Showing posts with label Chromecast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chromecast. Show all posts
Thursday, 12 September 2013
Wednesday, 4 September 2013
Spotify Connect is like Chromecast for connected audio systems
Spotify is introducing a new cloud-based feature for premium subscribers designed to make it easy to start to play music on your mobile device, then push the stream to wireless home speakers, which will continue rocking even if you wander away with your phone—similar to the way Google's Chromecast works.
Called Spotify Connect, the new service is rolling out over the next few months to iOS devices as well as home audio systems from companies such as Argon, Bang & Olufsen, Denon, Hama, Marantz, Philips, Pioneer, Revo, Teufel, and Yamaha.
Think of Spotify Connect as a remote control for Spotify—a remote that lets you switch quickly between devices. You can, for example, start listening to a playlist on your iPhone, and then when you get home switch to listening on your home stereo or iPad.
The list of audio manufacturers pledged to support Spotify Connect. That may sound a lot like other services that let you share data and files between devices, such as Miracast or Apple’s AirPlay functionality. But instead of streaming music from your iPhone directly to a pair of speakers, Connect streams the music directly from Spotify's servers.
The company says its approach will help users save on battery life as well as cut down on interruptions to your Metallica listening sessions from phone calls or notification alerts.
When Spotify Connect lands on your device, you should see a green speaker icon next to the play controls inside the Spotify app. Tap it and a menu comes up with all the various devices that can receive your playlist—all devices must be logged in to the same account for Connect to work.
Spotify Connect is aimed at encouraging more users to pay $10 per month for Spotify instead of freeloading with the ad-supported service. In addition to Connect, Premium subscribers also get full access to their Spotify playlists on mobile devices (free users can only use the radio feature) and ad-free listening.
Spotify Connect certainly sounds interesting—assuming the audio manufacturers indeed release hardware to support it—but it will also be a fairly exclusive addition out of the gate.
Connect will also be absent from Android and PC desktops at first, with plans to add the new service to these platforms at a later date. Spotify did not specify exactly when Android users can expect to see Connect on their devices.
Also, while the roster of companies supporting Spotify Connect is vast, one notable audio hardware maker missing from that list is wireless system maker Sonos. Spotify wouldn’t comment on whether Sonos is coming, but Spotify did say that more hardware makers will be added in the future.
Spotify has certainly been busy this summer. Earlier this year, the service also released a number of new music discovery tools, includingBrowse and Discover.
Ian is an independent writer based in Tel Aviv, Israel. His current focus is on all things tech including mobile devices, desktop and laptop computers, software, social networks, Web apps, tech-related legislation and corporate tech news.
More by Ian Paul
Tuesday, 27 August 2013
Google blocks Chromecast app that streams local media files
You can stream a lot of content to a Chromecast dongle, but one thing you can’t do is stream your personal files from an Android device—and according to one developer, Google's actively working to keep it that way.
A beta version of an Android application called AllCast has lost the ability to stream content to Chromecast from Android apps such as the photo gallery, Dropbox, and Google Drive.
“Google's latest Chromecast update intentionally breaks AllCast,” said Android developer Koushik Dutta in a recent Google+ post. The company removed a developer option called “video_playback,” which as its name suggests, allowed any application to support video playback.
Dutta believes this is a sign that Google will not be friendly toward third-party developers of Chromecast apps compared to the relative openness Android developers enjoy on Google Play. “The Chromecast will probably not be indie developer friendly,” Dutta said in his post. “The Google TV team will likely only whitelist media companies.”
“We’re excited to bring more content to Chromecast and would like to support all types of apps, including those for local content,” Google said in a statement when we reached out to them for comment. “It’s still early days for the Google Cast SDK, which we just released in developer preview for early development and testing only. We expect that the SDK will continue to change before we launch out of developer preview, and want to provide a great experience for users and developers before making the SDK and additional apps more broadly available.”
Indeed, in its Chromecast developer documentation, Google says that all functionality is subject to change.
Regardless, Google certainly hasn’t made it easy for Chromecast users to stream their own video files to their TV—an obvious feature deficit. Competitors such as Apple TV already allow you to stream content from your PC or iOS device; however, Apple restricts video formats to h.264 and a specific type of MP4.
Many critics suspect that Google left out the ability to stream personal videos to make its new Web-meets-TV platform more attractive to movie and television studios concerned about piracy. Instead of buying approved content from Google Play or Amazon, the argument goes, users could just download a pirated copy of Sunday night’s Breaking Bad episode and send that to Chromecast.
If the speculation is accurate, it’s rather unfair to limit obvious functionality on Chromecast just to make sure Hollywood doesn’t get spooked, especially since Apple TV could broadcast pirated video to your TV right now. Plus, anyone with the technical know-how to download a pirated video (especially via torrents) likely figured out how to put that content on their TV long before Chromecast showed up.
If you’re absolutely dying to stream personal videos to your Chromecast, one workaround for now is to try casting from your PC. Our recent primer on seven Chromecast tips and tricks shows you how to easily access a PC’s file system from an open Chrome tab.
Updated at 11:23 a.m. PT with a comment from Google.
Ian is an independent writer based in Tel Aviv, Israel. His current focus is on all things tech including mobile devices, desktop and laptop computers, software, social networks, Web apps, tech-related legislation and corporate tech news.
More by Ian Paul
Thursday, 22 August 2013
Revamped YouTube apps rock playlists, movable videos, and Chromecast previews
YouTube is adding some new video-playing functions to its mobile app on both iOS and Android devices. Some of the tools are aimed at giving users more control over how they stream video to their television sets using Chromecast, Google's new video streaming device.
The changes are being rolled out officially starting Tuesday morning, Google-owned YouTube announced in a blog post. A smaller rollout among just a small percentage of users on Android took place on Monday, a YouTube spokesman said.
Chief among the changes is a new tool letting users swipe to move a video to the bottom of the device's screen and reduce its size so they can search for other content while the video still plays. The idea behind the feature is to bring more potential videos to users as they explore within the app, even if the smaller video doesn't command their full attention.
"You can watch a video about making the perfect fried chicken while searching for homemade salted caramel sauce recipes," said YouTube software engineers Matias Cudich and Waldemar Baraldi.
Google's $35 Chromecast. The new version of the app includes several other enhancements to change how it displays video and interacts with other devices like Chromecast. The YouTube app already has a "Cast" button to let people send videos from their smartphone or tablet to their TV through Chromecast, Google TV or PlayStation 3 console. With the updated app, there is a preview screen users will see when the app is connected to their TV.
With the preview, users will see a thumbnail of the video on their smartphone or tablet, allowing them to play it on their TV or add it to the queue, without changing the video that is already playing.
Google unveiled its $35 Chromecast device last month, as a cheaper alternative to competitive devices such as the Apple TV set-top box. Chromecast plugs into a television's HDMI port to let various types of video and music content be pushed to the television from users' smartphones, tablets or desktop computers.
The new version of the YouTube app also lets users search and browse channels for playlists. Previously, users could not search or watch playlists within the YouTube mobile app, a spokesman said.
Finally, the updated app features a cleaner, simpler look that will be seen in other apps from Google, YouTube said.
The last time YouTube received considerable changes on mobile was last year, when the iPhone 5 and iPad version of the app got an enhanced look. Last year the Android version also received some speed improvements and an improved interface for channels.
YouTube faces rising pressure to stay fresh and offer new features to users as the mobile video landscape expands. Twitter's Vine app and video on Instagram are two rivals both vying for attention from users.
To give people another option, YouTube's founders recently launched MixBit, a service designed to let users shoot, edit and stitch videos together coming from multiple sources.
Google speeds up Chromecast shipments, but inventory remains low
Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)