“This thing reads like stereo instructions.”
Sound familiar? No, I don’t mean the movie that I’m quoting. But have you ever had to set up a stereo? Back in the day they were super complicated to set up. Today I just set up the equivalent of a stereo in my temporary home office in about ten minutes. Literally all you need is a power outlet and a spare bit of space to put a speaker.
I have to admit that even as a techie guy I didn’t really get the whole deal with casting. But now that I have a Google Chromecast Audio, I finally get it. And now I can see the use for a regular Chromecast (the kind that does video) and the potential it opens up.
Google Chromecast Audio allows me to manage my speakers however I like. By simply hooking up a Google Chromecast Audio Device to each speaker I can do some incredible things.
Get this. I set up Pandora to play a custom radio station (we don’t need to get into the details of what I like to listen to). I set it to cast to the Chromecast and then literally rebooted my phone. It kept playing. Think about that for a second. No more draining the battery on your phone when you want to play music. You use it to set up your music stream and then it goes off and does its thing without killing your phone. Try doing that with Bluetooth. I don’t know about you but when I listen to music through a Bluetooth speaker from my phone I get about 30 minutes before I need to plug my phone in to charge.
Also, some of you might actually be social. You know, throw parties and stuff like that. I’m not talking imaginary tea parties which are the only kind of party I have these days (the joys of having a first grader) but real parties where people play music. How are you going to do that with your phone and a bunch of Bluetooth speakers? You aren’t. But with Chromecast Audio you can set up a group with as many speakers as you like and stream to all of them simultaneously over Wi-Fi. Yeah. Pretty cool.
Do you have a bunch of music stored on your phone? I do. You can cast that to your Chromecast Audio device as well. Do you want to take all your speakers over to a friend’s house (in that social party scenario where you don’t want your house destroyed)? You can do that too, just pick them all up and take them and connect to the Wi-Fi. The possibilities are seemingly endless. Not only can I play all the music I own, I have found a ton of cool new music in the short span of time I have had these plugged in to my home network. So head on over to Best Buy and get yourself one (or five) and see what real music sounds like (or hear rather than see)Next stop, video. I can’t wait to see what a Chromecast would do on my non-Smart TVs.
Disclaimer: The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.
5 comments