Technology Android

[Casey]

Thanks for clarifying that for me, Casey. That would make sense as the content is, of course, 'casted' to the Chromecast device.

I'm not sure about getting one imported as much of the content would be US-only and things like BBC iPlayer and UK services may be limited.
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/features/digital-home/3465401/google-chromecast-release-date-price-uk/


Just being a bit cautious.

It's not limited in the slightest.

YouTube works. Google Music works. Netflix works. Avia works for casting your local content from your phone. Those are the ones that I mostly use.

And Google officially released the SDK last week, so all sorts of apps are about to start popping up. Many have them have updated their Google Play descriptions already to state that Chromecast support is forthcoming, like DailyMotion for example.

So any and all developers can add support now. The Chromecast app scene is about to explode.

 

[Casey]

I stopped using Hangouts for SMS. For a couple reasons.

A) I realized I don't use SMS and Instant Messenger in the same way. As much as I usually appreciate consolidation of stuff, I think at the moment these are still separate beasts.

B) Hello SMS is a phenomenal SMS app. Better than Hangouts. It's got a beautiful UI, it's polished, it's smooth, and holy hell, even with a huge SMS database this app flies. I suggest you all download it at once.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hellotext.hello&hl=en

 

[dilla]

What shit? Myself and Casey have the Chromecast. You don't...! lol

I remember when Nokia were the main players in phones. The USA got phones well over a year later than the UK. Now that was crazy/. For the most part, we get tech at the same time. Although our phones are far more subsidised and the packages a lot cheaper, too.

Yeah, but you hate it. That's like me being jealous that South Africa has AIDS and my area has a shortage of it.

 

[dilla]

I stopped using Hangouts for SMS. For a couple reasons.

A) I realized I don't use SMS and Instant Messenger in the same way. As much as I usually appreciate consolidation of stuff, I think at the moment these are still separate beasts.

B) Hello SMS is a phenomenal SMS app. Better than Hangouts. It's got a beautiful UI, it's polished, it's smooth, and holy hell, even with a huge SMS database this app flies. I suggest you all download it at once.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hellotext.hello&hl=en

I'll give it a shot. The recent CM nightlies have borked SMS on my device, and a few others with the S3. Those damn character limits are back. After 160, it stops typing. It just started about 10 days ago too. Not sure if this app will fix that, but I jumped back to an early January nightly of CM11, because the CM database only went as far back as 2/7.


I was discussing the Chromecast with friends today, because I still don't know much about it. Interesting to know that some apps like Netflix and Google Apps project in 1080 but when mirroring from Chrome on your computer, it is just 720p. That's kinda weird.

Is the Chromecast a replacement for hooking your computer up with an HDMI cable to your TV? Because I'm not sure I could use VLC on my computer to stream to my TV. All my computer could send out would be what was in one tab on Chrome, right?

The N7 is back to being $179 again at Micro Center. It's a good deal, but too close to the refresh for my comfort. And seeing as how the iPad now is taking care of my video watching and PDF reading, I'd rather start clinical years with a new device after passing the exam, rather than buying a second device now to watch videos...which I can do fine on the first device, the iPad.

I see the LG G Pad is also not doing so hot, sales-wise, and is now $250. It was on Slickdeals and some people in the comments were talking about the N8, as if it were already confirmed. Saying it would be coming out soon and could possibly retail for $300.

 

[Casey]

I'll give it a shot. The recent CM nightlies have borked SMS on my device, and a few others with the S3. Those damn character limits are back. After 160, it stops typing. It just started about 10 days ago too. Not sure if this app will fix that, but I jumped back to an early January nightly of CM11, because the CM database only went as far back as 2/7.


I was discussing the Chromecast with friends today, because I still don't know much about it. Interesting to know that some apps like Netflix and Google Apps project in 1080 but when mirroring from Chrome on your computer, it is just 720p. That's kinda weird.

Is the Chromecast a replacement for hooking your computer up with an HDMI cable to your TV? Because I'm not sure I could use VLC on my computer to stream to my TV. All my computer could send out would be what was in one tab on Chrome, right?

The N7 is back to being $179 again at Micro Center. It's a good deal, but too close to the refresh for my comfort. And seeing as how the iPad now is taking care of my video watching and PDF reading, I'd rather start clinical years with a new device after passing the exam, rather than buying a second device now to watch videos...which I can do fine on the first device, the iPad.

I see the LG G Pad is also not doing so hot, sales-wise, and is now $250. It was on Slickdeals and some people in the comments were talking about the N8, as if it were already confirmed. Saying it would be coming out soon and could possibly retail for $300.

There's been a few purported leaks regarding an N8, but nothing solid. One mentioned a release date of April. I'd say that's possible, given that Google IO takes place at the end of May, and they tend to have new hardware to give to the attendees.

Chromecast is more for streaming services. Pushing Netflix/YouTube/Google Play Music etc to your TV. There's apps that can push local content from your phone or tablet too. But casting a browser tab doesn't look that great.

The way Chromecast works is that it pushes a link to the video/audio/etc hosted on a cloud server to the TV and starts streaming it. It doesn't take a lot of resources to do that. But mirroring your actual device and casting a Chrome tab is more resource intensive. Hence the resolution disparity.

 

[Pittsey]

Netflix is good quality on the chromecast.

Youtube looks shit.

 

[ARon]

Pitts, tell me about hbo go

 

[dilla]

There's been a few purported leaks regarding an N8, but nothing solid. One mentioned a release date of April. I'd say that's possible, given that Google IO takes place at the end of May, and they tend to have new hardware to give to the attendees.

Chromecast is more for streaming services. Pushing Netflix/YouTube/Google Play Music etc to your TV. There's apps that can push local content from your phone or tablet too. But casting a browser tab doesn't look that great.

The way Chromecast works is that it pushes a link to the video/audio/etc hosted on a cloud server to the TV and starts streaming it. It doesn't take a lot of resources to do that. But mirroring your actual device and casting a Chrome tab is more resource intensive. Hence the resolution disparity.

Cool, that makes sense on the N8.

How is YouTube shitty but Netflix isn't? Aren't they both at 1080p? Actually, YouTube has always been shit on mobile, and I don't get why.

If anyone has an HBO Go account they're willing to share....

We need more smileys on this forum.

 

[Pittsey]

Pitts, tell me about hbo go

I can't. Google's DNS servers are built into the Chromecast so I can't spoof my location unless I faff about with my modem and setup an account with North America as my address. So... For the amount I use the CC, I haven't bothered.

 

[Casey]

I would wager it's because Netflix has 30 million users who all pay for the service, and it's populated by almost completely full HD content.

YouTube has 1 Billion unique users every month, very few of whom contribute any direct money to the service, and is almost entirely populated by home videos.

Essentially......apples and oranges.

Hit Netflix with a billion users in a month and see how it affects the quality of their service.

I think YouTube works just fine on the Chromecast. At my cousins house, we regularly gather round the table in the kitchen and make a YouTube queue of stuff to watch. 5 or 6 of us, all pushing content from different hardware. Never had any issues. Of course it's not as smooth and always as consistently good quality as Netflix, but you shouldn't expect it to be.

 

[dilla]

Why would how much someone pays for the service play a role in this situation? More importantly, what does Pittsey mean by YouTube is shit? The stream speeds or the interface? Because on my laptop, YouTube and Netflix work, more or less, the same. Why would that change on a phone with a Chromecast?

 

[masta247]

The quality of youtube in general is dropping each year and at this point it's pretty damn low as Google are doing ridiculous things to save the bandwidth. The way buffering works now (no way to pre-buffer) and ridiculously high compression with "HD" videos that are inferior to dvd quality in many aspects really surprise me that Google allows such poor quality for a service they are responsible for. At the same time, the amount of ads is crazy.
They're also screwing up the UI more and more with each update - especially for the mobile app but also for the web interface. I have no idea who is responsible for Youtube, but those people are not doing a very good job.

 

[dilla]

When I read the complaints against Google these days, I can't help but think of that Bane quote about living long enough to become the villain. Remember it was M$ with Vista and then Apple with the iPhone (4 in particular with those death grip claims and how they handled it). Now it's Google with Google Plus, ads, and now YouTube. And don't forget Hangouts.

It might have always been there from the beginning. Maybe Google didn't "turn evil" but was instead masked by the hatred for Apple or M$ or some other poor company. But now that Android is so popular and successful and commonplace, looks like the spotlight is dead on them and all these things coming to light are getting blown out of proportion.

Makes you wonder how shitty M$ was when people hated on it (before Win8) and how "restrictive" Google is now compared to Apple? I mean, Android is still more open, but maybe not by as much as once thought.

YouTube ads? Doesn't Adblock fix that? Or are you talking about mobile? I stopped using YT on mobile, completely. I pass over so many reddit posts because they're on YT and I don't have time for its shit.

Casey, I tried hello. Looks nice but I think the biggest (and only) difference is the tabbed threads. That would be neat about two years ago when I texted double-digit contacts, but now everyone is on Whatsapp or iMessage or BBM and Hangouts, and I use two of those, alongside Facebook Messenger. I'm not sure if Hello SMS can combine all messaging apps into one area, but even that would be kind of cluttered and confusing again.

You think we'll ever see something similar to Adium for Android? At least for those of us using messaging services that are not SMS? It'd be pretty neat. Right now Adium has no big name messenger, except GChat (which I was told by someone was different from Hangouts???) and and FB Messenger. The rest is shit like AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, etc. Who uses that shit?

 

[Pittsey]

I think YouTube works just fine on the Chromecast. At my cousins house, we regularly gather round the table in the kitchen and make a YouTube queue of stuff to watch. 5 or 6 of us, all pushing content from different hardware. Never had any issues. Of course it's not as smooth and always as consistently good quality as Netflix, but you shouldn't expect it to be.

I disagree. If I am streaming a video from a major artists VEVO channel the quality in "HD" should be HD. If you're streaming in 1080p, it isn't even 720p. It works fine and the quality if good on my PC or laptop. But not on the Chromecast. If you can't see it, then maybe you need to get your eyes tested? What size TV does your cousin have in his kitchen? If you're watching it on a 21 inch TV, you probably won't notice it.

As for the home videos bit. I'm not a fucking moron. Stop being so defensive, every time I criticise the Chromecast. For £30 it's brilliant. But it definitely has a lot of limitations...!

I take the millions of paying subscribers point. But Google isn't struggling is it? Record profits, again...!


* I won't be arguing these points back and forward with you. I am sick to death of internet forums and arguing extreme ends of the spectrum where everyone thinks their opinion is the overriding one. This is my opinion, given to balance out opinions of the chromecast. If people don't like it, I don't care..!

 

[Pittsey]

Why would how much someone pays for the service play a role in this situation? More importantly, what does Pittsey mean by YouTube is shit? The stream speeds or the interface? Because on my laptop, YouTube and Netflix work, more or less, the same. Why would that change on a phone with a Chromecast?

Quality of image. Everything else works great. It's grainy and not "1080p" or "720p"


Also - I quite like YouTube's UI. And I don't get ads on my laptop.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

Overall, I think the new YouTube is better (on Desktop and Mobile).

 

[dilla]

Quality of image. Everything else works great. It's grainy and not "1080p" or "720p"


Also - I quite like YouTube's UI. And I don't get ads on my laptop.

And what's the reason behind? Google being lazy and cheap? Can't be hardware if Netflix works fine.

I think I'll just wait for the updated hardware refresh. Or for something really ridiculously cool to come out as a result of the SDK release and devs expanding on it further.

Otherwise, it still seems like using the HDMI cable to my laptop is the best option for me. At least the picture is in full HD.

 

[Pittsey]

I want to apologise for my tantrum. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, as they say...!

 

[dilla]

Man, fuck Google. I recently dropped Chrome (dev and canary build) because it was shit on OSX and also was only 32 bit, compared to FF or even Safari. So I'm using Aurora, which is basically FF's alpha builds. Been using them for years, actually, but only recently did I see the light and performance gain. The one thing that sucks is that there is no Hangouts extension for Firefox. Like Google is just trying to force us to use Chrome to use its services.

I used that app to type messages faster than I would on my phone and share links faster, but I can't go back to shitty OSX Chrome again. So now I can't quit Chrome, but I can just close the window so that the extension is active and I can get alerts for new messages. I can still use my phone, but why when I type much faster?

Also, we should all do some meth and read through this thread from the very beginning. It's real interesting to see how much has changed in Android since this thread started in 2009.

 

[Pittsey]

Your problem isn't Chrome. It's the Mac.