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Google could be working on a successor to the much-loved Chromecast Audio
It might arrive as the company's legal war with Sonos drags on
Out of all of the various gadgets Google has launched over the last year, none won my heart over quite like my Chromecast Audio. Paired with a set of cheap bookshelf speakers I picked up in college and placed right alongside a turntable, it was a super affordable way to stream any music directly from my phone without lifting much more than a finger. Unlike the video-based Chromecast series, Google discontinued the gadget after just one outing, but it looks like this is one product that might be rising from the graveyard.
There are a lot of good portable speakers out there, but most come with just Bluetooth and AUX input options. The JBL Link 300 is a Bluetooth speaker that also has Google Assistant and Cast support, making it a Google Home of sorts. JBL is currently selling the certified refurbished Link 300 for $80 on its website — that's $45 less than a new speaker at Best Buy and $170 off the $250 MSRP.
It's time to bid farewell to Google's audio streaming dongle, the Chromecast Audio. After a significant price drop late last year, its stock has since been depleted in the Google store and at Best Buy and other retail locations, and there are already eBay listings up asking for twice what the device was worth in its heyday.The Chromecast Audio served as an incredible tool for those who merely wanted to sync their existing audio setups with the rest of their Cast-enabled devices. But it will soon become another relic of the past, leaving both novices and experienced audiophiles alike with fewer options for this kind of turn-key connectivity. Google discontinuing the useful little dongle is also a prescient reminder that its gadget business is all about the Assistant.
It seems Google may have pulled the plug on the Chromecast Audio stock a bit prematurely last week, as the Google Store is now accepting orders again for the dongle at its discounted $15 price. Shipments do appear to be a bit delayed, with my own order giving an estimate of January 30th to February 1st, which isn't too bad.
Yesterday, a post on Reddit said that Google's little music streamer that could, Chromecast Audio, had been discontinued. Sadly, that turned out to be true: according to an official statement from Google, the device is no longer being manufactured.
We're just hours away from one of the biggest shopping days in the world of online deal-finding, as Amazon gets ready to kick off its annual Prime Day savings this coming Monday, July 16. But even as so many of us get ready to snag those offers the moment they land, there's still been some decent deal action in the days leading up to Prime Day. Let's take a look at some of the better sales to arrive this past week.
Music is near ubiquitous nowadays and it makes everything a little more fun. Whether you're commuting to work or school, taking a flight, grocery shopping, running and exercising, doing chores around the house or your homework, working on projects, or just sitting around and doing nothing, it always has a way of speeding time up or slowing it down, getting you pumped or relaxing you.And with the holidays nearly upon us, you may be looking for the perfect gift to get yourself or that music addict in your life. To help you, we have compiled a list of the latest and best gadgets you can buy this year. We've divided them in different categories for you to choose exactly the kind of product you want.
Thanksgiving is coming up this month in the United States, which means retailers are prepping for Black Friday. Just about every major store will have steep discounts on items, but whether they are worth fighting crowds for is another question. Target's ad for Black Friday was recently released, and there are a few noteworthy deals for Google, Amazon, and Samsung products.
[Deal Alert] Google Store back to school sale kicks off with Pixel, Home, OnHub, and other discounts
Summer is about halfway done, and since time immemorial that's meant at least one thing: back to school sales have begun. The Google Store is no different from other retailers in that regard, and starting today you can pick up a Pixel with a free Daydream View starting at $524 (up to $200 off, a crazy value), a Google Home for $109 ($20 off), either OnHub router for $99 ($30 off), the LG Watch Style for $199 ($50 off), and a free Chromecast Audio with a Google Wifi 3-pack. It's at least possible that little Johnny's grades will be improved by your new phone, right?
The Google Store keeps running promos on the Chromecast, Chromecast Audio, and sometimes the Google Home, but this has to be one of the best we've seen yet. For the past few weeks, you could get $15 off when buying a Google Home and Chromecast, but that deal wasn't even good enough for us to post. Now, however, you can take $35 off the combo, essentially making the Chromecast free.
At today's Pixel event, Google announced an impressive statistic -- it has sold over 30 million Chromecast devices to date.
As a kinda, sorta well-known technology journalist, I get a lot of pitches for hardware to review. More often than not, I just ignore these emails (sorry PR people) because I simply get too many of them. On occasion, someone pitches an interesting thing, and I'll take a closer look at it. Such was the case with the Grace Digital CastDock X2. I thought at first it was a Cast enabled speaker, and I bet that's what you thought just now too. Well, it's not. This is literally a dock for your Chromecast Audio, and that makes it just weird enough to warrant a quick hands-on here.
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The Chromecast Audio is a great little device, allowing you to stream supported content to any speaker (or anything else really) with audio input. I myself bought one fairly recently, so I could turn my old iPod dock into a WiFi speaker.
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.
If you're a regular reader, you'll be familiar with our US Deal Alert posts. The occasional European deal alerts also pop up as well, but as of yet we've had no UK-specific deal alert (or none that I can find, anyway). That changes now, with the Chromecast Audio going down to £15 at Currys.
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The Chromecast and Chromecast audio are already very competitively priced devices at $35 each, but they're even cheaper today through May 8th. Both devices are $5 off at most retailers, bringing the price down to $30. Oh, and Amazon doesn't sell the Chromecast at all because reasons.
Chromecast owners know that even though Google's tiny stream machine is one of the cheapest on the market, it occasionally gets freebies for online video and music streaming services that add some major value. The latest goodie to come to owners of the original Chromecast and the Chromecast Audio is Pandora One, the music service's premium advertising-free tier. New owners can get two months of listening free, which has an approximate value of $8.