Gadgetory

well if you're a fan of chromecast today is your lucky day we saw not one but two new chromecast devices and I'm sitting here with Mario kiddos he is a VP of product management at Google and he is the chromecast guru you've got in your hand here at the new chromecast second generation for streaming video that's correct it's also chromecast Audio tell us very quickly with these what these do and why people should want them one of the big differences between the when we first launched chromecast and today when we're launching these these new products is what's most important to consumers and to users which is the entertainment that they can access within you know a little bit more than than two years we've had thousands of new apps be published with cast support and there's lots of new apps coming everyday video sports music games kids apps and so that's probably the you know the thing that really matters now what we're doing is we're we're trying to make sure that your experience for bringing that entertainment to your TV across all these different categories is really really easy and simple and something that you're familiar with you know Google has had its ups and downs when it comes to offering streaming video through a Google interface on TV there was Google TV now there's Android TV you guys also make a nexus device for streaming media you know through Google the Google OS and there's chromecast so I think maybe what a lot of people are wondering is why both Android TV and chromecast's and are we ever gonna see a merger of the two I mean that's a that's a really good question the good news is that there is there are so many users out there with so many different needs that we we don't think that the the solutions the platforms or the the products are competing with each other they're really complementary there are a lot of people who are who enjoy watching videos and listening to music and so forth on their phones or tablets or their laptops and they really just want an easy way for you basically to extend that experience to a big screen to any big screen and this is perfect for for chromecast a very inexpensive device plug it into the back and all of the content that you have on your personal device you can either easily bring it on to the TV Android TV is about let's say that there's a TV manufacturer or a operator that's building a set-top box they want an operating system that they want to make sure that apps can run they have remote controls and Android TV is a great solution for that we think that there's it's still early enough in terms of how people are consuming over-the-top content and there's really room for for both products to be in the market and help educate people of all the options that are available so five years down the road someone is in the market for some type of Google powered media consumption experience TV some type of display what is it that they're getting at that point is it an Android TV set-top box is it is it that our personal devices are actually powering the whole experience and so it's chromecast what do you see there so it's so hard to predict fight five years from now but I do think that one of the the key ways that people are going to continue to to consume you know to to enjoy content is starting from their smartphones for different reasons first of all your it's the apps that you already know the apps that you're logged into they know your preferences so it's really easy for you to go up to a TV and say great I'm gonna put Pandora on the TV you don't have to log into to the TV or your YouTube goes to TV so I do think that with the smartphone being more and more at the center of how people live their lives and manage their lives I think it'll be very natural just to extend that that experience to to the TV and but I you know it's it's it's hard to say what's what's going to happen to the TV screen itself and you know we'll listen to consumers and what manufacturers are doing in terms of the operating system that we're will continue to build into to news let's talk about chromecast Montillo so I have to be honest when I first heard about chromecast Audio I thought oh interesting a $35 solution for turning my non Wi-Fi connected speaker at home into something that's Wi-Fi connected but currently doesn't support multi-room audio and then you have to plug chromecast Audio into each and every speaker that you want to do this to so then I thought well I know I guess I'm trying to understand the value of this solution tell me a little bit about it how does it work it's a great question first of all we're really trying to bring the best audio experience that we can the best quality because you want to listen to your music and you want it sent to sound really good and that happens you know it happens to be much better to stream from the cloud through Wi-Fi to the device directly that's a bit better quality than for example through Bluetooth because most people when they're sending music from their phone to a speaker today I believe it's over Bluetooth at we think that a Wi-Fi based solution is is better in in lots of different ways it's you know the parrying is very simple somebody can just walk up and cast something to to the speaker compared compared with today's today's solution and and so that's one aspect now let's say if you believe that okay great Wi-Fi speakers are great for all those reasons then you go out to buy a Wi-Fi speaker if you're buying a new a new speaker you might as well get one that has Wi-Fi right if you're not in the market for a new speaker then instead of going out and paying three hundred four hundred five hundred dollars for one for $35 again as we said earlier today less than the price of a lot of head you know headsets you plug this into your speaker and you have a Wi-Fi connected speaker we are bringing multi zone synchronization out in within the next couple of months okay that allows for you to go in and sing great I'm gonna pay I'm gonna put these speakers into one zone and then use some music to those speakers you walk from one room to the to the other and you can change the music education which is something that you can do but like Sonos for example now which I guess makes me think do you see this as a type of Sonos competitor or something that is offering people that type of solution you know I think we're I think we're actually trying to solve a similar problem but since you know as we said fewer than 5% of people it cut households in the u.s. have have speakers that can connect to Wi-Fi so it's such a young market that I actually think it's good to have different solutions coming to the market because we we want to educate people that it's really easy to do this and so I don't really see it as competition this early on I see it really as you know we're coming in we're helping to educate consumers that they can do this a lot of the consumers already know how to cast and so for us it's really simple to say hey the apps are already available they're already cast enabled you just cast your speaker now in addition to casting to to your TV so I think that competition is good when you're trying to bring in a solution to market like that so some people might look at these two different devices and say they seem a little redundant why didn't you just put a jack into the chromecast for video and make that chromecast audio as well yeah well it's a it's an interesting question and we actually had that that conversation the same device is not being used for both purposes right so when you're plugging into your TV you're you're not going to be using the same device to power a speaker that's in a in a different room we really wanted to optimize each product for the purpose that they're made for and so far from you know all the people that have been testing the product they they they like that