2022 Google Chromecast HD Benchmark Scores — Compared to Chromecast 4K, Firesticks, Fire TV Cube, Nvidia Shield TV, Onn, MECOOL, Tivo, and more

Posted by Elias Saba on — 11 Comments

Google released its 2022 Chromecast with Google TV HD this morning and I picked one up to see how it stacks up against all the popular Google TV, Android TV, and Fire TV streaming sticks and boxes from Amazon, Walmart, Nvidia, Tivo, MECOOL, and more. First and foremost, here are Geekbench CPU and GFXBench GPU benchmark scores to see how much raw performance power the new Chromecast HD has compared to its big brother, the Chromecast 4K, and all the other streaming devices I could get my hands on. Read more ›

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New 1080p Chromecast leaks reveal SoC, RAM, Android verson, photos, and more

Posted by Elias Saba on — 4 Comments

Google’s upcoming 1080p Chromecast has been steadily leaking since the start of the year. Most recently we learned that the new model would likely cost $29.99 and be released very soon. New information has now surfaced, including a lengthy understanding of the device’s hardware specs and images that reveal the device will look identical to the existing Chromecast released in 2020. Read more ›

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Upcoming 1080p Google Chromecast is rumored to cost $29.99

Posted by Elias Saba on — 3 Comments

Hints of an upcoming new Google Chromecast with Google TV have been circling around since the start of the year. The device is expected to be cheaper than the existing $49.99 model released in 2020 and only support up to 1080p content. A new report from WinFuture claims that retail sources say the new model has already started arriving at retailers, which indicates the launch is imminent. Further, these sources claim the price of the new device will be €40. Comparing that to the existing 4K Chromecast, which sells for €69.99 in Europe, means the device will likely be $29.99 in the US. Read more ›

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Android/Google TV News Rundown: 16GB storage minimums, Nest/Fitbit Integration, Tivo TVs, & Software Updates

Posted by Elias Saba on — 8 Comments

Over the last few weeks, there have been several newsworthy bits of information about Android TV and Google TV devices. Here’s a roundup of that news, which includes insight into new internal storage minimums, Nest, Fitbit, and Wear OS hardware integration, Tivo’s more into Smart TVs, and various software updates. Read more ›

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Here’s how Android TV 13’s new expanded Picture-in-Picture features work

Posted by Elias Saba on

Earlier this year, Google indicated that Android TV 13, the upcoming version of its TV operating system, would include expanded Picture-in-Picture (PiP) capabilities as one of its main user-facing changes this year. Google expects the new feature to be used by video conferencing apps and security camera feeds. At Google’s annual Google I/O developer conference this week, the new features were demoed for the first time. Read more ›

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Amazon strangely begins taking pre-orders for th 2020 Chromecast in the U.S.

Posted by Elias Saba on — 7 Comments

Amazon is now, oddly, listing the 2020 Chromecast as a pre-order item that will be released on May 13, as spotted by 9to5Google. The model number on Amazon’s page matches the Chromecast with Google TV that was released near the end of 2020, so it raises the question why is Amazon just now listing the old device and, more strangely, taking pre-orders for it, no less. Read more ›

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Android TV 13 adds new Low Power Standby Mode to reduce power consumption

Posted by Elias Saba on

As more is being learned about Android 13, specifics about what the update will be adding to Android TV are being uncovered. We already know that Android TV 13 will expand on the operating system’s Picture-in-Picture capabilities and now it looks like it will also add a new low power standby mode, as spotted by Esper (via Phone Arena). The new mode goes beyond the standard standby mode in existing Android TV devices to further lower power usage when the devicew is not in use. Read more ›

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Apple TV app on Android TV & Google TV can no longer make purchases

Posted by Elias Saba on — 3 Comments

Apple has updated its Apple TV app for Android TV and Google TV devices this week and has removed the ability to make purchases within the app. While all content within the app is still available, trying to purchase, rent, or subscribe to anything now informs you to make the transaction on a mobile device first. According to John Gruber on Daring Fireball, this change is due to the expiration of a special exemption given by Google to Apple to bypass in-app purchase fees. Read more ›

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Google said Android TV 12 will begin rolling out ‘early’ this year but then changed it to ‘later’ this year

Posted by Elias Saba on — 2 Comments

Google has posted to its Android developer blog an outline of some of the new features found in Android TV 12 that it wants developers to be aware of. The features explained are ones we’ve already known about and include Frame Rate Matching, Text Scaling, and 4K Interfaces. At the end of the article, Google mentions that Android TV 12 is available as a developer preview for its ADT-3 developer kit and, more importantly, says that Android TV 12 will “begin appearing on TVs later this year.” When the blog post was first published, it said that Android TV 12 would “begin appearing on TVs early this year,” so, the fact that Google felt the need to change the wording of the post is an indication that it’ll still be a while before the next version of Android TV is available on consumer devices.

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Nvidia Shield TV issues caused by Android 11 update can be fixed with manually installed updates

Posted by Elias Saba on — 20 Comments

Earlier this month, Nvidia rolled out an Android 11 update for the Shield TV. Unfortunately, the update has been a hot mess for a lot of people. Bugs in the update have broken app file access and Plex Server capabilities, to name a few. Nvidia has released 3 separate hotfixes for these issues, so far. These updates have not been pushed out to devices yet, so you’ll need to install them manually if you don’t want to wait for the public release. However, be aware that these fixes come with several caveats, like not being able to roll them back, not allowing you to watch HD HomeRun DRM channels, not allowing Disney+ to be installed, and others. Proceed with caution or sit tight for Nvidia to finish fixing all the issues and push out a public non-manual update to everyone.

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