Google celebrates Chromecast’s 2nd birthday with free movie rentals

By David Nield July 25, 2015

google celebrates chromecasts 2nd birthday with free movie rentals chromecast black hdmi final — Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you’ve picked up a cheap streaming dongle from Google in the past couple of years then you might want to go and check up on the offers page for the device — Google is celebrating the Chromecast’s second birthday with a number of promotional deals, including a free movie rental from Google Play.

Right now it looks like these offers only apply to users in the U.S. (as that’s where the Chromecast launched first) but pay close attention to the deals available as the anniversary rolls around in your own country. Users are also seeing offers for other third-party services and products.

Head to the official Google Q&A page for more details of what you can pick up. As far as the free movie rental goes, the company says you have to redeem the offer from Google Play and must do so by December 31, 2015 — there’s plenty of time to wait if you don’t like the current movie selection.

It may not be the biggest or flashiest Google product out there, but the Chromecast has been one of the company’s most popular devices, letting users stream content from laptops, smartphones, and tablets up to a larger television set or monitor. It’s certainly captured the public’s imagination more than Android TV.

Now entering its third year of existence, there are plenty of rumors that the Chromecast is going to get an update of some sort in the near future. Google has confirmed that a second edition of the dongle is in the pipeline, but quite what it will bring to the table or when we can expect to see it isn’t clear. Chances are Google will largely stick to its winning formula next time around.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Contributor

Dave is a freelance journalist from Manchester in the north-west of England. He's been writing about technology since the…

Audio / Video

Google ends support for the original Chromecast

Google's first-gen Chromecast dongle.

Ten years is not a bad run in the world of smart devices. That's how long it's been since Google released the very first Chromecast, a tiny $35 HDMI dongle that let you wirelessly stream audio and video to your TV, with your phone serving as the remote. We liked it so much when it debuted, we named it the best product of 2013.

Unfortunately, all good things must pass, and 9to5Google recently noticed that Google quietly ended support for the original Chromecast on April 27, 2023, which means it will no longer get any feature or security updates.

Audio / Video

Google TV adds even more free TV to its live guide

Google TV live guide.

For all the attention the Streaming Wars get — and most of that is misguided — free TV is still huge in a world of Netflix and Disney+. And so it's of little surprise to see Google TV today announcing the addition of Tubi, Plex, and Haystack News to its Live tab, giving what it says are more than 800 channels of free TV, all in one place.

They join Pluto TV, which already was integrated, as well as news channels from NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox.

Audio / Video

Chromecast with Google TV makes the leap to Android 12

Chromecast with Google TV.

Chromecast with Google TV is no spring chicken, having just had its second birthday. But it's hardly being put out to pasture — and a new software update makes that clear. The first device with the new "Google TV" (as opposed to the old Google TV of yore, but we digress) operating system and user interface has just made the leap from Android 10 to Android 12.

And before anyone hops in and says, "but Chromecast runs Google TV and not Android TV!!!" -- we're just going to go ahead and stop you right there. Call it what you want — and Google's definitely called it both, including in this new changelog — but the end result is that it's now on "Android TV OS 12," according to the changelog for version STTE.220621.019.A2. You'll also now be on the July 2022 security patch.