Speaking of Chromecasts being more useful, I’d like to share with you something I learned recently, which is how to stream audio from your Linux machine to a Chromecast (or any DLNA or UPnP device) using pulseaudio-dlna.įor this to work, you will need pulseaudio-dlna installed:
And even tho it only supported 4 apps, it supported the 4 apps I happen to use most! It was a no-brainer for me, and many others.įast forward to today, Google has long-since released the Google Cast API, allowing anybody to build Google Cast support into their own app, and suddenly this $35 dongle supports tons of apps and is about a thousand times more useful. No extra cords to manage, no device taking up more real estate on my entertainment center, no more remotes to lose under the couch. And I couldn’t bring myself to spend the money on a device that would make performing these tasks just a little bit easier.īut I could definitely bring myself to spend a measly $35 for a device so small nobody will ever know it’s there, and can be controlled with my phone, and/or laptop computer.
While the Xbox doesn’t have the greatest UI, and using a gaming controller for these kinds of tasks is less than a great experience, it does work. I can use my Xbox to play Netflix, listen to music (with last.fm), and watch YouTube videos. I have a subscription to Netflix, I use Google Music, and occasionally YouTube. I never invested in a Roku because it was pretty expensive for what I would get out of it. But, for people like myself, the Chromecast was perfect. This list is somewhat embarrassing when compared to, say, Roku’s list of available apps/channels. When the Chromecast was first released in July of 2013, it supported 4 apps: Netflix, Google Play Music, Google Play Movies, and YouTube. Consumers bought 3.2 million Chromecasts in Q3 of 2015 alone, giving Google 35% of the global digital media streaming device marketshare. Very few pieces of tech have exploded in popularity quite like Chromecast, the $35 media streaming dongle from Google.