived on in its authentic kind, Chromecast has left a legacy — and a know-how platform — that continues to thrive on trendy sensible TVs. Here’s what you have to know (and what I can bear in mind) concerning the streaming dongle that modified the tech panorama without end.
The origins of the Chromecast
The Chromecast wasn’t the primary streaming stick in the marketplace. That honor belongs to the Roku Streaming Stick that was released in 2012. But the Chromecast wasn’t trying to be just another player — in fact, not being a player at all is what made it so different.
In fact, not being a player at all is what made it so different.
The original Chromecast, by design, didn’t have a UI. It was simply a tool that could accept incoming links from a phone or tablet living on the same wireless network. With no remote, Google could sell this innocuous-looking piece of cutting-edge technology for just $35.
And sell it did — the first batch of models was snapped up by Google devotees.
According to an excellent write-up from Fast Company in 2019, Chromecast is the brainchild of Google’s Majd Bakar. Apparently the story goes that then-product supervisor Rishi Chandra’s spouse and Majd Bakar’s spouse would sit in entrance of their TVs with laptops watching YouTube movies. When requested why they didn’t simply play them on the TV as an alternative, Chandra’s spouse mentioned “It’s just too much of a pain.” Bakar, a Google engineer on the time, and Chandra then set off to make what would change into the Chromecast in 2012, first as a facet undertaking, however later as a full-time job.
The evolution of the Chromecast
Reviewers (our personal Marshall Honorof included) favored the shape issue, however had qualms about its usability.
Google thankfully didn’t let a few critical reviews stop it from innovating on the product: We got the Chromecast 2 with a circular design in 2015 alongside the ill-fated Chromecast Audio and my personal favorite, the Chromecast Ultra, in 2016.
In my review for TechRadar, I referred to as the Chromecast Ultra “exceptionally smart, powerful and fast” and “hard to find a device that offers as much as Chromecast Ultra for the price.”
The period of the sensible TV had begun, and with its dawning, the necessity for a devoted sensible streaming stick had dissipated.
By this time the Chromecast Ultra was beneath siege on all sides from each cheaper streaming sticks just like the newly launched Amazon Fire TV Stick and extra competent high-end units just like the Apple TV HD.
Google would finally hearth again with a third-generation Chromecast in 2018 and the rectangular Chromecast with Google TV in 2020, however by this time streaming sticks had been out of vogue. The period of the sensible TV had begun, and with its dawning, the necessity for a devoted sensible streaming stick had dissipated.
The legacy of the Chromecast
Google lastly killed off the Chromecast line in 2024 and whereas the {hardware} could now not be in manufacturing, its software program lives on: Google was so profitable within the creation of Google Cast, the wi-fi communication protocol for the Chromecast, that we’re nonetheless utilizing the performance 13 years later in trendy sensible TV platforms.
In 2026, nearly each main sensible TV platform comes with Google Cast performance inbuilt. (One of the final holdouts, Samsung, formally added it to its Tizen sensible TV platform earlier this 12 months.) You can nonetheless discover a couple of outliers like Roku OS and Amazon’s Fire TV platform that don’t assist it however, by and enormous, Google Cast is now the common display sharing normal. That is a monumental legacy for a $35 streaming stick to go away behind.
By and enormous, Google Cast is now the common display sharing normal. That is a monumental legacy for a $35 streaming stick to go away behind.
As for what comes subsequent for Google’s TV division, it’s exhausting to say. The firm launched the Google TV Streamer 4K, a more expensive competitor to the Roku Ultra, in 2024, but it’s yet to see the same level of adoption as the Chromecast did a decade ago.
While it’s sad that we’ll likely never see another one, the legacy the Chromecast leaves behind cements it as one of the best streaming devices ever made.
Follow Tom’s Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date information, evaluation, and critiques in your feeds.
More from Tom’s Guide
This web page was created programmatically, to learn the article in its authentic location you’ll be able to go to the hyperlink bellow:
https://www.tomsguide.com/tvs/13-years-ago-today-the-usd35-chromecast-changed-tv-forever
and if you wish to take away this text from our website please contact us
