What's Holding Up New Chromecast Apps? Nothing ... But Google, That Is
There's a disconnect in the world of Chromecast. Customers want apps that work with Google's small, affordably priced TV streaming stick. And developers want to distribute them. Some are already built,...
View ArticleGo On, Guess What Amazon's Top-Selling Gadget Is Right Now
We may live in a mobile-obsessed world, but it turns out the best-selling consumer-electronics gadget on Amazon isn't made by Apple or Samsung. Neither is it a Kindle—which is kind of shocking, given...
View ArticlePandora Joins Chromecast Bandwagon
When Google announced its Chromecast TV device this summer, it promised that Pandora would eventually work with it. The day has finally arrived: The popular music app now offers an update in the...
View ArticleChromecast May Be Breaking Out Soon
Customers and developers alike have been waiting for Google to permit the release of homebrew Chromecast apps—ones not made by its special partners, that is—and now they have a new reason to hope. The...
View ArticleGetting Started With Google Chromecast: The Unofficial Manual
As the new year arrives, many of us are greeting it with shiny new gadgets, courtesy of the holiday season. And one in particular has been a noteworthy hit—Google’s Chromecast streaming device, which...
View ArticleSony Cloudifies Games And TV In Its Own Bid For The Living Room
In many ways, Sony is more of a lifestyle brand than a tech brand. It creates products that allow people to have fun—from its flagship PlayStation 4 to televisions and audio gear to cameras and mobile...
View ArticleHow Beats Music Could Save Streaming From A Premature Ice Age
Beats Music has joined the ranks of pioneering—and suffering—streaming-music pioneers such as Rdio, Spotify, Rhapsody, Deezer and Pandora, promising to mix things up by, well, literally mixing things...
View ArticleApple TV: The Fun Little Experiment Is Getting Serious
It looks like Apple just got serious about Internet video. The company has given Apple TV, its streaming-media gadget, some prime digital real estate, clearing out a dedicated section of its online...
View ArticleChromecast Ahoy! Google Opens Cast Software Development Kit
On Monday, Google announced the long-awaited release of its Google Cast Software Development Kit, a set of tools that allow developers to officially support the popular Chromecast TV streaming device....
View ArticleGoogle's Chromecast Is Open To All, So Bring On The Streaming Apps
Developers, start your engines: The barrier to new apps that work with Google's Chromecast streaming device is down. On Monday morning, the company publicly released its Google Cast Software...
View ArticleThe Next Apple TV May Debut In April And Offer More Live Programming
Apple's next-generation Apple TV streaming box, which it could unveil by April, may include access to more live programming, Bloomberg reported.See also: Apple TV: The Fun Little Experiment Is Getting...
View ArticleAmazon's TV-Streaming Box Could Launch By March
Amazon may launch a TV-streaming device in March that would compete with Apple TV, Roku and, to some extent, Google's Chromecast, the tech site Recode reports. The gadget—which Amazon reportedly...
View ArticleThat Amazon Prime Price Hike Is Already Happening In Europe
Amazon is raising the price of Amazon Prime subscriptions in the U.K. and Germany by roughly 60% to 70% starting February 26, it announced Friday. The new fee coincides with Amazon's decision to...
View ArticleThe First Wave of New Chromecast Apps Is Here
It took five months for Google to approve 17 apps that could work with its Chromecast streaming gadget. But it only took a couple of weeks for those numbers to practically double, once Google opened up...
View ArticleLean Back: TiVo Founders Want Streaming TV To Come To You With Qplay
TiVo cofounders Michael Ramsay and Jim Barton liberated TV viewers from the vagaries of network scheduling by allowing them to watch programs when they wanted, not when they happened to be on. Now the...
View ArticleHey, That Looks Familiar: Roku and Logitech's 'New' Living Room Tech
Few TV products tell the story of connected television like the latest devices from Roku and Logitech.On the surface, Roku’s tiny streaming stick and Logitech’s massive Harmony remote don't share much...
View ArticleMarch Of The Google Chromecast Look-Alikes
There’s an evolution taking place on our TV stands. Set-top boxes are shrinking from big black consoles to diminutive hockey pucks to thumb drive–like devices. From there, they'll likely contract even...
View ArticleGoogle Launches Chromecast In Europe and Canada
Congratulations, Europe and Canada—you finally get to see what all the fuss over Google’s cheap TV streaming stick is about.The company is releasing the device, which has been available in the U.S. for...
View ArticleAmazon's TV-Streaming Box Is Almost Here
Amazon appears ready to unveil its own TV streaming device on Wednesday at a press event in New York City. [Update: Amazon has announced the Kindle Fire TV.] That meshes with my own reporting, which...
View ArticleNo, Wait—Amazon Really Should Launch A Free Streaming Service
Amazon has long labored in the shadows of Netflix and Hulu when it comes to streaming TV shows and movies. It could change all that with a rumored Internet streaming plan that would bear more than a...
View ArticleTwitch Is Turning Into The Netflix Of Spectator Gaming
By all accounts, the world’s largest video network for gamers—and the lucrative arena of competitive gaming that it powers—is on a path to colossal growth.Twitch, a social platform where users can...
View ArticleAmazon Fire TV Wants To Ignite The Streaming Experience—And It Just Might
Amazon took on the big boys of streaming television at its press event in New York City Wednesday morning. On a stage decked out like a living room, the company took the wraps off its top-secret...
View Article10 Things You Need To Know About The Amazon Fire TV
Amazon has put Apple TV, Roku and Google's Chromecast in its crosshairs with its new Fire TV streaming device. See also: Amazon Fire TV Wants To Ignite The Streaming Experience—And It Just MightThe box...
View ArticleSonos Lets Google Put It To Work, Chromecast-Style
Just when we were looking at how to turn a Chromecast into a Sonos, Google turned the Sonos into a Chromecast.Sonos and Google's new partnership, touted on Google's fairly elaborate launch page, means...
View ArticleGoodbye, TV Channels—And Hello, TV Apps
When I was a kid, my brother graciously taught me what a half-Nelson was. It was a lesson learned from our nightly wrestling matches over the remote control, which was essentially the scepter in our...
View ArticleNetflix Calls Out Verizon For Charging For Crappy Streaming, Part Deux
Netflix sure knows how to get a rise out of Internet service providers: Since mid-May, the streaming video service has been posting an error notice to Verizon subscribers blaming the network for slow...
View ArticleAereo Loses At The Supreme Court In Landmark Tech Copyright Case
In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling against Aereo, a video startup founded in 2012 that streams both live and delayed television broadcasts to paying subscribers. See also: To...
View ArticleHow Chromecast Makes Shared Viewing Easier: Bat Squeaks
Using the Chromecast with friends is about to get better, thanks to this handy update: Google announced at its Google I/O developer conference that users will no longer have to join the same network,...
View ArticleAndroid TV: Google Wants To Own Your Living Room (Again)
There’s no doubt that Google wants to own all of the screens in our lives, from the little ones on our wrists (and thermostats), to the larger ones in our pockets and car dashboards. But of all the...
View ArticleGame of Chromes: HBO GO Now Supports Chromecast
HBO GO has just become the latest addition to the Chromecast field. Now users can cast Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire to their living room televisions, courtesy of Google's $35 TV streaming...
View ArticleWhat Streaming Device Makers Should Learn From Qplay’s Demise
Qplay seemed like it everything it needed to succeed. The small TV streaming adapter had Mike Ramsay and Jim Barton, the founders of the TiVo DVR set-top box, driving it. So it had a well-respected...
View ArticleGoogle Wants Chromecast's Allure To Rub Off On Its Music Service
Chromecast is one of Google's most successful consumer products ever. So it's only natural that the company would like to hitch another wagon to that star—and right now, that wagon is its...
View ArticleBelatedly, TiVo Makes Its Play For Cord-Cutters
TiVo shot to fame, if not widespread acceptance, on the ability of its digital video recorders to impose order on the unruly smorgasbord of cable-TV programming. Which makes its latest product—its...
View ArticleHBO Will Finally Give Cord-Cutters The Streaming They Crave
Describing 10 million broadband-only homes—many of which likely house Game Of Thrones fans tethered to their parents' HBO login—as "low hanging fruit," the cable channel's CEO Richard Plepler says he's...
View ArticleThe "New" Chromecast: The Real Prize May Lie In The Backdrop
Just because Google's new Nexus Player will offer Chromecast features, that doesn't mean it will replace the $35 TV streaming dongle. The product's definitely not doomed; in fact, it’s continuing to...
View ArticleBroadcast TV Streamer Aereo Officially Has One Foot In The Grave
After fighting the good fight to bring over-the-air TV to online streaming, the battle-weary Aereo has shuttered its doors. As of November 12, the Boston-based startup will close up shop and lay off...
View ArticleChromecast Gets New Gaming Powers, Plus Showtime and Starz
Google really, really wants Chromecast to get on your gift shopping list. So to sweeten the deal, the company just announced some brand new functionality for its $35 TV-streaming stick. Say hello to...
View ArticleWould-Be TV Disrupter Aereo Files For Chapter 11 Reorganization
Broadcast TV streamer Aereo filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 Friday. The Boston-based startup has been slowly shuttering for months since its Supreme Court loss in June. The court that Aereo's...
View ArticleTV Streaming Gadgets: ReadWrite's 2014 Gift Guide
Televisions weren’t always smart. In fact, given how long people tend to hang on to their TVs, plenty of so-called “boob tubes” still dominate numerous living rooms across the country. Fortunately, you...
View ArticleHBO Go Hits Amazon Fire TV, May Bring Cord-Cutting Service Too
A glaring omission for Amazon's television set-top has been righted. The HBO Go app finally landed on the $99 Fire TV box on Monday, with the $39 Fire TV stick slated to follow in the spring. At this...
View Article4K Ultra HD TV: What You Can Watch Right Now
Television's latest upgrade, 4K Ultra High Definition, is both awesome and increasingly affordable. (See my earlier piece for details.) I just bought one on sale. Now I’m scrounging around to find...
View Article4K Ultra HD TV: How It Works And What You'll Need To Watch It
Just a few short months ago, you'd have been stupid—or at least carelessly wealthy—to buy an Ultra HD TV, or 4K television. There were so few 4K videos available that it was nearly impossible to...
View Article"The Interview" Could Make Online Premieres Popular In Hollywood
The Interview's lasting impact won't stem from being a mediocre film turned into an accidental symbol of freedom, or because it marks James Franco’s descent into the bowels of bad acting (though both...
View ArticleYouTube Fired Flash, Clearing HTML5's Last Obstacle For World Domination
After 10 years, YouTube gave Adobe Flash the heave-ho as its default video player on Tuesday. Instead, the site announced it would default to HTML5 to play its never-ending roster of cat clips, Taylor...
View ArticleHappy 10th, YouTube: This Is Your Life—And Ours
YouTube, the video-sharing website and ad revenue machine, turns 10 years old on Saturday, otherwise known as Valentine's Day. Over a decade, the site went from humble beginnings to the height of...
View ArticleNon-Apple-Using Cord Cutters Can Also Get HBO—Via Sling TV
Apple’s exclusivity arrangement for the HBO Now standalone streaming service hasn’t been broken … technically. Apple TV will still be the only streaming set-top box to offer the app. But the deal has...
View ArticleRoku Gets In The Voice Game
Voice features have become the “it” trend in consumer technology, and Roku wants in on the action. The streaming TV box maker announced a new set of devices Monday that will let Roku users forget about...
View ArticleHere Are The Best Ways To Watch HBO—Ahem, "Game Of Thrones"—Online
Mere days before the Game of Thrones season premiere on April 12, cord-cutters suddenly have more ways to watch HBO than ever before.These include HBO Now, which rolled out to the Apple TV and...
View ArticleHow The New Apple MacBook Retired Steve Jobs’s Vision Of Computing
In 2001, Steve Jobs shared a vision of computing that would inform his company's road map for years to come. Before a Macworld audience, the late Apple co-founder explained that the personal computer...
View ArticleYouTube Red Bundles The Best Media Google's Got Into One Subscription
After many months of speculation, YouTube has finally unveiled its premium subscription service: $9.99 a month for ad-free viewing and listening, offline caching and a raft of other features too. It's...
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