A finalised Chromecast SDK could be arriving as soon as the 7th or 8th of December, according to invites being sent to Chromecast developers to a Chromecast ‘Hackathon’ that will be held by Google on these dates.
The email, invites developers to a ‘two-day hackathon for developers to test-drive the upcoming release of the Google Cast SDK.’ So, in theory we could be about to receive a whole host of new Apps for Android – or PC – which make use of the extremely cheap Chrome based dongle.
Chromecast developer Thomas Kjeldsen announced that he had been invited to the event on Google+ and included a copy of the invite in his post :
The other invitee is Android developer and Chromecast dev Koush, who released one of the best(and most popular) early Chromecast Apps – AllCast – an app designed to stream local media to the device which was subsequently killedafter the launch of the first public beta of AllCast when an update to the private Chromecast SDK was released, leading both Koush and the general public to believe that Google did not want streaming of local content on Chromecast. Google however quickly came back refuting this claim to the Verge advising that :
We’re excited to bring more content to Chromecast and would like to support all types of apps, including those for local content. It’s still early days for the Google Cast SDK, which we just released in developer preview for early development and testing only. We expect that the SDK will continue to change before we launch out of developer preview, and want to provide a great experience for users and developers before making the SDK and additional apps more broadly available.
The recent listing of jobs on the Google Jobs site for various positions in various countries all related to Chromecast, has pointed to the expansion of availability of the Chromecast dongle. With the release of a Chromecast SDK, we could see a massive explosion in not only the usabiliy of the device but also uptake.
In the meantime, the Chromecast is still available for order for just $49.97 including delivery from Fishpond. We’ve set up an affiliate link so that you can support Ausdroid by purchasing one through this link. I’ve just received the two that I ordered so, if you’re really wanting to check out this excellent piece of hardware get onto it quickly.
I bought one of these for my iOS using mate and he has been going nuts waiting for the SDK to be released. I didn’t even think he’d be that keen on the device, being an iOS user and having an Apple TV. But he can see the potential.
The apps I’m probably waiting for most are ABC and SBS. Even more so that ABC recently said they would be adding (some/most of?) their back catalogue.
Goer