Weekly Rewind
4K Chromecast quadruples the pixels for twice the price: As rumored, Google announced the Chromecast Ultra this week, a new version of its remote-free streaming dongle, with 4K HDR video support and a $69 price tag. If you have a 4K television (or better yet, one that supports high-dynamic range), you can plug in the new Chromecast to watch higher-resolution video from services like Netflix, Vudu, and YouTube.
The Chromecast Ultra has some other minor improvements as well. Videos supposedly launch 1.8 times faster, and there’s an Ethernet jack built into the power adapter for wired Internet connections. At $69, it’s the cheapest 4K streaming device on the market, undercutting Amazon’s $99 Fire TV and the new $80 Roku Premiere. If you’re fine with 1080p video, the existing Chromecast still sells for $35.
The FCC stalls on set-top boxes: Last week, the FCC postponed a vote on short-term relief for overpriced cable boxes. The proposal would have required TV providers to offer their programming as apps on popular streaming devices, such as Apple TV and Roku, eliminating the need to rent a cable box. Cable companies initially seemed to favor this idea, but didn’t want the FCC to oversee app quality, and opposed mandatory inclusion of forward-thinking features like universal search. Go figure.
Anyway, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler probably didn’t have the votes to push his proposal through, so he delayed the vote. Personally, I preferred Wheeler’s original proposal, which would have given device makers complete control over the TV interface, but it’s all going to be a moot point in the long run as more streaming bundles pop up. Between Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, DirecTV Now, and Hulu’s upcoming bundle, consumers will have plenty of cable-like options that don’t involve renting a box.
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