Cord Cutters Features
How To: Airflow Lets You Watch ANY Movie File on Apple TV or Chromecast
It's a breeze to send videos and music from your phone straight to your TV with an Apple TV or Chromecast, but these devices don't support all file types. While MP4 videos and MP3 music files are the norm these days, I still have a ton of AVI and FLV files that I'd like to watch on a big screen.
How To: Send Just About Anything from Your Phone to Your TV via Chromecast
As the Chromecast becomes more and more popular (it's even available overseas now), the market has seen an avalanche of Chromecast-compatible apps. We can play games, cast TV stations, and even mirror our screens, but today I'm going to show you a multifaceted tool that'll do everything from broadcasting your camera to displaying your documents.
How To: Enable the Chromecast Screen Mirroring Feature
At last month's I/O event, Google demonstrated a set of cool new features that were said to be coming to the Chromecast soon. While we may not be able to set custom backgrounds or cast content without being on the same WiFi network just yet, the biggest feature of them all has started rolling out to devices today: Screen mirroring.
How To: Watch American Netflix in Canada Using an Apple TV
It's no secret that Netflix streams different content based on location. Since your physical location in the digital world is simply a number, a simple switch of the DNS will make your digital "physical location" different. In your Apple TV setting, navigate to:
How To: Turn Your Chromecast into a Jukebox with Collaborative Party Playlists
When it comes to playing music at parties, the whole process can be a bit like a dictatorship. One person, usually the host, chooses all of the music and controls playback, essentially forcing everyone else to listen to the songs that they like.
Bookmark This: Complete List of Netflix's Hidden Genre Codes
The biggest problem with Netflix (which is hardly a real problem) is the overwhelming amount of content available for streaming. Browsing through profile-specific categories might help narrow down your search on something to watch, but some of those categories come and go without warning, and it's impossible to find them again—but not anymore.
How To: Open Kodi & Other Unofficial Apps Faster on Amazon Fire TV Devices
The Fire TV Stick, as well as the Fire TV, may be limited by Amazon's fight on piracy, but after a quick sideloading of Kodi, the floodgates are back open with the freedom to stream just about any video or song you want.
How To: Turn Your Chromecast into a Portable Gaming Console
With the emergence of rumors that Amazon, Google, and Samsung are all making their foray into the gaming console market, it's a possibility that our Android-powered mobile devices might become tools that play a central role.
US & UK Restrictions Be Damned: How to Watch Every Region-Restricted Netflix Show from Any Country
Considering that the average movie ticket these days is $8.38, it's not much of a surprise that Netflix is kicking ass. The same amount will get you a full month of unlimited streaming, and you don't even have to leave your couch. While no one's arguing that it isn't a great deal, the biggest issue most users have with the service is the limited amount of available content. Anything?
How To: Get a Free Fire TV Stick or Roku Streaming Stick for Sling TV
Sling TV, the new over-the-top TV streaming service from DISH Network, is the first to offer live programing for cord cutters. Available for $20 a month with no contract, Sling TV is the easiest way to end the reliance on cable and satellite subscriptions for getting your content as it airs.
Hollywood's Nightmare: Watching Pirated Movies on Your HDTV Is as Easy as Buying a $35 Chromecast
Popcorn Time is an app that streams movies directly from torrents on to your computer, and it's seen its fair share of publicity, being lauded as a free Netflix alternative and chastised as an illegal file-sharing network.
How To: Fix The "Can't Play a Sideloaded Song Remotely" Error When Streaming Google Play Music to Chromecast
The Chromecast may be slowly weaving its way into the smartphone ecosystem, but the amount of supported Android apps that are available for the streaming media player are still severely limited.
How To: Take Your Party to a New Level with These Chromecast Apps
Google's Chromecast is quite literally one of my favorite inventions of the past five years, allowing me to kick back, relax, and enjoy the various forms of streaming entertainment it has up for grabs.
How To: Cast Amazon Instant Video to Your HDTV
Amazon just signed a deal with HBO to host the cable channel's original content on its Instant Video service. For those of us with Amazon Prime accounts, this is great news—but there aren't any readily apparent options for playing it on Chromecast.
How To: Multitask in Chrome While Casting Web Videos to Your TV
Despite being one of the largest and most feature driven companies on the planet, Google can sometimes come up short. I have my Chromecast running 24/7, and while I use my phone to cast most of my content, I sometimes find a video while browsing Reddit or LiveLeak on my laptop and I'd rather just cast it from there.
How To: Personalize Your TV Experience with Chromecast's New Backdrop Feature
It's been a long-awaited feature since being announced at Google I/O in June, but Backdrop for Chromecast has finally started rolling out. With an update to the Chromecast app for Android and iOS, users will be able to personalize the background images that appear when Chromecast is idle.
How To: Browse the Internet with Your Nexus Player's Remote Control
Since the Nexus Player is an Android device at heart, there are already several internet browsers that can be used on the streaming set-top box. Chrome, Firefox, and a few others will run perfectly fine, but the trouble with these is that you need a mouse to use them.
How To: Cast Torrents, Magnet Links, Local Files, & Web Videos from Your Windows PC
Google's Chromecast has been out for almost two years, and I can safely say it has changed the way I use my TV. At first it was a hassle to even get local media to play on it, but now casting has branched out to torrent streaming, which was a real game changer. Unfortunately, most apps only let you stream one video or song at a time, or you can't add magnet links or torrents to a playlist of local content.
Deal Alert: Get a Free Season of Game of Thrones from Google Play—Right Now!
The Google Play Store is known for some pretty random promotions and offers, most of the time it's a free book or a discounted movie. But this time, an entire season for Game of Thrones is up for grabs. Yes, that's right, all of Season 5 of Game of Thrones is free to download, watch, or just stash in your library for later.
How To: Cast Reddit GIFs & Images from Your Android Phone to Your TV
Reddit is home to tons of fun and unique content. A starting point for the various memes and videos that eventually make it into your Facebook feed, you could seriously spend all day just browsing different subreddits and not get bored.
How To: Connect a Mouse to Your Nexus Player
If you've sideloaded apps on your Nexus Player, you're surely aware that not very many are optimized for use with a remote control. This can make navigating such apps a pretty big hassle, since they were designed with touchscreen input in mind.
News: Soon, You May Be Able to Watch Cable Without a Cable Box
Cable TV providers were dealt a pretty significant blow on Thursday, February 18th, 2016, when the Federal Communications Commission decided that customers should have a choice in what type of device they use to watch cable, instead of being forced to rent a set-top box.
News: The Ultimate Cable Cutter's Guide to Watching TV and Movies Online (Legally)
Redbox recently announced a partnership with Verizon to bring a new streaming video service called Redbox Instant to an already crowded table. No prices have been released yet for the service, but with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, YouTube, iTunes, and many others all attempting to get a hold of your dollars, what are currently your best options? Subscriptions Services
How To: Force Apps Like Netflix to Show the Screensaver on Your Nexus Player
For some odd reason, the Netflix app likes to disable the Nexus Player's built-in screensaver. It doesn't use its own, it simply keeps your screen on indefinitely, which of course can lead to screen burn-in. This is not just an Android TV issue, as the Netflix app does the same thing on Roku and smart TVs.
How To: Find Out Where (And When) You Can Watch Movies and TV Shows Online Using CanIStream.It?
Streaming video has definitely changed how we watch movies and television shows, but with the constantly growing number of services out there, it can be hard to keep track of who's got what. Who's got Disney now? Starz? Netflix? Who knows. And when you add sites that let you rent or purchase titles, you could spend all evening trying to find something to watch. Here to simplify the process is a service called Can I Stream It?, which lets you search for your favorite movies and TV shows to fin...
How To: Stop Handing Out Your Wi-Fi Password by Enabling "Guest Mode" on Your Chromecast
Chromecasts can make for some fun nights. Whether you're setting up a collaborative YouTube watch list, letting everyone add to a giant party playlist, or playing games like Cardcast and Big Web Quiz, Google's streaming media stick is a hit by all accounts.
News: Chromecast App Gets a Huge Update—Here's All the Cool New Features
Google just announced a new and improved Chromecast at an event in San Francisco this morning, and debuted a new "Chromecast Audio" for streaming music directly to any speaker. I'm sure you rushed off to the Google Store to buy one of these promising and powerful devices, but while you wait on the new one to come in the mail, your old Chromecast just got a lot more functional by way of a simple app update.
Deal Alert: Spotify's Giving Away Free Chromecasts
For well over a year, Spotify's most requested feature was to add Chromecast support. While they left the request unanswered, it seemed that Spotify just didn't want anything to do with the $35 streaming stick.
How To: Find the Latest & Greatest Chromecast Apps
Now that the Chromecast development kit has been out for over a month, more and more Android apps are being released or updated to work with the Chromecast.
How To: Cast Videos from Your Favorite Subreddit to Your TV with Chromecast
I spend an ungodly amount of time on Reddit, and while I do enjoy scrolling through memes and scandalous confessions, I must admit that I spend the majority of my time watching an endless stream of YouTube videos.
It's Begun: Chromecast All Your Movie, Music, & Picture Files with AllCast
That didn't take very long! Yesterday, after a lengthy delay, Google opened up the development kit for their Chromecast HDMI dongle.
How To: Here's How to Get Amazon's Chromecast Competitor for Only $20
Amazon has launched its Chromecast competitor, the Amazon Fire TV Stick, which is available for pre-order today. This little dongle has four times the storage and twice the memory of Google's Chromecast, plus many of the features found in Amazon's Fire TV set-top box.
How to Hack Netflix: Free DVDs and Money Saving Tips
I remember a time when I had to rent a VHS from the local video rental store. It wasn't all that bad, with the only real annoyances being the trip to and fro, having to rewind the movie and the possible malfunction of my VHS player, which liked to eat tape from time to time.
How To: Add IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes Ratings to Your Netflix with 'Netflix Save' for Chrome
I like to call Netflix my quiet, digital friend. She's been there for me on many many occasions—from when I had to move home for a few months, to when the cable was down for days.
News: Get a Free $6 Google Play Credit for Every Chromecast You Own
For $35, there's hardly a better value in the online media player market than the Chromecast. Taking that sentiment a step further, if you factor in the promotions Google likes to offer with it, Chromecast practically pays for itself.
News: Google Releases Chromecast Development Kit—Get Ready to Cast Anything & Everything
After months of waiting, Google has released the SDK (Software Development Kit) for their Gadget of the Year, the Chromecast. As announced on their blog, the release of the SDK means that any app developer, whether for Android, Chrome, or iOS, can now add Chromecast functionality to their app. And though only a few apps have been released with Chromecast support, that's all about to change.
How To: The Easiest Way to Cast from Chrome
Previously, you'd need to install the Google Cast extension to cast webpages from your Chrome web browser to your Chromecast-connected TV, but as of March 24th, you don't need it anymore. Casting now works natively in Google Chrome (which had been available in the Beta version for a few months), and you can activate the hidden feature right now.
How To: Hide or Uninstall System Apps on Your Nexus Player for a Cleaner Home Screen
When Google announced its new Android TV platform, one of the features they advertised was a home screen that automatically reorganized your apps based on how frequently you used them. Unfortunately, this feature either didn't make the cut, or is still under development, since the home screen on the Nexus Player always remains static.
Nostalgia Warning: Must-Have Classic Games for Chromecast (Android & iOS)
Video games have come a long way over the last 30 years. In the late-'80s, Atari, Nintendo, and Sega were taking gaming from arcades to living rooms. Back in 1994, the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis were in bedrooms everywhere, and over the next couple of years, were slowly being replaced by Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, and the first ever Sony PlayStation.
News: Google Celebrates Chromecast's Birthday with Free All Access Music
It's hard to believe it's already been a year since I was frantically searching every Best Buy in the Los Angeles metropolitan area to find one with a Chromecast in stock.