During 2015-16 I was given 3 or 4 opportunities to get a free Chromecast, and I got one. It sits barely used now, in one of the rarely visited HDMI inputs on my TV. I wonder how many of those "sold" devices were actually given away and forgotten.

Chromecast cannot possibly be considered usable by most because it follows a weirdo, google-style, controlled-by-the-browser (but only Chrome) model. It is the most absurd way to watch TV ever invented. I use it sometimes, sure, because it's the only Linux-friendly HDMI dongle (Chrome runs on Linux), but can't imagine anyone actually liking it.

Apple TV, in comparison, is tightly integrated into every MacOS and iOS device, i.e. not only into the OS but often into the applications that run on them. And I don't remember anyone offering a free ATV to me... :)

>Chromecast cannot possibly be considered usable by most because it follows a weirdo, google-style, controlled-by-the-browser (but only Chrome) model. It is the most absurd way to watch TV ever invented. I use it sometimes, sure, because it's the only Linux-friendly HDMI dongle (Chrome runs on Linux), but can't imagine anyone actually liking it.

This only makes sense if you completely disregard the fact that almost all the major VOD providers (excepting Amazon Prime Video) provide Chromecast support in their Android and iOS apps. It's extremely convenient for me; open the app, cast to the TV, and select the video.

I find Chromecast to be pretty much the perfect model for displaying content on TVs. Put the intelligence in the device, not the TV.

I wish that more tablet and phone apps supported it. But then I always have the browser fallback when they don't.

Apple TV is OK and I have one. But I prefer to display stuff the way I'm already accustomed to doing so and then cast it to my TV when I want to.

The Apple TV works great for that. I pretty much only Airplay videos with Beamer.

I have the exact opposite feeling. Love Chromecast and don't care about Apple TV.

Even if I open a torrent file on my laptop, it automatically starts streaming to the Chromecast.

I'm honestly suprised that someone dares to say that the Chromecast isn't successful/usable

Ps. I have 3 Chromecasts and 1 Chromecast audio

>Even if I open a torrent file on my laptop, it automatically starts streaming to the Chromecast.

Wait, what? How did you set this up?

It's not that hard. Create a console application in Visual Studio ( it's a Windows Application).

The arguments are the default ones, that are triggerd when you "Open With" - Choose a program. You receive a filename

Then run a new console, which runs castnow ( https://github.com/xat/castnow ). And voila

PS. Can choose the wrong chromecast when there are 2 devices in the network :p

I genuinely like the Chromecast. It works with Netflix, Popcorn Time, BBC iPlayer, Twitch, YouTube, and I use an app called Airflow which lets me cast any video file. That's 100% of the TV my family watches. Plus it shows nice pictures in between all that.

I'm totally aware that it's basically just a fancy HDMI cable but we can easily cast from three operating systems, plus all our phones and tablets. I don't want a device any smarter than this, with menus and libraries of stuff it wants me to buy. The Chromecast model works great for us.

>And I don't remember anyone offering a free ATV to me... :)

I love my AppleTV and got it free from pre-paying my DIRECTV Now app for 3 months. It was a no brainer for me.

I use an Apple TV, but 90% of the time it's just being an AirPlay receiver - the same functionality that Chromecast provides.

Inebriated on that Apple kool-aid I see. I think 90% of the stuff me and my friends play on the Chromecast is initiated by the Netflix or YouTube app, where all I have to do is tap a button. You know what else is great? If we're chilling with multiple people, I don't exclude 80% of them from controlling or playing anything by having an Apple TV. Fancy that, the Chromecast is actually a simpeler, more useable product than what Apple created.

Hold on, how do you let 80% of people to control Chromecast? If anything's it's not controllable by anyone by default because nobody happens to lug around a laptop with a pre-installed chrome extension. I haven't used Android for a while, but on my last Nexus phone Chromecast wasn't useful for anything other than Youtube.

Android + Chromecast integration is really great. You can get automatic playback controls if you're on the same wifi or in near proximity.

Everything I use for media support Chromecast on both iOS and Android (Spotify, Pocket Casts, Netflix, Youtube, etc) Chrome supports to videos in websites. I'd say most times I go to see if an android app has Chromecast support, it does. I'm not sure how much that's true of iOS apps. I'd guess it's less.

Google home integration is really nice too. I can tell Google home to play something on the Chromecast.

I've worked in places with Macs + Apple TVs in conference rooms, and Airplay was definitely more annoying than Chromecasting.

For things like Netflix or HBO, I just cast from the iPhone app.

Localcast on Android allows you cast any video stream (on a browser), or any local file or any chrome tab. So you can stream a presentation from Google Drive.

>I haven't used Android for a while

Maybe you should have considered that before engaging in a conversation about devices tightly integrated with Android.

Fwiw, all the major apps which have Chromecast support on Android also have it on iOS as well.

It doesn't say anything about sales of Amazon devices. And I would take the initial volumes of Chromecasts with a big grain of salt. The iPhone is outsold by Android phones... it's not exactly an unsuccessful product.

While accurate is seems disingenuous to lump $35 devices in with $150-$200 devices and then pretend total units shipped is the only thing that matters (as if Mercedes was a failure for selling fewer cars than Yugo in 1987). Apple could easily make a media stick if they wanted to, but they don't. They used to sell Apple TV's at $100, marked it down to $70 while they phased the cheaper models out and now only sell them at $150 and $200.

Roku had $400 million in revenue in 2016[1] which includes content share while Apple TV produced a billion dollars of revenue back in in 2013 [2]. And Apple's margins are way higher than Roku's. Apple TV, while a self described 'hobby' by Apple (presumably when compared to iOS/Mac), was and still is a very successful product in a category it basically invented.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roku,_Inc.

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_TV#3rd_generation