The Chromecast is fairly limited in its use cases – for Australian users at least – with the only uses for the super cheap device being for Netflix, Hulu Plus(both unavailable in Australia) and Google services like YouTube, Play Movies and Play Music, but it appears that Google is extending functionality to include Presentations in Google Drive as well.
Originally found by German Drive user Daniel Lohse he also noted that you need the current updated version of Chrome Dev as well as the Chromecast extension installed.
The ‘Present on another Device’ now appears on Presentation docs in Google Drive but only on certain devices. As noted above the option is now available on my Chromebook Pixel which runs on the Dev Channel and it appears to be an update made available in the latest Dev update: Version 32.0.1671.8 dev – as it was not yet available on an earlier version: 31.0.1650.6 Dev – on my CR48.
It works pretty well, picking up my Chromecast easily within Google Drive and then flicking through the presentation quite easily. You obviously have to be on the same network as your Chromecast, but this shouldn’t present any issues to most users.
The ability cast presentations would be of great benefit to Google in furthering their expansion into corporate and enterprise level organisations, functionality like this available using a US$35 dongle would certainly help along that road, but what Google needs is to release the Chromecast SDK officially so that developers can release their Apps.
Have you found another use for Chromecast that’s not yet known? Let us know.
That’s not really correct. If you have the Chromecast extension installed you can cast from any Chrome tab.
My other half just caught up three episodes of a show from channel 7’s catch up TV service, casting the browser window from her laptop in the study to the 50″ plasma in the loungeroom.
It’s proving to be a much more efficient way of time shifting FTA shows than playing russian roulette with the DVR and the random start-finish times the FTA shows tend to run at.
I have done the same with catch up TV and its been good.
Too bad the streaming rate is generally poor … well, compared to the youtube that the chromecast pulls in
What’s not correct? The whole basis of the post is the fact that Chromecast has been added to Presentation Docs in Google Docs, not just as a cast entire Tab option.
The intro could have been better, but fundamentally the post is informative and correct.
Keep bringing us this stuff, hoping to get my Chromecast as soon as Google lets us buy them from Google Play, hoping this will be at the Nexus 5 launch.
Not correct in terms of being “limited in its use cases”. Being able to cast from any Chrome tab widens the possibilities considerably, and I found the opening paragraph to be somewhat misleading.
Thanks for the clarification Nick. Personally I find the cast from tabs in Chrome to be a little bit laggy for my liking, but you’re right the opening paragraph could have been expanded.
Notice you haven’t actually commented on the actual content of the article though.
We have had excellent results casting FTA TV content. (Optus cable speedpack, router close to lounge TV/chromecast). Apologies for not commenting directly on the new functionality. It is a useful feature, and having used Google Apps for my own business since 2009, I look forward to plugging in my Chromecast dongle at a client site and making them wonder why they just blew all that money on AV equipment. I guess with the frustratingly slow uptake of Google Apps in corporate Australia, I like to focus on the consumer advantages which have that wow factor, which will pull more users,… Read more »