At the Google press event today, we got even more than we bargained for when it came to the second coming of the Chromecast. Alongside a new and improved Chromecast for your TV, Google has jumped into the lucrative game of multiroom audio, with the aptly titled new device Chromecast Audio, available today for just $35.
While it may share a name with its TV-tailored cousin, the Chromecast Audio is a wholly different animal. Designed as an easy way to get into the convenient world of Wi-Fi speakers, the new Chromecast audio can connect to virtually any speaker in your home through a 3.5mm input, allowing you to stream music from “all the popular music apps” from your Android or iOS mobile device, as well as Android mirroring to play tracks loaded on your Android phone. Compatible apps include Google Play Music, Pandora, and other casting apps, which also now includes Spotify. However, if you’re an Apple Music fan, you’re out of luck here.
And if you decide to buy more than one Chromecast audio, you’ll basically be able to construct a full-on multiroom audio solution with speakers you already own. Through the main app, users will be able to synchronize each speaker to play throughout the home from your device, or any compatible “castable” streaming services. That could cut down heavily on the price of, say, a Sonos system (which start at around $200 per speaker) by hundreds of dollars if you uses speakers you already own.
However, multiroom streaming is not yet available — the feature is expected to be rolled out in the near future. As such, we’ll have to wait and see just how viable the new device is as a multiroom system. And again, no Apple Music.
Chromecast Audio isn’t revolutionary by any means — we’ve actually seen several products like this before, including the Cobblestone from Muzo, which can also source tracks from any DLNA device on your network. It also remains to be seen just how good the audio components are inside the little component, which will affect the sound quality immensely.
But at $35, the device is an enticingly affordable new option. At the very least, that makes the Chromecast Audio an intriguing new development in the world of Chromecast, and multiroom audio. We’ll be checking it out soon, so stay tuned for our final verdict.
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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