Not long ago Google launched the latest version of its popular Chromecast, in turn the first with Google TV as the system governing the hardware. However, there is already information suggesting that the company would be working on a device of that style, but more ambitious, with which to compete in a scenario in which powerful alternatives are gaining more and more space.
Namely, Chromecast wasn’t the first of its kind, but it was the dongle or device of streaming most popular of those that have been launched, mainly because of its simplicity and its price. But the scene is complicated with more and more content to offer and a replacement was necessary to point in that direction. And so came the Chromecast with Google TV, a device with a renewed interface, ready to deal with almost anything that comes its way, always talking about streaming of contents.
The latest Chromecast, however, lacks some specifications that are important today, see for example the storage of the device. That is why a relay, or perhaps a new device from the same family, but with different features, could be in the oven for those from Mountain View. This is how they consider it at least in 9to5Google, where they have hunted a development reference that indicates that.
They say they have found a reference to a device under development codenamed Boreal. It would be about a device from the Google TV family And since it’s so close to the previous launch, it sounds a bit strange that it’s a regular Chromecast, but with expanded specifications. That is, it doesn’t seem likely that they will simply add more storage or power to the same device.
Now, the latest Chromecast that hit the market is not only guilty of lack of storage: the new version of Android TV, the system on which Google TV is based -which, as we have already explained on other occasions, is nothing more than an interface of the first- requires, for example, hardware decoding for AV1 format, support that all current Chromecast lacks, and a new device would not only be the opportunity to make it happen: it would be the only possible way.
The truth is that although Google’s times to launch new versions of Chromecast have generally been loose, it is not unreasonable that it is a new Chromecast that is in development, and not a box in the style of Nvidia Shield TV, as suggested in specialized medium. It could be both products, in fact: there is room for both on the market. We will know throughout this year that has just begun.
