With the chromecast, I have no interest in another box that plays video content. Having a dedicate box to play casual android games on my tv isnt very appealing to me either.
Is there really a big market for this thing?
Is there really a big market for this thing?
If you are a cord cutter this may be your new set top box.
It does not replace Google TV, as that is the third party vendor vertical. However Google TV could die if third parties see the Player as competition or are unable to get features in Player into their Google TV's.
To me the big failing of the Chromecast is families, where the kids will not necessarily own their own smartphone. This device comes with a bundled remote.
However, that's a huge change in the Android world because up until now every official Google Android-device has been touch-enabled. Switching to a remote control is very significant.
i can't think of anything this can do (that id want to do) that the chromecast cant for a lot cheaper.
Also, you'll probably be able to side-load xbmc on it without rooting, like you can on a Ouya, an Amazon FireTV or (rooted) AppleTV to get full access to your media library, to act as a PVR front end, & to give you access to the vast world of shady XBMC plugins.
The open question for me is what sort of video the thing will be able to play back natively. And whether or not you can side-load Amazon Instant Video
The chromecast is a glorified wireless hdmi dongle.
Phone/tablet just setup the URL for the stream.
You can easily verified this by setup the chromecast to stream from youtube with a phone after it start play, you can turn off the phone and and it would still be playing.
The phone/table for chromecast is just a fancy remote control.
Also, it will run your Play Store apps. So, presumably GMail, Calendar, Drive, Maps... and not just the 'cast version of them, but the real deal.