Techlife’s essential Chromecast apps
GET SMART STREAMING IN THE LIVING ROOM, SANS SMART TV.
WE’VE TALKED ABOUT a lot of di erent streaming services in this column over the years, and pretty much all of them are available on both PC and mobile. But what if you want to watch them on your TV, sitting on your couch with feet up and popcorn in hand? at becomes trickier.
If you don’t have a smart TV, or your smart TV doesn’t support a particular service you want, then the cheapest and most widely supported solution is the Google Chromecast. It’s not the only solution — the Apple TV is a solid choice as well, and the Roku/Telstra TV can work, but the Chromecast is simple, controlled from your phone and available for just $59.
Using a Chromecast is straightforward: if a streaming app or game supports it, then it will have a ‘Google Cast’ button visible when you’re playing a video or in the video selection screen. Tap on that button, choose a receiver, and the video or app will be beamed to the TV that the Chromecast is attached to. Playback and control is still managed from the mobile, so essentially your mobile becomes the remote for the app.
ere are a huge number of apps now that support the Chromecast, and in this issue, we thought we’d take a look at some of the essential apps to download if you’ve invested in the Chromecast.
GOOGLE CAST
Available for: Android, iOS Unfortunately, Google doesn’t actually provide an easy way to nd Chromecast-enabled apps as part of its Play store. at’s why your rst download should be the Google Cast app, which links to services and apps that support Google Cast.
It also has a more important feature: screen casting (which is Android only). Just tap on the navigation drawer on the top le corner and select ‘Cast screen/audio’. is lets you mirror your phone’s screen on the TV, which makes it useful for apps that don’t have native Chromecast support. If you’re using Cast Screen, you’ll have to keep your phone on and the app open, since it’s simply a mirror.
CAST STORE FOR CHROMECAST APPS
Available for: Android An even better solution for nding Chromecast apps is Cast Store for Chromecast Apps, which is itself available from Google Play. is is not actually an alternate store — it still downloads apps from Google Play — and, therefore, does not require that you enable third-party apps or change your security settings. It is instead a directory of Chromecast apps, sorted into categories and by popularity, with links back to Google Play. It’s a great starting point for nding cool Chromecast apps.
NETFLIX, STAN AND PRESTO
Available for: Android, iOS e three major subscription streaming services available in Australia all support Chromecast. With prices ranging from $9 to $15 per month, the services o er a huge variety of movie and TV content.
All three have Google Cast support on both Android and iOS, with full control, as well as background casting (so you can do other stu like Facebooking or Twittering while a movie is playing) and the ability to continue casting even when the mobile screen is turned o . In each app, you just tap on the Cast icon to beam the video.
ABC IVIEW
Available for: Android, iOS e free-to-air networks have been very slack when it comes to Chromecast support. Right now, only the ABC supports it natively. iView on mobile has a Google Cast button that you can tap to beam it instantly and smoothly to your Chromecast.
e others (SBS on Demand, TenPlay, 9Now and 7Plus) have yet to implement it. However, you can potentially watch them on the Chromecast using the Chrome web browser on your mobile. Open up the site in Chrome and start playing a video. Tap on the embedded video, and you’ll see that Chrome has added a little ‘cast’ button. Tap on that and
it should start casting the embedded video. is works pretty well, but not for everything. 9Now, for example, doesn’t let you play many videos in a mobile browser for DRM reasons.
PLEX
Available for: Android, iOS For Chromecast streaming of your own content — stored on a local server, on your mobile or on a remote server — Plex is pretty much the way to go. A Chromecast button in the top right will start it streaming to a Chromecast.
LOCALCAST FOR CHROMECAST/DLNA
Available for: Android LocalCast, like AllCast and other similar solutions lets you beam local media (that is, media you have stored locally on your phone or on a PC server) to a Chromecast.
LocalCast’s appeal is that it’s highly exible. It can play media stored on the mobile, on a Windows PC using Windows le sharing or stored on Google Drive. It can beam media to a Chromecast, an AirPlay device like Apple TV or to a DLNA media renderer like the Xbox or a device running Kodi.
OTHER APPS
While we’ve covered your major streaming apps above, we’d also recommend:
DAYFRAME
Available for: Android DayFrame is a cool app that can turn any screen into a photo frame. It beams a continuous and con gurable slideshow of images to a Chromecast device, e ectively turning a TV set into a super-sized digital picture frame.
TINYCAM MONITOR PRO
Available for: Android tinyCam Monitor is an IP camera monitoring tool, useful for nanny cams and security, as well as just watching the world go by. Best of all, it works with Chromecast, beaming the camera stream to a TV set. You need the Pro ($5) version for Chromecast.
BIG WEB QUIZ
Available for: Android, iOS An awesome party game playable by up to ve people. e Chromecast displays questions and puzzles on the TV screen, while up to ve people use their own phones to enter the answers.
MONOPOLY HERE & NOW
Available for: Android, iOS Here & Now lets you play Monopoly with friends (or solo against the AI) using the Chromecast. e board appears on the TV screen, while each player uses their mobile to control their moves.
TRICKY TITANS
Available for: Android, iOS A simple but fun party game that, like Monopoly and Big Web Quiz, uses the Chromecast to beam the ‘board’ to the TV screen while each player controls their titan with the mobile.
Below we’ll walk you through how to set it up for your Google and LastPass accounts. Other services will follow a similar process.
SETTING UP STEP AUTHENTICATION FOR GOOGLE
e rst thing we need to do is enable twostep authentication on Google. Just follow these steps.
Go to myaccount.google.com and click on ‘Signing into Google’.
Click on ‘2-Step veri cation’ on the right. (Note that if you have a business account — for example, if you have Google controlling a domain you own — you may not see this. at’s because it has to be enabled in the Business admin console. Go to admin.google.
com, then click on ‘Security > basic settings’ to enable it.)
Follow the steps, providing Google with your mobile phone number for SMS, and it will text you a code and ask you to enter it. You’ll also be asked if you want to authenticate the computer you’re currently using (if it’s your home computer, choose ‘yes’).
When you’ve completed the steps, 2FA should be set up. Google will SMS you whenever somebody tries to access your Google service on a new device or app. Now it’s time to set up authenticator.
SETTING UP THE GOOGLE AUTHENTICATOR APP FOR GOOGLE.
Now that two-step veri cation is enabled for Google, time to set up Google Authenticator:
Go to Google Play or the iTunes App Store and download Google Authenticator on your mobile. Open it. Because this is your rst use, you’ll be taken immediately to the ‘add an account’ page. (You can access this page again or add additional accounts later by clicking on the ‘+’ icon).
Leave your phone for a moment. Head to your PC and log into your Google Account page at myaccount.google.com. Go to sign-in and security again. Click on ‘2-step veri cation’ — you’ll then be asked to renter your password).
ere will be an option on screen to use the app for two-step veri cation. Click on it, then choose the platform (iOS or Android).
A QR code will appear on screen. Just leave it there and head back to your phone.
On the phone, choose ‘Scan barcode’. e phone will go into camera mode. Point it at the QR code on your PC screen.
Once the phone gets a clear enough picture, it should immediately register the code and link it to your account. In the main window, you see a six-digit code that changes every 30 seconds, with the name of the service and your login username.
Back on your PC, click ‘Next’ and you’ll be prompted to enter the code. e process will complete when you type it into the eld.
at’s it, you’re all done. In the future, every time you’re asked for a Google account authentication code, you just open this app and enter the number you currently see on screen for that service.
ADDING LASTPASS
As we mentioned, you could and should also use Authenticator for all the services that support it. It’s very easy to add new services. We’ll walk through one example: LastPass.
On your PC, log into your LastPass Vault (you can do that from the browser icon), then click on ‘Account Settings’.
Click on the Multifactor Options tab. is shows you the various 2FA options that LastPass supports.
Next to Google Authenticator, click on the edit (pencil) icon. A window will pop up. Change Enabled to ‘Yes’.
Next to Barcode, click on ‘View’. You may be asked to re-enter your LastPass master password, then a QR barcode will appear onscreen.
Go to your phone and open Google Authenticator. Click on ‘+’ to add a new service, then choose ‘Scan barcode’.
Point the phone camera at the LastPass barcode on your PC screen, just as you did with Google.
It should immediately add the service to your list, with a unique rotating code.
Back on your PC, click on ‘Update’. You’ll be asked to authorise LastPass using the new code. LastPass requires that it be re-authorised for a given device every 30 days.
You can continue to add other services like Dropbox, Microso , Twitter, Facebook and others. Most of the major social media services support it, and you should absolutely enable 2FA where it’s available. Passwords can be cracked; 2FA is not so easy.
GOOGLE AUTHENTICATOR IS A GREAT ALTERNATIVE FOR SERVICES THAT DON’T SUPPORT SMS OR ON DEVICES THAT DON’T HAVE SMS.