The Chromecast has already become something of a runaway success for Google, and at $35 it’s really not surprising. With a price tag as low as that, you can easily buy one and hardly feel it, and when you take into account the functionality it offers, it’s incredibly good value. For all its positives though, it’s not all roses for the Chromecast, after all there’s no way to send content from your Android smartphone (or tablet) that’s stored on the device, to the Chromecast. That is, for now, anyway.
The infamous Koushik Dutta, who you might know as the developer that gave us ClockworkMod Recovery and the amazing Helium backup solution has devised a way to get content stored on your smartphone or tablet to the Chromecast, which we spoke a little about yesterday. When Google announced the Chromecast, they showed off a number of use cases, like showing off photos on the TV. That’s great but, to do with that with your own photos they have to already be on the internet, so that’s Google+, Facebook or Flickr. The same goes for your home videos. Now, with the solution that Koush has developed, you can send content directly from your Android device to the Chromecast, and now he’s made a video to show it off in action.
The app works over a local network, and has functionality akin to that of AirPlay. Just as you can see in the video, it seems pretty quick to us. As we said yesterday, Koush has developed this using the preview SDK for Chromecast. Now, because the SDK is still in preview he can’t release an APK of the app, or unleash it onto the Play Store because of the terms and conditions that come with the preview SDK. We doubt we’ll have to wait very long to see this app launch, and we’re pretty sure those of you who have a Chromecast (or four) around the house will be looking forward to it.