WATCH VIDEO. Google has finally rolled out its Chromecast media streaming dongle to Europe (including the UK).
The device is now available in eleven countries outside the US: in Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK. Chromescast can be bought from the Google Play Store and retailers such as Amazon, Google Play, Currys PC World, Elkjøp, FNAC, Saturn, Media Markt and others.
Retailing at EUR35 (£30 in the UK) the device streams applications such as Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies and Google Play Music, via the HDMI port to flat screen TV sets.
Several content partners also announced availability on Chromecast, including Netflix, BBC iPlayer (UK only), Germany’s Watchever and Maxdome coming soon, France TV Pluzz and SFR TV in France with Canalplay coming soon.
Other apps in the US include Vevo, Red Bull.TV, Songza, PostTV, Viki, Revision 3 and BeyondPod. Availability of these apps can be restricted in some countries due to copyright issues.
Google has also released an open SDK,and the company claimed already 3,000 developers have registered for the programme in order to develop apps for the device.
Chromecast is a dongle that sticks into the back of the TV, where it also needs to be connected to the USB-port in order to power the device.
The dongle can be accessed using a smartphone, tablet or computer. This includes iPhones, iPads, Android devices, Chromebooks, or a computer running Windows, Mac OS or Chrome OS.
Beaming photos and videos from a smartphone or tablet to Chromecast is also possible thanks to the inclusion of Plex, RealPlayer Cloud and Avia.
A general overview of available appas per country is available from the Google Play support website.
