Doing More With Less Since 1972

Tag: youtube

Daily Reading List — October 24th

Entity Framework and Setting Primary Keys on Views – Trickery!

The Rise and Fall of the Army Surplus Store – There was a day when a man could get a good pair of boots and a durable pea coat at a good price at the surplus store.

Resistance Band Training for Jiu Jitsu – That Paloff Press exercise is a dang good 'un.

Build A System To Play Your Rasslin’ Entrance Music When You Walk Into A Room – Oh.
Hell.
Yeah.

Handy tool to scare the crap out of you when a hurricane is on its way. #matthew

Microsoft is killing Yammer Enterprise plan in January 2017, will start integrating Office 365 Groups first

If Google buys Twitter, there’s a perfect spot for it in YouTube – I called this for Q2 I believe. Can it happen before the end of Q4?

PODCAST: What the Generational Cycle Theory Can Tell Us About Our Present Age – Added Neil's book to my WishList

Chromecast Missing One Big Easy Win

I just unboxed and set up my Chromecast. It took about 5 minutes, and the Missus is downstairs right now listening to No Doubt on my Google Music dime…probably going to have to get a paid account for her now too.

20130726_163515

I watched a couple of Ric Flair promo videos and one of the famous Knoxville Rugby Street Skiing incident just to check out how the YouTube app worked. Pretty sweet!


This thing is an absolute bargain at $35, just for what it already does with YouTube, Play, and Netflix. So yes…you should definitely click on the link and buy one for every TV in your house. This thing is incredibly slick. If it’s on backorder, go ahead and reserve one. It may be awhile before they are just sitting on shelves.

However there’s one thing I think Google should have had ready when Chromecast shipped–one thing I think could have been a big win for them in a big space. I’m sure it’s coming, probably within the next couple of weeks, but…

Why can’t I open up the Google Plus app on my mobile device and start a slideshow from there, then broadcast that to my TV?

For example, we just got back from vacationing in Colombia, and all of our photos are sitting in my Plus account. Everything I snap with my phone is pushed up there automatically, and I’ve already gone through the process up posting the SLR pics too.

We have friends coming to visit this week, and it would be really cool to just open up the album from my phone and show them a slideshow on the TV.

Next weekend, my parents are coming for a visit. We have videos in Google Plus (not YouTube) of all the kids’ “Happy Birthday To You” moments–shouldn’t I be able to show them those videos?

I know what you’re thinking–why not just share with them on Google Plus? Well, you’re right…and I can do that. But they probably wouldn’t notice.

The problem is, Google doesn’t have the participation on Plus it wants/needs. What better way to convert people than to have those of us who do use it show them this unbelievable functionality they can get with a free Plus account and a $35 piece of hardware.

Missed opportunity.

The Real Power of Chromecast

More Google genius.

If you haven’t heard about Chromecast (Amazon affiliate link–thanks for clicking through and buying), it’s a pretty cool idea. A little $35 part that plugs into you HDMI input on your TV and lets you broadcast from your phone (any platform–Android, iOS, etc.) directly from applications like YouTube, Netflix, Google Music, Pandora (coming soon), etc. But it doesn’t stop there–your phone is just where the broadcast initiates. Since the device is running ChromeOS, it can take over the stream from there so your device is freed up to do other stuff. And…you can broadcast from the Chrome browser too (for stuff like Amazon streaming)…provided your device will allow you to run Chrome.

Pretty smart. Pretty cool. And, they’ve made the SDK available for any app developer to sync up and stream from their apps. Again–it doesn’t matter what platform your device is running on.

That could make this a no-brainer device for every TV in your house. Especially for $35 each.

Why wouldn’t app developers want to include this functionality, right?

That’s a question Apple’s going to have a tough time answering. Because I’ll bet you dollars to donuts you will not see a ChromeCast icon in iTunes any time soon.

I think donuts may cost more than a dollar now, but I still like that saying.

We only have one TV, so I’ve only bought one so far. But Christmas is right around the corner.

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