As we reported earlier today, many Google Home and Chromecast users experienced an outage today that left them unable to use their devices. Google Home smart speakers warned impacted users that "there was a glitch," advising them to try again. When the user tried again, though, the same issue surfaced. Chromecast devices, meanwhile, failed to stream content to displays.
Google Home and Chromecast are both down, with widespread reports from users that their smart speakers won't work and their streaming adapters won't stream. Saying "Ok Google" to a Google Home speaker, for instance, gets the response that "there was a glitch, try again in a few seconds."
Netflix has been pushing out a bunch of relatively minor but welcomed updates over the last couple weeks, not the least of which is newly added support for skipping introductions on shows via Chromecast. The skip intro button has already been made available on most other platforms that support Netflix, such as smart TVs, enabling users to bypass long or repetitive intros and go straight to the content.
Google has a habit of teasing many things and then sometimes forgetting about them as time passes. At the I/O developer conference last year, it showed off what would practically become the precursor to the new breed of Assistant-powered smart displays unveiled last CES. It teased how asking Google Home would, at times, pop up the answer on a Chromecast-connected TV. That feature has finally arrived and now you can enjoy actually seeing the weather rather than waiting for Google Assistant to finish rattling off other information.
Google has recently come under fire for the buggy, or at the very least annoying, behavior of its new hardware. But who would have expected it would also botch it’s already existing, even old, devices as well. That’s what owners of Google Cast-enabled devices and the almost ancient Nexus Player discovered at the start of the new year, when they suddenly found themselves unable to use said devices properly. Fortunately, the fix is now out after Google has seemingly fast-tracked its own beta testing process to address these issues.
VLC, the beloved media app that can play just about any video or music format you throw at it, has finally received Chromecast support on Android. With this support, Android device users can stream local media content from their phone or tablet to a display with the Chromecast, arguably the easiest way to stream your own video files to a TV. The feature isn't perfect, though.
Google has lately received a lot of flak for its buggy or, at the very least less than stellar, hardware. The Pixel 2 XL has a litany of faults, and the newer Google Home Mini and the Google Home Max aren’t spotless either. This time, however, users are reporting problems not with new Google products but with ones that have been in the market for years at most. Owners of the Google Chromecast and the original Google Home report getting Wi-Fi drops, but the problem is more complex than it seems.
If you thought Anker was done flooding CES with all sorts of devices, whether they were directly related to its core charging business, better think again. It still has one last hurrah to give and it’s a head-turner. Its ZOLO smart audio brand has announced a new smart speaker with a very unique design that you’ll want to show off in your home. Inside the Zolo Model Zero, however, lies not just power but also intelligence, thanks to Google Assistant at your bekc and call.
Amazon is now listing both Google's Chromecast and the Apple TV on its website, marking their first (official) return to the online store since being removed in late 2015. We saw signs of the Apple TV's return to Amazon earlier this year when the device briefly appeared on the company's website before disappearing. Sales of both devices will start soon, Amazon has confirmed, but it doesn't look like its squabble with Google is over yet.
If you're an Amazon Prime customer, you have access to one of the company's better services, Amazon Music. This service is available via a mobile app on both Android and iOS, and now one of those two apps (Android) now has support for Google Cast. Thanks to that new support, Android users are able to cast the Amazon Music content to any device that supports Google Cast, including the venerable Chromecast itself.
Though Google Assistant expanded beyond the Pixel and onto Android handsets back in February, there remain a few tasks it can't accomplish without a Google Home backing it up. One of the most annoying limitations on the smartphone implementation of Assistant is that you can't use it to control smart TVs and Chromecast devices. If you want to control playback on either of those, you'll need to talk through Assistant though Google Home.
Google has taken the stage at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco, and as it usually does before it gets to the meat and potatoes of its presentations, it took the chance to recap how some of its products performed over the past year. Today, Google senior vice president of hardware Rick Osterloh took to the stage to do just that. Though he's there to debut some new products, he had some impressive statistics to share as well.