The follow-up to the venerable (if awkwardly named) Chromecast with Google TV is, apparently, whatever this is.
In a handful of images shared with 9to5 Google, we see a device that looks more like a wireless charging pad than anything you’d plug into your TV. But there it is alongside the same sort of remote that comes with the current Chromecast with Google TV. There are two cables running from the rear of the device — we don’t get to see it from the back — but suffice it to say that those should be for power and HDMI. The device looks thick enough to possibly house Ethernet, but I wouldn’t bet on that.
The name of the device purportedly is Google TV Streamer, which would follow Google’s standard practice of clunky names.
The remote control is pretty unassuming. The funky legacy Google Assistant logo is gone — back to a pretty standard microphone icon — and swaps places with a gray home button. There are branded buttons for YouTube and Netflix. I’d put money on the YouTube button having the same behavior as the Onn 4K Pro in that it can launch YouTube TV by default, if you want. There’s also a power button in the same spot, as well as a star button, which likely works the same as on the Onn 4K Pro, too, either for launching apps or changing inputs.
All told, there’s not a lot to go on just yet. There’s got to be more to that new design, though. It could just be for newer internals that require more space. Or something else entirely. Just don’t call it a set-top box. For one, it’s not a box. And for another, it’s been years (decades?) since anyone’s bought a TV thick enough for something like this to sit atop.
Google has an event scheduled for August 13 in Mountain View, California — chances are we’ll see this thing emerge then.
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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