Wanting again at 11 years of Google streaming

Google’s Chromecast isn’t any extra. With Tuesday’s introduction of its successor, the corporate laid to relaxation the model that kicked off 11 years in the past with a novel product that helped transfer streaming onto the middle stage of house leisure. With the Google TV Streamer taking the baton, it’s time to look again at 11 years of Chromecast.

Google’s casting-centric model arrived on July 24, 2013, with the first-generation Chromecast. The streaming stick plugged immediately right into a TV’s HDMI port and lacked a distant management. As a substitute, you fired up content material utilizing a cellular gadget or pc.

Most significantly, the revolutionary gizmo solely value $35. This was when an Apple TV set-top field began at $99, and app-laden televisions have been nowhere close to commonplace. Even Roku’s same-generation Streaming Stick, which landed a yr earlier, value $100. Oh, and it required a TV licensed as “Roku-ready.”

When confronted with pricier choices, it was laborious to withstand the Chromecast. And many individuals felt that manner: The stick rapidly offered out. And it hung round for longer than most tech merchandise, as the corporate solely retired it last year.

Engadget applauded the gadget. Our assessment praised it as a wholehearted recommendation “for anybody who’s been on the lookout for a simple, unobtrusive technique to put some brains into their dumb TV.” The gadget was Google at its greatest: Innovating in a extremely accessible, reasonably priced and device-agnostic manner.

What adopted have been years of iterations as rivals pushed out competing merchandise, and Google responded with extra trendy options and redesigns.

The second-gen model from 2015 switched to a dongle kind issue with a magnetized again and HDMI plug. The identical yr, Google launched a music-focused sister gadget, Chromecast Audio (with a vinyl record-inspired look). Chromecast Ultra, the primary stab at a higher-end mannequin, landed in 2016 with 4K streaming and Dolby Imaginative and prescient assist. A third-gen model adopted in 2018 with quicker speeds, Nest speaker integration… and never a lot else.

This decade, we noticed the awkwardly branded Chromecast with Google TV (4K) in 2020 — now with a distant!! — and the Chromecast with Google TV (HD) in 2022. In hindsight, the unusual naming may now be seen as the corporate’s first nudge towards a rebrand.

This brings us to at the moment, as Google bids adieu to its streaming wunderkind—no less than below its previous title. The Google TV Streamer, with its sleek wedge shape and unique hazel color option, is taking up in a a lot completely different panorama than we noticed 11 years in the past.

The Chromecast, particularly that revolutionary first-generation mannequin, helped push us into the streaming-first world many people have lived in ever since. That’s very true when you think about its affect on rivals. Roku’s second-generation Streaming Stick from 2014 dropped from $99 to $50 and ditched its doomed “Roku Prepared TV” requirement. In the meantime, Amazon noticed a gap and launched a Fire TV Stick (additionally in 2014) that value $39.

With out that first Chromecast mannequin, it’s laborious to inform how that panorama could have appeared completely different within the following years.

It isn’t too late to dip your toes into the nostalgia pool and decide up a Chromecast, as Google says the previous units will stay in the marketplace whereas provides final. Crucially, the corporate’s promise of safety updates and assist stays unchanged, so there’s no want to stress for those who not too long ago picked up one of many soon-to-be-extinct units.