Chromecast is one exciting little dongle, right? Many apps are joining the party with official support, but it was even more exciting to see what the developing community was doing. Koushik Dutta was one of the most promising (we showed you some of his work) Chromecast third-party developers. Now Google seems to have turned against him and all his fellow Chromecast devs.
Koush believes Google intentionally disabled ‘video playback’ support with the latest update to Chromecast. This makes his app, AllCast, unusable. At least until devs can find some kind of workaround.
He goes on to mention that it might not be the brightest thing to purchase a Chromecast right now. He believes Google is planning to follow a walled garden model with the Chromecast. Dutta believes only media companies will probably be whitelisted, making it a very limited device.
This is very sad, because we saw all the work Koush has been putting into his Chromecast apps. We sure hope he can find a way to make it all work. Regardless, we still believe the Chromecast is a pretty good deal. I use it often and love it, even without access to third-party apps. I prefer having those apps, but I would be much more upset about these compatibility issues if the device costed more than a mere $35.
Maybe Chromecast’s future is to be a “closed” device, but only time will tell. Until then, I will keep enjoying it as much as I can. What about you? Do you consider this a deal-breaker?
