this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2024
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A more expensive, clunkier product, with a bunch of needless fluff in it.
Enshitification 101
You mean twice the ram (1 gig more than the shield), 4 times the storage (32 gigs), and a better remote (chirping find my remote feature, programmable button, and less shitty volume buttons)?
Yep. Sure sounds worse considering it also supports all the same features of the chromecast 4k and AV1 decoding.
I don't need any of that. I just need a cheap dongle that can run one app
The dongle still works. They reached market saturation with people who just want a dongle. They can't realistically be expected to produce these forever.
I mean I'd hope so because eventually this one I have won't work like the previous one so I'd like a similar product when that happens not this 99 dollar box thing. I guess I hope someone else will continue making cheap dongles I think walmart has their own thing
Facebook marketplace is absolutely loaded with these for less than $20. Let's recycle the existing stock.
Because that’ll last
Will it, though?
"Sorry this device is too old to support the newest software update. For your convenience we have bricked it. Please see your authorized dealer to purchase an upgraded device"
Sure, give me a single example where a chromecast device was taken off the chromecast protocol. Even their original Chromecast Audio device which was discontinued and taken out of production over 5 years ago still functions to this day.
Regular Chromecast work perfectly as YouTube jukebox.
What do you mean regular Chromecast?
Just regular Chromecast, not that Google TV stuff. That round dongle that does nothing but accept casting streams via that cast button in many Android apps.
So the one from 2013? Sure. It was fine for that. This is a different thing, as not every device, service, or whatever supports casting. I wish they did, but they don't.
Secondarily, I don't want to use a screen to control a screen. I prefer a physical remote that I can have muscle memory for.
But I get why people liked the device. I did too. But fortunately or unfortunately, it's been 10 years and technology has moved. Which is probably why they are giving this a new name being an generally good upgrade on the last Chromecast 4K.
Christ, this one even has a built in Ethernet port and doesn't put strain on my HDMI port by just dangling there.
Well, the story is about Google ending that line of products.
With a direct successor product that contains all the same features as the last Chromecast device. If you are mourning the loss of the casting only Chromecast, that died long ago production-wise.
Late 2022 is not long ago.
The last casting only device (Chromecast Gen3) was originally released in 2018 (6 years ago). They stopped selling it in 2022. And it is still supported with updates. They supported the original with 10 years of updates. If all ya wanna do is cast, keep using it. I personally want more than a cast point.
Great. Where did I say you cannot have that? You're acting weirdly defensively for something nobody is trying to take away from you. OK, maybe Google will in 2 years. All I said was that for casting the regular Chromecast is fine and you're turning that into something overly emotional for no reason.
I'm not emotional, I just find the rage about this topic insane as they legit just changed the name of a product and gave it good iterative upgrades over the previous model by addressing their customer pain points. Especially when the casting feature is now highly integrated across most modern devices. It's not like someone said they will never make a cheaper device than this one. And frankly, if one wants to point to enshittification of Google products, there are much better places to point than their hardware division.
Sorry if I appear emotional? I don't feel emotional. I'm just responding in a way I feel is rational to the barrage of comments replying to me. If anything, there seems to be an emotional charge in the opposite direction. But I'm sure that's just in my reading 20 of them directed at me. I'm genuinely excited about this product because it shows that Google cares about a product I like to the point where they want to make it better.
Yes, you are and you must have me confused with someone else because I made no emotional / rageful comments. The only emotional between you and me is you and I don't care to engage any longer.
Most of the appeal of the Chromecast is that it's a dongle you plug in once and never have to see again. It doesn't need high performance and 32 gigs of RAM. It needs to play video. That's its entire purpose. It's controlled by any phone on your wifi, it doesn't need a remote.
For most users, this is an expensive downgrade.
The remote was the biggest upgrade for me on the Ultra though. I always struggled to find my phone and do stuff on it just to watch some YouTube or Netflix videos. And the Kids don't even have a phone and they want to watch on the TV in the livingroom too sometimes. With the remote it's easy for everyone to use it without fiddling with the Phone.
My parents have the one without the remote and they basically never use it because my mom doesn't have a mobile phone and my dad newer has it with him, it's always not charged or in some other room.
They're supposedly using pretty much the same chipset. So the most important part is still underpowered, these Android boxes generally work fine even with 2-3GBs of RAM.
From OP article
It's supposed to use S905X3 with ARM Cortex-A55.
There's already plenty of devices on the market with this chip, and it's fine, but in real world as a user you won't really see any improvement over something like a nearly 10 year old Nvidia Shield that's still using a more powerful chipset.
Which is sad for a new device...
Does Nvidia even make new mobile chipsets still? At least... Relatively cheaply? I know there's something of an Nvidia tax.
And ethernet port!
Yes! I hadn't seen that highlighted anywhere in articles really, only saw it on the damn Google Store after looking just now.
Seems an all around solid update on the previous device.
Just gotta stick FLauncher, SmartTube, Jellyfin, and Stremio on it and it seems solid.
I changed from FLauncher to Projectivity Launcher a little while ago and definitely recommend it
My wife is used to FLauncher and will probably get annoyed if I change the Shield's interface (again...) but maybe I'll try it out on the Google TV Chromecast I have for holiday trips.
You can get an Ethernet adapter for the Chromecast
Now with AI!
I'm not sure why they didn't just call it the chrome cast gen whatever though.
So you could just ask it for anything and it could make it up?
"Google, show 'Ow! My Balls!'"
I wonder how far away we are from AI being able to create video on demand like that?
I think overall it'll never be able to create quality entertainment.
But Ow! My Balls! isn't quality entertainment. I'm sure it can create all kinds of clips of things smashing into groins for ultra low-brow entertainment. Probably today.
For which they will be able to offer subscriptions in a year or 2.