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At today's Pixel event, Google announced an impressive statistic -- it has sold over 30 million Chromecast devices to date.
Google is an American company, as in the United States of America. That means that sometimes - okay, a lot of times - its new programs and promotions are first and often only available to Americans. But today our neighbors to the north finally get something that we don't. And it's pretty sweet: twenty bucks of free credit in the Play Store for owners of the Chromecast 2015 and/or the newer Chromecast Audio! That's better than a free Tim Horton's run.
Remember Chromecast's "Fast Play" feature? Well, some of it is out there in the wild now: for example, apps now can be pre-fetched by the Chromecast when they're loaded on your phone (this works for all Chromecasts). But the one feature a lot of people were looking forward to - video prefetching, aka Content Prediction - still isn't released.
Has it already been three years since the original Chromecast came out? My, how the time flies when you're streaming video. Google marked the occasion on the Google Store's Plus page with the nifty animation below, but there aren't any promotional deals. Not that you really need them - it's $35, for cryin' out loud.
About a month ago we spotted two new entries in the country availability listings for the new Chromecast and Chromecast Audio: Taiwan and India. Today both of those are coming true (though India is somewhat conditional - see below), and you can add Hong Kong into the mix. For both Hong Kong and Taiwan, the streaming gadgets are now available on their respective Google Stores. The Chromecast 2015 and Chromecast Audio are HK$349 (around $45 USD) in Hong Kong and NT$1445 ($44.75) in Taiwan.
The original Chromecast was a streaming sensation thanks to ease of use and a low price point. The second generation, while generally well-received, still hasn't made its way to all of Google's various international markets. The next countries to get a chance to buy the Chromecast 2015 and its little brother the Chromecast Audio appear to be India and Taiwan. Both countries were recently added to Google's official hardware availability page.
Read update
We all love the Chromecast thanks to its cheap price and almost endless potential to turn any TV into a smart streaming machine. Last year, Google released an update to the original Chromecast with a few minor improvements as well as a Chromecast Audio that works with all Aux speakers. Now these new gadgets are available for purchase in the southern part of our planet: Australia and New Zealand.
Did you buy the new-and-improved 2015 Chromecast? If so, you may have forgotten that your purchase includes a free movie rental on Google Play Movies, even if you'd already purchased a Chromecast previously (offers are per device, not account - so you get one for each CC you purchased up to a maximum of five). The movie rental offer doesn't apply to Chromecast Audio purchases, in case you were wondering.
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Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that Google announced lots of new toys at the Nexus event today. Two of these devices are the Chromecast 2015 and the Chromecast Audio. After the event was over, they became available on the Google Store for $35. These Chromecasts will start shipping very soon, and some might be getting them tomorrow.
This year's Nexus launch seems to have gone surprisingly smoothly - there's no angry mob of disgruntled fans gathering outside of Google's headquarters after everything switches over to "Coming Soon" on the order page. In fact, the gadgets that were immediately available for purchase are already shipping, at least to some customers. We've heard from multiple Android Police staff and readers that say their Chromecast 2015 and/or Chromecast Audio units have already shipped.