{"id":259,"date":"2020-10-12T10:27:45","date_gmt":"2020-10-12T10:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/?p=1321451"},"modified":"2020-10-12T10:27:45","modified_gmt":"2020-10-12T10:27:45","slug":"give-me-a-remote-or-give-me-death-a-tale-of-the-new-chromecast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=259","title":{"rendered":"Give me a remote or give me death: a tale of the new Chromecast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is adapted from Plugged In, TNW\u2019s bi-weekly newsletter on gear and gadgets. <\/span>Subscribe to it (and our other great newsletters) here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Autumn \u2014 the most distinguished of seasons \u2014 brings with it predictable trends: steaming pumpkin spiced lattes, slippery leaves layered across pavements, and a deluge of companies announcing new shit in the run up to Christmas.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last month it was <\/span>Apple\u2019s event<\/a>. The other week it was <\/span>Google\u2019s turn<\/a>. <\/span>And the search giant did us proud. Well, as proud as a billion-dollar company that\u2019d sell all of us for animal feed if given half-a-chance can make anyone<\/span><\/p>\n

In just 30 minutes it announced <\/span>the Pixel 5<\/a>, <\/span>the Pixel 4a 5G<\/a>, and <\/span>the Nest Audio<\/a>. But there was one thing that got me really clammed up (at least more clammed up than usual, I\u2019m what the experts in the medical industry would refer to as a \u2018sweaty lad\u2019): <\/span>the new Chromecast<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"new
<\/i><\/a>LOOK AT THE BEAUTY.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thoughts of the new Chromecast have stalked me endlessly since the announcement. It isn\u2019t just the updates to the streamer itself (4K HDR support for $50? Seriously? Yes-fucking-please; throw my body on a log fire and use its smoking remains as part of the process to choose a new pope who, in honor of my sacrifice, will dedicate their life to thanking the lord for delivering such a righteous device) \u2014 it was the fact the new Chromecast now comes with a remote<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Remotes, I feel, have a bad rep. The word brings to mind musty rooms of the aged, their spidery hands with web-like skin grasping tea-stained controllers with increasing sorrow as they fail to set the TV to a reasonable volume. The word brings up images of the 90s, of universal remotes, of separate controllers taped together in a way that screams SOFA MASTURBATORS through snack-stuffed mouths. Effectively, what I\u2019m saying is remotes are of the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

But this is wrong. Incorrect, in fact, and I will never forgive you for what you\u2019ve said. Long live remotes. May they be granted immortality. Make a 200M tall statue of a remote from pure gold and have it shoot flames of praise across the Earth\u2019s surface. <\/span>And let me tell you why.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the Chromecast first dropped it felt revolutionary Using your phone to send <\/span>ThunderCats<\/em> clips straight your TV was magical. Who needed a remote? Or a user interface? Phones forever! Apart from literally the opposite of that.<\/span><\/p>\n

As much as I liked the old school Chromecast, using it as my main TV media driver became as irritating as typing with uncooked meat; yes, it got the job done, but at what cost?<\/span><\/p>\n

The remote-less Chromecast consistently interrupted my phone use. It made collaborative watching tough, as it\u2019s hard for a group to decide on a movie if only one person is looking at the options (\u201cyeah, weird, Netflix literally only has Jason Statham films now\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

More than anything though, the lack of a remote and a proper user interface made browsing for something to watch feel unnatural.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"not
<\/i><\/a>This isn\u2019t the remote for the new Chromecast, instead it\u2019s the one for my amplifier. As you can tell, I have affectionate feelings towards it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was during these \u201cwatching TV with my phone\u201d years that I realized I love remotes. May they always exist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, forever give me a dedicated bit of plastic with only one purpose. Hell, deliver me multiple remotes for every product I buy. Remove my furniture and fill my house with remotes until it\u2019s overflowing and I\u2019m no longer able to live there so end up sleeping in a bush before getting featured on a reality TV show and spending the appearance fee on even more remotes. Yes, give me precisely <\/span>that<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before we wrap this up, let\u2019s get something out of the way: does this gushing mean I love every remote? <\/span>God no, who do you think I am? There are some truly awful examples of the tech, but that\u2019s a subject for another newsletter. I like to think of remotes like sunsets, yeah you can<\/em> have an awful time watching one, but it\u2019s actually pretty decent whatever\u2019s going on. Sometimes, things are just Good\u2122.<\/span><\/p>\n

What I\u2019m saying is this: blessed be Google for finally seeing the light and including a remote with its newest Chromecast. <\/span>But if it decides to remove it from future models? Well, it\u2019ll have to pry that remote from my cold, dead, and clammy hands.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you liked this column, make sure you <\/span>head over here and sign-up to Plugged In (as well as our other great newsletters)<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

For more gear, gadget, and hardware news and reviews, follow Plugged on Twitter<\/a> and Flipboard<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n

Published October 12, 2020 \u2014 10:27 UTC <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is adapted from Plugged In, TNW\u2019s bi-weekly newsletter on gear and gadgets. Subscribe to it (and our other great newsletters) here. Autumn \u2014 the most distinguished of seasons \u2014 brings with it predictable trends:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}