Good news for annoyed Chromecast owners whose devices haven’t been working this week: Google is rolling out a fix for affected devices. Second-generation Chromecasts have been non functional since last weekend, due to an issue with an expired authentication certificate authority, but the fix should arrive for users over the next few days.
Google confirmed the fix in a post on its Nest forums, writing that: “We have started to roll out a fix for the problem with Chromecast (2nd gen) and Chromecast Audio devices, which will be completed over the next few days. Your device must be connected to receive the update.”
The company also confirmed to The Register that users simply need to leave their devices powered on and connected to the internet, and they will automatically be updated.
As the problem was caused by an expired certificate authority, the new firmware update moves over to a new Google-owned certificate authority that won’t expire until 2045. That means there won’t be a repeat of this problem for the next twenty years, which will come as a relief.
When the issue first occurred, users saw an error message saying that the device was untrusted and had outdated firmware, leading many to assume that their Chromecasts were no longer supported by Google and were being bricked. Happily for those users, that isn’t the case and they should be able to continue to use their devices again soon.
However, there is on ongoing problem regarding factory resets. Google warned users not to try to fix the issue by performing a factory reset, as this caused further problems. Users who have factory reset their devices will have to wait some more time for another fix, Google wrote on the Nest forums: “If you performed a factory reset during initial troubleshooting, you may still be experiencing an issue where you cannot re-setup your device. We are working to resolve this as soon as possible. Please continue to check the Community page here for updates and next steps.”
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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