Hmm, so, last month I began to have issues with my Chromecast for the first time. I have an old 3rd gen Chromecast attached to my bedroom television (not a smart tv) for the purpose of casting obnoxiously long video essays to fall asleep to. After like a decade of essentially hassle free operation, it suddenly stopped being able to maintain a connection to my phone. I cast a video, and after approximately 10 minutes, the cast disconnects and I get a message on my phone saying “this video cannot be played in the background”. I’ve tried ever troubleshooting technique I can think of.
I know I shouldn’t attribute to malice what can be explained by other causes, but boy, seeing this news today sure makes me think about things like planned obsolescence.
Planned obsolescence is built into googles processes.
They’ve created an environment where your primary method of advancing in your career is only creating new things and there’s little to no options when choosing to support existing things. Some things have survived by chance and/or something to keep employees busy, but it’s unintentional.
Google is just doing Google things. It seems that over the years, Google has been doing things to destroy whatever is left of their reputation.
I look at Android for example. Even though I still use Android, I used to look forward to the next Android update. Not anymore!
I already forgot it existed.
any product made by or linked to google is a no buy. I basically dont buy anything these days. fuck that company!
Mines been packed away for a few years now
Switched to apple TV already. Googles lame ad infused cheap plastic remote did the trick on me. They have to pay ME if they want a Youtube and Netflix ad laying on my table at home.
Don’t turn your remote over or you’ll have an Apple ad laying around.
… and suddenly Netflix disappears from it.
My god does anybody else downvote an article if it’s blatant clickbait? How does it have 520 score? You were supposed to be better than r**dit remember?
It is a little clickbaity, but the new device isn’t the same as Chromecast.
Did y’all even click the article?
It will be rebranded, basically, to become the Google TV streamer. The tech is not going anywhere.
“In place of the Chromecast, the company will offer the newly announced $99.99 Google TV Streamer, which launches on September 24th.”
$100 though … a Chromecast used to be like $35.
Rebrand to increase price by an ungodly amount to circumvent massive backlash ✅
I mean this is what Google does though. Some new exec comes in, rebrands existing tech to solve some problem, support continues for a few tears, rinse and repeat until google decides it isnt worth it and kills the entire platform.
It’s a different device. Already, the existing google tv workflow is different than the chromecast, which was phone control first. Now, it brings up an app which favors navigation with the remote. If I want a set top box, I’ll put a kodi box in…I wanted a dumb dongle which could be controlled from a phone. It’s fundamentally a different product.
My hope is that casting decouples as a concept from being a google protocol. Even though Amazon is backing it now, I hope MatterCast can become an open casting standard. My vision is having MatterCast be an installable add-on to Kodi, and then an ultra-light image can be made for super low-end devices supporting audio and video (or both).
And? Do they plan to put all the software open source so that the millions of hardware they sold would not go to waste in some years? We should force them to by law.
You only read the headline, didnt you?
That’s what clickbait aims to achieve. Just make people rage. People need to learn to read the article before raging.
I come down to these comments to have someone angrily explain it in simple terms to me.
Fair enough.
That’s not angry enough
Sucks for you then
Well, the article says: “Google says it will continue to push software and security updates to its newer devices without specifying which ones.”.
So only newer devices (and we don’t know which ones), and if you are a bit familiar with technology, you would very well know that they will just quit updating the software anyways after some time as they stopped making the whole Chromecast line.
That’s still a lot of devices that would be perfectly usable and will eventually go to waste. So imo my remark about the fact that we should have laws forcing manufacturers to make their software open source as soon as they’re no longer updated is still valid!
I think it’s perfectly reasonable to not expect a company to perpetually support a sub-$100 device. Especially if said device has been around for 5+ years at least.
I agree with you that it would be foolish to believe that any company would support a cheap device perpetually but I think it should be common practice (or mandatory) to open the software so that people can extend the life of these devices. Generally speaking, as a species we cannot afford to waste electronic devices simply because the software is not up to date.
… Does this mean that the chromecast with google tv that is pictured, and that i just bought, will soon stop working?
What’s “soon”? Should be good for a couple of years
Gone the Google way. One more for the Google Graveyard.
My 10-year-old Nexus (original Android TV that is a direct ancestor of the Google TV device you’re talking about) still works.
This is why I’d never invest in anything Google.
It’s already rolling the dice to see if they enshitify things fast enough to ruin it for me, but now you know they will just kill whatever you have been using on a whim
I’ll stick to my Nvida Shield thank you very much. They are slow as hell with updates but when they do they even update the old 2017 devices.
Isn’t Chromecast built into most devices now? Why would someone need a dongle to do what the TV can do natively? Otherwise something like an Nvidia Shield is a better option anyway.
Because some smart TVs will up and brick themselves by irreparably filling their storage with various updates to the point of no longer being able to install or even update anything on the TV whatsoever THANK YOU Samsung)
Old, dumb or smart TVs without a connection to the internet but still want to either vast to or browse on.
I use mine to avoid using the Samsung UI which I also piholed the hell out of for Samsung ad services…
No? Some of the most popular TV brands like LG and Samsung don’t. And if your TV doesn’t have Android, buying a Chromecast is a super cheap way to get it.
I have an amazing 4k oled TV but it doesn’t have android so I still had to buy a Chromecast for it because otherwise I had no way to watch TV.
Literally all my friends know the name “Chromecast”, why would you rename it
and then add TV to it, is this now advertised to seniors?
It seems so, some people in the thread complained their parents don’t use ChromeCast because it needed the phone to use. Apparently seniors are also better if you want to sell an expensive subscription when the opportunity arises.
Why does Google do any of the dumb shit they do?
To justify the salaries of their product managers
Chromecast naming scheme did get weird - it’s difficult for someone who doesn’t follow these things to know if they want the chromecast ultra or chromecast with google tv. I agree though they should have just called the new product something like “Chromecast Box 2025”.
Of course they are.
I just came to comment this exact string.
Lol I said these exact words a second before I read this. Google is such a fucking awful company.
🙄 it’s as dead as the Nexus. Try to keep up.
Google’s gonna Google
Add another casualty to the list:
They aren’t really, they are just upgrading it to a full set top box and rebranding it.
But it went from a dongle to a set top box for more than 3 times the price. It’s not really the same device, just similar functionality.
Yeah, I don’t see myself carrying this thing to every hotel I stay at… Even less because I am not buying it lol.
In place of the Chromecast, the company will offer the newly announced $99.99 Google TV Streamer,
They’re replacing it with a very similar product. Nothing to see here.
Similar product that costs 4 times as much and has AI features…
The low-power streaming box is dying. It’s not completely without reason, 4k playback is actually a bit demanding.
We are in a place where the 2017 nVidia Shield is beginning to show its age and that leaves the AppleTV as the only powerful and capable consumer set top box on the market. This new option from Google will at least provide some competition and an option outside of Apple’s ecosystem.
I cannot believe NVIDIA has essentially abandoned its SHIELD micro console line. My Shield Pro has been an amazing sideloading fiend.
I absolutely love mine, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t stutter sometimes when asked to perform more demanding tasks. The chip is also going to start having issues with formats in the coming years. I’d love for nVidia to put out something that used a rival to the A15 in Apple’s box. Native AV1 decoding and just raw speed is really needed to catch up to use cases in 2024 compared to 7 years earlier.
We’ll have to see if the processor is better than the shield. Google’s spec page shows it has 1 GB of RAM more than the shield but conveniently does not say what processor is in it
This $100 box from Google runs on the same SoC as the $50 streaming box from Onn (Walmart). The only major differences are the Google box as 4GB of RAM vs 3GB, a 1Gb Ethernet port instead of 100Mb (both have WiFi 6), and the Google box has a USB Type C port for power/data and would need an OTG adapter/hub while the Onn box has a Type A and a barrel plug for power.
Swallowed the clickbait, hook, line and sinker.
They’re replacing it with a very similar product. Nothing to see here.
Like they do with messengers every couple of years.
Seemed monthly at one point 🤣
Or music streaming apps.
A more expensive, clunkier product, with a bunch of needless fluff in it.
For which they will be able to offer subscriptions in a year or 2.
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.
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.
It’s controlled by any phone on your wifi, it doesn’t need a remote.
Or you can use it’s remote and not need to use your phone for absolutely every little thing.
None of which changes the fact that it’s more expensive and clunkier, and none of which feels necessary.
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
such as a processor that’s 22 percent faster
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.
I don’t think so. Maybe they’ll have something new for the next Nintendo Switch?
In fact, the Shield is using the same chip as the Switch (same for the newer revisions).
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.
Edit
Classic Lemmy. Point out that these are not charities and companies can’t keep producing niche products that you aren’t buying but maybe potentially want to buy someday and get thrown down votes. Sorry folks whether you like it or not it’s the truth. Companies like to sell things and if these were actually being bought enough to make a profit they wouldn’t be discontinued. Your TV probably has this feature built in now. Want another? Buy it second hand, the market is absolutely flooded with these second hand because they’re just collecting dust in cabinets. If Google kept making these they’d just end up as unsold stock in a landfill.
Your existing chromecast dongle will continue to connect because Google needs chromecast the protocol to continue to work to compete with Apples Airplay. It’s the same reason the Chromecast Audio dongle continues to work 5 years after it’s end of life.
If you want to make sure you have them forever buy up your local second hand stock but otherwise no one has given a convincing argument why these need to keep getting produced at the factory.
Your existing chromecast dongle will continue to connect
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.
Cast protocol is only one of the many many things that you can stream through a chromecast device.
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
So when the current dongle breaks and you just want another, what do you buy?
Facebook market place in my small town has dozens of these for less than $20. Why don’t you pick up a few of these and recycle our current supply instead of asking companies to produce more e waste incase we someday want to buy it.
The large used market exists because Google has been producing them. When Google stops producing them, that supply will dry up.
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.
I just hope this is still possible on the new one, I can see a future where they make it impossible but hopefully not yet.
I agree that it’s a good upgrade too, the only dowside is that it’s not portable anymore, I used to take it with me on any travel to have my own home theater set up like I like it with me when I was living in Hotels and AirBnB’s for a year on business travel. Especially in Asia the TVs are in the local language and I never have any idea how to change the language from Korean or Japanese to English so I can use the TV. But putting in the dongle and turning on the TV was always possible.
You can get an Ethernet adapter for the Chromecast
Yeah, exactly. You needed to buy an extra adapter before. Now you don’t.
Regular Chromecast work perfectly as YouTube jukebox.
What do you mean regular Chromecast?
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.
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.
Well, the story is about Google ending that line of products.
Yeah, I have a smart TV and would appreciate some faster processing in there. Or if I can flash a simplified ROM, but dunno if those exist. As long as I get control over what it does, I’d take it. Can just Velcro it on the back of the TV so it’s invisible.
My Chromecast has no storage and no remote. It’s fine.
Cool. Keep using it.
Until services stop supporting it.
until they decide that their new device needs more sales, so they depricate the protocol and you can’t use it anymore
Deprecate the casting protocol? Sure Jan. The new device still supports casting.
That’s the only reason I had to replace my previous 2 steaming devices.
The streaming backend got updated and the app in my device no longer supported it. And there was no updated app made available for that device.
Chromecast ultras are already broken if you try to use your own DNS.
You haven’t been paying attention to Google in the last few years, have you?
They killed support for the first gen Chromecast and the YouTube “app” has been broken for 3+ years. They’ll just stop supporting it one day and you’ll have to buy a new one.
It’s also twice the price of the Onn 4k Pro (Walmart house brand) that’s built on the same chip and has the same features running the stock Google TV experience.
Now with AI!
I’m not sure why they didn’t just call it the chrome cast gen whatever though.
Or literally just reuse the Android TV name
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.
Shitposting is one area where I have no issues using AI.
and before that they already replaced it with google tv with chromecast
I know haha google graveyard funny, but over a decade of production only to be replaced by a similar product is a financial success.
Everyone knows after any commercial success the best thing you can do is rebrand by announcing the death of the successful product \s
