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Google is discontinuing the Chromecast line
(www.theverge.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Did y'all even click the article?
It will be rebranded, basically, to become the Google TV streamer. The tech is not going anywhere.
"In place of the Chromecast, the company will offer the newly announced $99.99 Google TV Streamer, which launches on September 24th."
$100 though ... a Chromecast used to be like $35.
Rebrand to increase price by an ungodly amount to circumvent massive backlash ✅
I mean this is what Google does though. Some new exec comes in, rebrands existing tech to solve some problem, support continues for a few tears, rinse and repeat until google decides it isnt worth it and kills the entire platform.
It's a different device. Already, the existing google tv workflow is different than the chromecast, which was phone control first. Now, it brings up an app which favors navigation with the remote. If I want a set top box, I'll put a kodi box in...I wanted a dumb dongle which could be controlled from a phone. It's fundamentally a different product.
My hope is that casting decouples as a concept from being a google protocol. Even though Amazon is backing it now, I hope MatterCast can become an open casting standard. My vision is having MatterCast be an installable add-on to Kodi, and then an ultra-light image can be made for super low-end devices supporting audio and video (or both).