If I Had a Baby

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If I had a baby now, I would name it Google. I can’t think of a better name to exemplify “everything possible.”

That is what Google is about. This is the company that is going to take over where Steve Jobs left off. They just keep innovating all the time.

Their latest invention just got a lot of press. I am concerned that you may have missed it in the tech press, so I promised myself I would cover Chromecast in one of my posts. Walt Mossberg, the ultimate tech writer/reviewer/interviewer, played with the new device for a week and then devoted a review to the pros and cons of Chromecast.

The search giant has built a small, inexpensive device called Chromecast that wirelessly streams video and music from tablets, smartphones, and laptops to the TV screen. Chromecast is a small fob. It looks like a USB flash drive that plugs into a standard HDMI port. Every HDTV has one. I’m sure yours has one too.

Chromecast costs $35. Walt Mossberg is going to give you the final word on it. He has been testing Chromecast for more than a week. Mossberg likes it.

Here is what he says in The Wall Street Journal and AllThingsD.

“On my Android test devices, I was able to beam to the TV video from Netflix, YouTube and the Android video and music players — the only Android mobile apps that work now with Chromecast. On Apple mobile devices, the only Chromecast-compatible apps so far are Netflix and YouTube. Both worked fine.”

Mossberg adds,

“All in all, it was a satisfying and easy experience, especially since setup is so simple and, like many people today, I already have a tablet or smartphone in my hands or nearby while watching TV.”

I sure hope Google has made it easy to stream from the web onto to the TV screen. I don’t want any stumbling blocks. I have been waiting for Google to give me an easy solution.

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