Fans of Chromecast are gtting quite a bit of added functionality today, as three major services have been updated to support the streaming stick. Rdio, Vudu, and Crackle all support streaming via Google’s dongle, nearly eliminating the reasons not to have one. For fans of either or all of the media streaming services, it brings added benefits to your living room as well as your smartphone.
Vudu was one we heard about previously, but they’ve gone ahead and rolled the update out. Many dislike the media quality of Vudu, but for overall use, it’s still not bad. The WalMart owned service will now support Chromecast, but we wonder how many Chromecast supporters will sign up for Vudu.
Rdio is a great music streaming service, and Chromecast support helps for those who have a great home theater system. The app’s interface to Chromecast is simple, which helps to keep the music front and center. It’s a lot like Play Music for Chromecast, witht he displayed music being a simple album cover and notation of what’s playing, leaving you to add more on the back end via the app.
Crackle is a Roku mainstay, with many finding their way to the TV and Movie streaming service of late. The Sony-owned service coming with Chromecast support should bring more users to the fold, and is a nice addition to the media offerings for the $35 TV dongle. Though we like what all have to offer, none are the silver bullet Chromecast needs.
Three more media streaming apps makes for a compelling reason to have a Chromecast, that’s for sure. Though we like what’s on offer, we’re still waiting for the biggest fish in the sea to make an appearance via Android and Chromecast. We still don’t have Amazon support, who remain the lone major holdout for Chromecast. We’re hoping their announcement in a few days brings it to us, but we won’t hold our breath.
