At its summer launch event last Wednesday, Google announced two new hardware products: the second generation Nexus 7, and the Chromecast. The former is a largely incremental upgrade to Google’s in-house Android tablet, the first generation of which launched last year. It’s much needed, since the older Nexus 7s are feeling very clunky indeed in comparison to newer tablets like the iPad mini, and positions the company well in the run up to the inevitable announcements from Apple in the autumn.
But the most interesting launch was the Chromecast, a small HDMI dongle that lets owners stream video wirelessly from their computers and mobile devices straight to their TVs. In practice, it’s in direct competition with the Apple TV and Sky’s new Now TV box, two other devices which exist to get content from the internet and hard-drives on to the biggest screen in the house. But the route it has taken is very different, and could be the key to its success or failure.
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