A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, Microsoft tried to turn your TV into a computer via a device called WebTV, and it was a disaster. The main problem with the effort, and others since, is that screens that sit many feet away, and don’t have the same resolution as one on a notebook or tablet, simply aren’t all that great for getting even basic tasks done, like browsing the web. Another issue is the awkward interface: Who wants to add a keyboard and pointing device to their collection of remotes?
A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, Microsoft $MSFT tried to turn your TV into a computer via a device called WebTV, and it was a disaster. The main problem with the effort, and others since, is that screens that sit many feet away, and don’t have the same resolution as one on a notebook or tablet, simply aren’t all that great for getting even basic tasks done, like browsing the web. Another issue is the awkward interface: Who wants to add a keyboard and pointing device to their collection of remotes?
With Google $GOOGL’s just-announced Chromecast, Google appears to have cracked the problem of turning your TV into a computer by admitting that a TV will never truly be one. Chromecast is a tiny computer running a stripped-down version of Google Chrome, and it does just a handful of things: It allows you to stream
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Google’s ambitions for Chromecast are clear: ”For $35 it’s affordable enough to connect up every TV in your home,” said a Google spokesman. Google is clearly betting that even with its limited (initial) functionality, at that price point, consumers will at least give it a shot.
