{"id":87249,"date":"2020-10-12T13:27:45","date_gmt":"2020-10-12T10:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/a-tale-of-the-new-chromecast\/"},"modified":"2020-10-12T13:27:45","modified_gmt":"2020-10-12T10:27:45","slug":"a-tale-of-the-new-chromecast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/a-tale-of-the-new-chromecast\/","title":{"rendered":"#a tale of the new Chromecast"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#a tale of the new Chromecast<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n This is adapted\u00a0from Plugged In, TNW\u2019s\u00a0bi-weekly news<\/a>letter on gear and gadgets.\u00a0<\/span>Subscribe to it (and our other great newsletters) here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Autumn \u2014 the most distinguished of seasons \u2014 brings with it predictable trends: steaming pumpkin spiced lattes, slippery leaves layered across pavements, and a deluge of companies announcing new shit in the run up to Christmas.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last month it was\u00a0<\/span>App<\/a>le\u2019s event. The other week it was\u00a0<\/span>Google\u2019s turn.\u00a0<\/span>And the search giant did us proud. Well, as proud as a billion-dollar company that\u2019d sell all of us for animal feed if given half-a-chance can make anyone<\/span><\/p>\n

In just 30 minutes it announced\u00a0<\/span>the Pixel 5,\u00a0<\/span>the Pixel 4a 5G, and\u00a0<\/span>the Nest Audio. But there was one thing that got me really clammed up (at least more clammed up than usual, I\u2019m what the experts in the medical industry would refer to as a \u2018sweaty lad\u2019):\u00a0<\/span>the new Chromecast.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"new
<\/a>LOOK AT THE BEAUTY.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thoughts of the new Chromecast have stalked me endlessly since the announcement.\u00a0It isn\u2019t just the updates to the streamer itself (4K HDR support for $50? Seriously? Yes-fucking-please; throw my body on a log fire and use its smoking remains as part of the process to choose a new pope who, in honor of my sacrifice, will dedicate their life to thanking the lord for delivering such a righteous device) \u2014 it was the fact the new Chromecast now comes with a remote<\/em>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Remotes, I feel, have a bad rep.\u00a0The word brings to mind musty rooms of the aged, their spidery hands with web-like skin grasping tea-stained controllers with increasing sorrow as they fail to set the TV to a reasonable volume. The word brings up images of the 90s, of universal remotes, of separate controllers taped together in a way that screams\u00a0SOFA MASTURBATORS through snack-stuffed mouths. Effectively, what I\u2019m saying is remotes are of the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

But this is wrong. Incorrect, in fact, and I will never forgive you for what you\u2019ve said. Long live remotes. May they be granted immortality.\u00a0Make a 200M tall statue of a remote from pure gold and\u00a0have it shoot flames of praise across the Earth\u2019s surface.\u00a0<\/span>And let me tell you why.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the Chromecast first dropped it\u00a0felt\u00a0revolutionary Using your phone to send\u00a0<\/span>ThunderCats<\/em>\u00a0clips straight your TV was magical. Who needed a remote? Or a user interface? Phones forever!\u00a0Apart from literally the opposite of that.<\/span><\/p>\n

As much as I liked the old school Chromecast, using it as my main TV media<\/a> driver became as irritating as typing with uncooked meat; yes, it got the job done, but at what cost?<\/span><\/p>\n

The remote-less Chromecast consistently interrupted my phone use. It made collaborative watching tough, as\u00a0it\u2019s hard for a group to decide on a movie if only one person is looking at the options (\u201cyeah, weird, Netflix literally only has Jason Statham films now\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

More than anything though, the lack of a remote and a proper user interface made browsing for something to watch feel unnatural.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"not
<\/a>This isn\u2019t the remote for the new Chromecast, instead it\u2019s the one for my amplifier. As you can tell, I have affectionate feelings towards it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was during these \u201cwatching TV with my phone\u201d years that I realized I love remotes. May they always exist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, forever give me a dedicated bit of plastic with only one purpose. Hell, deliver me multiple remotes for every product I buy. Remove my furniture and fill my house with remotes until it\u2019s overflowing and I\u2019m no longer able to live there so end up sleeping in a bush before getting featured on a reality TV show and spending the appearance fee on even more remotes. Yes, give me precisely\u00a0<\/span>that<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before we wrap this up, let\u2019s get something out of the way: does this gushing mean I love every remote?\u00a0<\/span>God no, who do you think I am? There are some truly awful examples of the tech, but that\u2019s a subject for another newsletter. I like to think of remotes like sunsets, yeah you can<\/em> have an awful time watching one, but it\u2019s actually pretty decent whatever\u2019s going on. Sometimes, things are just Good\u2122.<\/span><\/p>\n

What I\u2019m saying is this: blessed be Google for finally seeing the light and including a remote with its newest Chromecast.\u00a0<\/span>But if it decides to remove it from future models? Well, it\u2019ll have to pry that remote from my cold, dead, and clammy hands.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you liked this column, make sure you\u00a0<\/span>head over here and sign-up to Plugged In (as well as our other great newsletters)<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\n Published October 12, 2020 \u2014 10:27 UTC\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n