Comment by throw7
Chromecast is a dead product. Google killed it, but I think in this case it was when they lost a patent case in good ole Texas. I have several chromecast devices and have no interest in the replacement, google tv streamer.
"... the decision was made to improve the customer experience." Of course that's a lie, but it is ironic, as the reason why chromecast was initially conceived was that TV UX is horrible.
Out of all the dead Google products so far, I'm probably going to mourn for it the most once the existing ones are basically unusable, which I know is coming someday. I've always loathed the idea of giving TVs themselves internet for various reasons. The various boxes are marginally better, but the Chromecast felt revolutionary to me when it launched, because the TV didn't need to be complicated by UI or a remote with a million buttons, it was all in the phone. Also to me personally this user hostile act feels like a betrayal because in the early days of Chromecast Netflix's app seems to have the least number of issues with Chromecast. Even if that was just my subjective experience, it was still the app I used most with Chromecast when I got my first one because Netflix was a different beast then.
I still have my dead 1st gen and I look at it with fondness. I'm not surprised the mega corporations don't have the same feeling, but it still feels bad when they want to take away something they made that I actually liked.