New Chromecast and Chromecast Audio: Features, Price and Release Date
On Tuesday, Google unveiled the new Nexus phones at a press event. It also revealed a new, updated and redesigned Chromecast for video, as well as a new stand-alone Chromecast Audio for streaming music to your sound system. Here are the details.
New Chromecast 2015
The new Chromecast comes with a completely different design than the original thumbstick format HDMI dongle.
Now it's more like a hockey puck with a short bendy HDMI arm that allows the bulk of the Chromecast to hang away from your TV inputs, so it won't block any other ports nearby. It comes in three colors now: black, "lemon yellow," and red.
Inside, Google has updated the WiFi equipment to modern standards with 802.11ac dual band, and 5Ghz reception.
The app has also been updated. No longer does it just suggest other apps that are compatible with the Chromecast, the new app wrangles any type of streaming app you have into a meta-menu of suggested watching across all available apps and services. It also has a menu for all of your devices, in case you own more than one Chromecast, along with a menu for suggested apps to download.
Along with this, Google unveiled "Fast Play," which pre-fetches video streaming content through certain supported apps, like Netflix, so that there's very little waiting time for the video or app to load on the screen.
Chromecast Audio
But there's another hockey puck Chromecast 2.0 device you can buy if you're only interested in casting audio: the new Chromecast Audio.
It looks a lot like the new Chromecast, except it's black with concentric circles grooved into it, a throwback to the vinyl record days. And instead of HDMI, it comes with a standard 3.5mm port to plug into your sound system or speakers. It also supports Optical Audio and stereo RCA.
Like the Chromecast, the idea is to connect your smartphone through the Chromecast Audio into a "dumb" speaker to make it smart. And since it also works through WiFi, there's no pairing process to wait for, like with Bluetooth speakers. One final feature of the Chromecast Audio is multi-room simultaneous casting, which actually won't be enabled or available until a little later this year.
Both new Chromecasts are available now from Google, and each is still priced at the original Chromecast's super-cheap $35 level.