Google at its breakfast this morning announced Chromecast, bringing the Chrome OS to your TV. Plugs into your TV, powered by USB, and brings you all your favorite Google content.
Born from the ashes of the Nexus Q, Chromecast is an HDMI dongle just a couple inches long. It connects, as you'd expect, to your Android phone. It's able to automatlically turn on your TV and switch inputs, and start playing media automatically — if your TV is CEC-enabled.
YouTube, Google Play Music — all available through Chromecast and accessed through your phone. You can set up a queue of videos to play while still use your phone for other tasks. Browse, take phonecalls, check e-mail — whatever you need to do. Streaming is handled from the Chromecast — not from your phone.
And Netflix? No problem.
And what's more — it's cross-platform. Chromecast will work with Google's iOS YouTube app as well. You'll need to be running Android 2.3 and up, iOS 6 and up, or have Windows 7, Mac OSX 10.7 or a Chromebook Pixel.
Chromecast costs $35 — you can order directly from Google Play now! It'll also be available from Best Buy (as early as July 27) and Amazon.
Update: Chromecast is now available from Amazon.com too.
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