Chromecast is front and center in our Android world right now. Google announced Chromecast on July 24th in San Francisco at the same time it announced the 2013 Nexus 7. Since then, devs have been working to reverse engineer the functionality and bring it to us.
Koush is one of the top Android developers around. He steadily builds and releases fantastic apps that we use every day. He has worked on apps like ROM Manager, Superuser, and the Helium backup app. He recently built Chromecast functionality into the CyanogenMod ROM. Now, he’s working on an app called AirCast that will let users cast videos from their Android Gallery, Google Drive, and Dropbox account. He has announced development of the app on his Google+ page. You can just select a video that is stored in any of those locations, and then use the AirCast share menu to cast it to your TV.
Koush has been working to reverse engineer the Chromecast closed-source SDK protocols. He’s got it working well enough that he has shared the beta app for us to try out. Apps that use the official SDK are not allowed to be released yet. Google made current SDK users sign an agreement stating that they wouldn’t release Chromecast apps built with the SDK. Because Koush built AirCast from the ground up, not using the SDK, he can let us beta test it already.
If you want to give the app a try, head on over and download the APK file from Koush’s website. There’s a catch, though. This initial release really is just a beta test app. The app will expire in two days time. Koush has stated that he has plans to release a freemium version of the AirCast, as well as a Chrome extension. He’s also going to release all of his code so that other developers can use it for their own Chromecast apps in the future. If you do decide to test out AirCast, please be prepared to submit any feedback or bugs to Koush so he can make the app better. Check out the video walk through, too. We’ll let you know as soon as the app is updated and when the new freemium version is available for download.
What do you think of Chromecast? Did you buy one after it was announced? Do apps like Chromecast make the service more appealing to you?