What to Expect from Chromecast...

Edward C. Baig

I don't yet know how well the Chromecast USB dongle will work streaming video from a phone, tablet, or laptop onto a big screen TV. But at $35 bucks I can sure see lots of folks giving it a try.
What I can tell you after removing this thing from the box — it's not much bigger than the keys that unlock my front door.

One end of the device plugs into the HDMI port of your TV; the other end has a port for USB power. After plugging it into the TV, you switch to the appropriate "input" and download an app onto your computer or phone/tablet. The computer should be within 20 feet of the TV and on the same Wi-Fi network as Chromecast.

To choose what to watch, you press the "cast" icon within the app that you want to play on your TV, with YouTube, Google Play Music, Google Play Movies and Netflix initially supported. In fact, under a current promotion, you get three months of Netflix free when you buy Chromecast. You can control the volume and playback using your smartphone, tablet or iPhone.

Though this particular feature is still in a beta testing phase, Google will also let you stream the Web via the Chrome browser on certain Macs, Windows PCs and Chromebooks.

Google made a big point out of the fact that Chromecast not only works on Android and Chrome based machines as you would expect, but on the rival iOS-based iPhone and iPad too.