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  • I would MUCH rather hope it has a built-in Chrome OS itself… not just another (of many) ways to send my cell phone screen to a TV. (I can already do that… and never really use it.)

    But as a Chrome OS device… it would be like having an *ADDITIONAL* device in my home… not just “another display for my existing cell phone.”

  • > It could plug in to any monitor or TV

    Any? Even the millions of TVs that don’t have HDMI connections? That’s an amazing device! That’s for the accurate reporting, droid-life!

  • Can’t wait for this, but Google TV should hav had this from the very beginning. I still love and use my Google TV but I really wish it was still supported (or a better version was made)

  • It would appear Google TV is not making the progress they want and they need another more direct Apple TV competitor.

    • I’ll wait for the reviews on both and see which produces the best experience. Since Mira cast has a smaller user base vs Chrome is (4.x+) I think it’s going to cover a lot more people.

    • For one, this dongle will never leave 4.1. Two, the interface is hideous and clumsy.

      With the rumored Chorme dongle, you’ll be able to push content from your phone onto your tv. You’ll have more flexibility than an Android “Stick.” Whatever OS your phone is running will be what’s displayed on your TV. Pair this with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse and you have a powerhouse Android computer…with limited real world use from a computer stand point, but as a multimedia center this would be awesome. Movies, music and games would be great.

  • Ah one of the reasons i stuck with moto in the rzr hd maxx the hdmi mini. Mirrored screens are great, but for 35 i will gladly switch to wireless given it works atleast similar

  • Is there potential it could mirror games from a Nexus 7 so eventually one day I could mirror an emulator and play Ms. Pac-Man on the big screen? If so, this and a wired PS3 controller and #amhappy

  • At $35, not only would every TV in my house have one but I would buy one to place on the grave of AppleTV. The only thing that could make this better is if Amazon instant video was supported on it.

      • Oops, sign in posted. Weird. Okay, so as I was saying, I’d say that you could do that just fine, as instant video works in a chrome browser, right? Or do you mean independently on the system? Probably need more power that way, and therefore need to cost more.

  • So….

    A $35 Chromekey will be smarter than a $2000 iTV from Apple?

    Brilliant!

    • OH wow, and there are 2 events counting down to next week on the chrome developers Youtube channel….

      Interesting……

      • One happened yesterday – you didn’t miss much. They explained the Roll It game in boring detail. THe technology is outstanding though.

  • F it, I’d pay $90 if I can control the dongle with my phone. I’d love to be able to wirelessly stream my phone to my TV.

  • I would then like the phone to have the primetime app. So it basically rolls Google TV into android.

      • I know. I mean rolled into the android on the phone as an app. (Primetime). Instead of it being a separate thing.

    • How would it do passthrough from a programming source? Primetime pretty much depends on having access to dozens or hundreds of content sources, most of which are, and are likely to remain — for better or worse — cable or satellite providers.

    • why? The bridge between the two devices is chrome – which is Google’s lovetoy

      • Because Miracast just mirrors everything. It would always work without having developers to implement anything.

        Also Miracast is a new standard, so it’s getting into more and more devices. News TVs have it, new Blueray Players have it, all new phones have it, Windows 8.1 will support it and even the new xbox might support it.

        • This is more than just mirroring. You’ll be able to interact with the device using your other device – phone, tablet, computer, etc. This also opens the door to so many more devices, as all you need is Chrome. Many devices don’t support miracast.

          Miracast isn’t a has-been, it’s a never-was.

  • Hopefully it will be accompanied by the 4.3 update, which will have full mirroring to these things. That could be neat.

    • The mirroring will be a chrome thing, independent of the OS. Google is stripping away OS-only features. Makes perfect sense

      • What if I want to mirror something not in Chrome? Then it starts to make sense to have it as an OS level feature.

      • The only thing is that i kind of need xbmc for it’s plugins. Unless plex has NPVR, I don’t think i could switch. It took me forever to find and configure a free live TV backend for my old computer that would allow me to watch TV on my phone, other pcs, laptop, etc. XBMC is android, too.

  • Yes, Please! This would be so much easier than my mhl adapter + hdmi cable.

  • Oh yeah ill order this along with the 2nd generation nexus 7. In my dreams…

  • this would be great if it let apps like TV Portal stream to it but since they removed the app from the play store i will bet they will not. i still want one.

  • why not just make software we can install on our old android phone taking up drawer space (DroidX has hdmi out) that creates the connection. With an SD card, you could also have some cool handy 32GB storage as well.

    • Google isn’t interested in making products that appeal to 0.1% of users.

    • Your DX have 2 GB of RAM to run JB? Also think of the compatibility hell for updating the OS with all the different hardware (see phone updates).

      One device = instant updates. And for this segment that’s more useful than choice.

  • So it’ll cost half as much as the Nexus 4 wireless charger? I doubt it.

  • VP8 is already available in Alpha form in the Chrome Dev for Mac. You can enable it by going into chrome://flags. I’m not sure what use it is right now, but It’s definitely there.

  • I would definitely be interested in this. If it really works as it does, it could bridge the gap between a “smart” and “dumb” TV.

    • This is smarter than a smart TV as your phone (which is replaced every 2 years – or for readers of this site, every 6 months) is the brains, and smartphones are smarter than Smart TVs.

  • It’s cool that they’re producing this but I sure hope the functionality is being rolled into Google TV. I mean this should be something that was included in GTV for a long time to compete with AirPlay. Miracast is great and all but requires compatible hardware on both ends, this seems like all you need is a Chrome browser (on any device) and something with the software attached to your TV.

  • This may sound ridiculous to most here, but it could be a cool feature to be able to stream from one ChromeKey to another. Basically, I’m imagining plugging one into the back of a blu-ray player, then the other into my dumb TV (a la wireless HDMI).

    I have my TV wall mounted with my components on the wall behind it, but alas no room for a blu-ray player. The above would save me from hacking into my drywall. There are other wireless HDMI solutions, but they’re not cheap.

  • Im assuming you would use a wifi network to connect the phone with the dongle. It would be nice to just rely on blue tooth from phone to dongle.

    • It connects to your local WiFi, which is used to connect your phone, tablet, or computer to it.

      • Yeah thats what I figured. That kind of sucks IMO having to rely on a wifi network. Im not sure what the limitations of Blue tooth are, just seems like it would be easier to share that way. Its like samsungs share shot where everyone has to be connected to the same wifi connection. If you could just share phone to phone or phone to dongle in this case it would be pretty seamless.

        • Bluetooth does tend to have some range and speed/bandwidth limitations, not to mention some slight wonkiness in almost every device I’ve used. That’s not saying wifi is perfect, but generally more stable for something like this. I’m not even sure bluetooth can handle video.

        • It works better on WiFi if you have multiple devices that aren’t necessarily that close to one another.

        • Well I have good news for you son.

          WiFi doesn’t necesseraly mean Internet. WiFi is just a way to communicate wirelessly.

          Miracast is based on Wi-Fi Direct which doesnt require a wireless access point (local WiFi). It basically means it will work exactly like bluethooth, if not better.

          Quote from Wi-Fi.Org:
          “Miracast allows users to establish a direct Wi-Fi connection between two devices, eliminating the need for an existing network.”

          Just look Miracast up. It’s an awesome implementation of Wi-Fi Direct in my opinion.

          As for the Chromekey. I expect it to work just as all Miracast keys. Simply connect it, it will wait for a Wi-Fi tether from your device (say, Nexus 4) and in Display > Wireless Display in Android 4.2 select the screen through Wi-Fi. You DON’T need existing Wi-Fi connection or a connection to the Internet itself.

    • If u want easy android on your tv, look on amazon for the tronsmart t428

      • Reviews on Amazon are not that awesome. And I understand why, this thing is coming from a small no-name Chinese company, so no surprise why software is buggy. I’m sure you can get it to work after digging on forums and flashing a few ROMs, but I’m tired of it. If only Google would release Nexus HDMI stick…

    • the main thing that comes to mind is not being tethered to your tv with a wire

    • sounds like any device that has chrome will be able to stream to it, so it opens up a wide range of devices that can connect.

    • When I move on from my Bionic someday that’s what I’ll do. Tether it to my TV permanently and use my bluetooth keyboard and mouse to control. Thanks for the idea.

    • Because….

      1. it’s wireless
      2. it’s chrome – so it’s OS, device and platform independent
      3. Chrome is Google’s development platform that they control 100%

  • I was expecting something cool till i got half way down the article.. Bleh. If you’re looking for a nice google/android experience, i’d go with the Tronsmart T428.. look it up on amazon.. i’ve compared specs to MANY hdmi mini pc devices similar to it, and the T428 takes the cake so far..

    • So wait, you would spend $75 more on something that is nearly the same? To me this chromakey or whatever the hell sounds awesome. We have been clamoring for mirroring capabilities in our phones and now we can basically have it and we complain?! For $35 Jesus people that’s incredible.

      The Bionic guy above had me lol. “why tether my phone to my tv with a 15′ chord” haha hahahahahaha.

    • Your phone won’t be able to (easily) interact with the TV-connected dongle. You’re going to spend $75 on something that WON’T interact with your phone at all.

      Yeah that makes sense :-/

  • at $35 i would definitely get one. it would be great for playing streaming video to my living room TV for services that don’t have apps (NBA’s TNT OverTime being a notable and timely example). i hope it’s true!

    • Keep in mind that you sometimes are limited with what you can show on a second monitor. Brighthouse Cable TV app (which is the same as the Time Warner Cable app) won’t let you go onto a second screen when using an MHL adapter. Assume that this would follow the same rules and regulations,unless if you could find a way around it (which I’m sure there is).

    • This Adapter’s Already Available to Buy… it’s called the CloudNetGo Miracast-HD Wireless adapter — priced at $45 at a site called T ab l e t S p r i n t– and became available last week… does the exact same thing and more….

      • I checked it out, pretty cool. This site also has a few new Android tablet models with impressive features and lows prices

    • If they release it for $35 they will DEFINITELY take away the thunder from the Apple TV (which is respectively priced at $99 and it doesn’t even come close to having a browser or Android capabilities).

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  • This might be interesting if it can be controlled by my phone/tablet. For that price I’d be very interested.

  • this could be very cool. i’ve been interested in those android tv dongles, but there always seem to be little caveats about things that don’t work, or don’t work well. if nothing else, it probably can’t hurt to have a big-name player (THE big name) get into the game

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