Chromecast celebrates 1st birthday and 400 million casts

Google Chromecast was designed by ‘The brainchild Mario Queiroz’; the thumb-sized media device was designed to stream content from the Chrome browser to a computer or through the display of several Android models. It has a plug-in port for HDMI and gets power either from a USB port or from an external source.

The $35 mini device for digital media playing competes with streaming rivals Apple and Amazon. Google hasn't disclosed the exact number of sold units and reported instead that it had successfully sold millions of it. At present, Chromecast is available in over 30,000 stores in almost two dozen countries. It is also available through the Google Play store.

For the past 12 months, Chromecast had been streaming media to millions of users. As a way to celebrate their milestone with a bang, Google is offering users of Google Play Music with a free access to all access for a period of 90 days. Normally, the service charges users with a monthly fee of $9.99. The offer, which is valid until September 30, is available only to U.S. Chromecast users.

Since it was launched, Chromecast users have been enjoying the popular media services such as music, sports, TV programs, and premium movie titles. Google has even added hundreds of popular apps such as Crackle, YouTube, Google+, Netflix, HBO GO among others.

To add to the Chromecast craze, there are more than 400 apps that are ready for "cast" and over 6,000 developers that have created a staggering number of 10,000 Chromecast apps.

The future is big for this “device", Mario Queiroz posted several ways on how one can enjoy his Chromecast. Some of them would include enjoying media hits from Google Play Music and Songza, creating a video playlist through the YouTube app, showing off photos by casting them directly to the big screen, enjoying live sports feed in the living room and burning up some "unwanted" calories with the Daily Burn app.

By Adriana Rueda

Source: Tech Times

Image: Google