Learn Google’s New Chromecast Ups the Ante for Cord Cutters

Google’s New Chromecast Ups the Ante for Cord Cutters

Last Updated: December 10, 2015

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With Cupertino upping the video streaming competition with their new Apple TV and its tvOS operating system offering a platform for games and apps, Google naturally counters that action with an enhanced Chromecast. As more users take advantage of fast Internet speeds to watch TV shows and movies, the market for video streaming devices continues to grow.

Does the updated Chromecast 2 offer enough new functionality for current owners to upgrade or interested cord cutters to make the leap? Let’s look more closely at its new features.

The Chromecast Offers an Inexpensive Entry Point into Video Streaming

The best feature of the Google Chromecast is quite possibly its price, assuming your Internet provider offers unlimited bandwidth. (If not it’s always imperitive to watch your data usage when streaming rich media content over the Internet.) At only $35, the Chromecast 2 ranks at the lower end of the price range compared to similar devices, like the Roku or Apple TV.

The Chromecast allows you to “cast” rich media content to your TV at 1080p resolution from your iOS or Android mobile device or your laptop running the Windows, OS X, or Chrome operating systems. The new model supports dual band routers (2.4 and 5 GHz), including Google’s own OnHub. You also have the option to use a wired Ethernet connection for streaming, which is probably only useful if your entertainment center is close to your modem.

To initiate streaming you access an app or browser on another device, but you are then able to use that device for other activity while the Chromecast streams the content uninterrupted. It also offers built-in support for Google Play content, YouTube, a photo browser, and the Chrome web browser. The new Chromecast model sports a small HDMI cable, offering added flexibility when connecting it to your TV or AV receiver.

Chromecast Support on a Wide Array of Apps, Including Sling TV

Many streaming media apps offer support for the Chromecast. In fact, Sling TV just introduced support in early November. The company is even offering a free Chromecast device when subscribing for three months of Sling TV at $20 per month — a deal worth considering if you are new to either product.

The updated Chromecast app provides a neat feature that allows you to download any app that supports casting to the device in one fell swoop. This new app is even available for the original Chromecast, so be sure to update yours if you haven’t yet. The new cross platform search feature lets you look for content in any compatible app using either text or voice.

Ultimately if you already own a Chromecast you probably don’t need the new model unless you want to take advantage of a dual band router. Support for the routers does ensure a great streaming experience providing your Internet speed is good. But if you are interested in an easy to use and inexpensive video streaming device – music too – the Chromecast needs to be considered. Its compatibility with nearly every mobile and desktop operating system makes it a smart choice for many.

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Learn Google’s New Chromecast Ups the Ante for Cord Cutters

Apple Music — Bandwidth Considerations for Streaming Music

Last Updated: June 22, 2015

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Apple’s recent Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) garnered a lot of press for its announcement of Apple Music, Cupertino’s attempt to gain a share of the Internet music streaming market currently dominated by companies like Spotify and Pandora. Apple brings some heavy hitters from the music industry to the fray, including Dr. Dre and Nine Inch Nail’s Trent Reznor.

Still, most Internet users don’t care so much about music playlists curated by celebrities; they want to know whether or not their Internet service offers the bandwidth to stream high quality music with no buffering or stuttering. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at Apple Music to see if it makes sense for your Internet music experience.

Details on Apple Music Streaming Service

Using an app only compatible with the iOS platform — for now — Apple Music offers a music streaming service with a variety of features Cupertino hopes distinguish its product from Spotify and Pandora. These include the previously mentioned curated playlists, Siri voice control, and the Beats Connect platform which lets musical artists share blog posts and other content with their fans.

The Apple music streaming service costs users $9.99 per month, after an initial three-month free trial period. Families are able to get everyone in on the streaming action for one monthly fee of $14.99. Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio station is always free.

Apple Music is expected to be available to all current iTunes users by the end of June. Apple TV owners won’t see the service on those devices until sometime this summer. Android fans need to wait until later this year before the app arrives at the Google Play store.

Will You Need More Bandwidth for Apple Music?

Fortunately, music streaming services don’t require the massive amounts of bandwidth as with video streaming. Most Internet accounts, even as low as 1 Mbps, are able to stream music with little problem. Since Apple Music also offers other content on Beats Connect, you’ll need to pay attention when streaming videos or other rich media formats.

As always, make sure to perform regular speed tests to see if you are getting all the bandwidth promised by your ISP. Remember that an HTML 5 speed test works best on the mobile devices — smartphones and tablets — on which most folks do the bulk of their music streaming.

Whether Apple Music is able to make a dent in Pandora’s market share remains to be seen, but there is no denying that Cupertino is taking music streaming very seriously.

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What Are the Bandwidth Specifications for Pandora, Spotify, iTunes Radio, and Beats Music?

Last Updated: February 27, 2014

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The bandwidth specifications for streaming apps are becoming more and more important as streaming replaces downloading. Everyone loves streaming music, whether on your cell phone or desktop. The issue, specifically for mobile, is bandwidth.

What if you go over your data cap by streaming your bandwidth away? Also, poor bandwidth equals bad streaming. But don’t worry. Here are some bandwidth tips and requirements for some of the more popular streaming apps:

Pandora and Spotify

One hour is about 72 MB of bandwidth usage (15 hours would then equal out to 2 GB). On mobile, if you use a sizable bandwidth cap, you should be able to easily use a 64 Kbps HE-AAC–encoded stream setting. For both mobile and desktop, make sure you’re getting at least 1–2 Mbps download speeds on your device. Use an Internet speed test to determine this.

iTunes Radio

One song is about 4–11 MB, so with a 1 GB data cap, you will get approximately between 100 and 256 songs per 1 GB. On mobile, you will want to use a higher stream setting for iTunes Radio. Also, for both mobile and desktop, make sure you’re getting at least 1–2 Mbps download speeds.

Beats Music

Whoa! Supposedly there are no data charges, but then you’re paying $14.99 a month anyway — on top of your data usage — and you have to be on an AT&T phone plan. Beats Music is also super-high-quality audio, so you will want to stream at the highest setting. Plus, you need to make sure you have better than adequate bandwidth speeds running. More like 5 Mbps download, for sure. You’re paying for this, so you better make sure your streaming is at the next level.

In the end, make sure you know your bandwidth specifications for your streaming service (this goes for video as well). There is nothing more annoying than paying extra charges for data plans, or streaming a song and having it pause, skip, and jump. Get informed!

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What is the Ideal Internet Speed for Streaming Content?

Last Updated: January 16, 2014

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As Internet speed has vastly improved over the years, the demand for streaming services such as Apple TV, Google Chromecast, the Rose, and Netflix has driven many Internet users to push the limits of their Internet connections. In order to get the best speeds possible out of your Internet service provider, using an 802.11n router is vital to ensuring your devices are getting the bandwidth they need. Netflix requires a minimum speed of 0.5 Mbps to stream content; however, they recommend that your speed is at least 1.5 Mbps. If you want higher image quality from the content you stream, you’ll need even faster speeds: 3.0 Mbps for DVD-quality video, 5.0 Mbps for HD video, and 12 Mbps for 3D video.

When to Avoid Streaming

Although high-speed Internet connections are the norm today, there are cases when you shouldn’t be pushing your bandwidth to the limit. Namely, as a rule of thumb, if you do not have unlimited data on your cellular plan, you will want to avoid Internet streaming on your mobile device to avoid overages. Even if you have unlimited cellular data, it usually is best to limit streaming to WiFi connections because they are usually more reliable than connecting via cellular connections.

Additionally, if you travel regularly, many public hotspots in airports, airplanes, and other high-traffic areas aren’t built to handle bandwidth-intensive activities such as multimedia streaming. Fortunately, if a provider charges extra for extra speed, they will typically make the pricing clear on the payment page.

How to Determine Your Internet Speed

While bandwidth measurement is a technical topic, you can easily measure your Internet speed with only a few clicks by using an Internet speed test. In particular, you will want to use a responsive tool because this means the test is run in your browser. This allows you to ensure that no matter the device you use, the metrics are uniform. If you find that your Internet connection is significantly slower than the speeds advertised by your Internet service provider, it is best to contact the company so they can run the appropriate troubleshooting tests.

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Three More Streaming Music Services You Need to Try

Last Updated: October 28, 2013

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We’ve covered streaming music services before, but just when it seems like you know them all (including Spotify, Pandora, and Rdio), you discover some more (such as Xbox Music, Songza, and Whyd). Here are three (good!) streaming music services you may not have heard of:

MOG

MOG has been around since 2005 and has gone through numerous versions. What makes MOG attractive is its dedication to sound quality. At 320 Kbps, it has some of the best streaming sound quality available.

Log in with your Facebook account (or email), then pick your service: Free, Basic ($4.99/month), or Primo ($9.99/month). With free, you have a limit of free songs — you even have a meter that resembles a gas gauge on an automobile dashboard — so to really use MOG regularly, you have to either pay or else get friends to join (and win more free music).

MOG is really best for new releases, so if you love the latest and greatest, MOG is a great source. Most tracks will be free on other services (Xbox Music for example). But if you love high-quality sound, especially if you love your headphones, MOG is one of the best.

8tracks

If you like Internet radio streaming (such as Pandora), then you should check out 8tracks. It’s made up of thousands of individual user-generated playlists. New playlists are displayed on the home page. You can choose from people you follow or from genres (by tags).

Although listening to playlists and discovering music is fun, the real appeal of 8tracks is creating your own playlists. Just upload songs from your computer (or 8tracks will find the song from Soundcloud, for example), write a description, place some tags, and upload an image. Now you have a playlist!

SongDrop

I saved the best for last. If all you do is find free music on YouTube and SoundCloud, you probably have a mess of URLs bookmarked but no way to really play all of them easily. Songdrop solves your issue and does much more, because Songdrop is 100% built by users from YouTube, Soundcloud, Tumblr, Bandcamp, Vimeo, and others. Plus, the player is really amazing. It also has a mobile app version.

What makes Songdrop so cool is just how easy it is to use. You find your track on the web, then drop the track using a bookmarklet or Chrome extension. All tracks are displayed like records, so when you play a track, the record literally spins like vinyl (pretty cool, right?). If you’re interested in finding out what other folks are listening to, you can always listen to user feeds, but the purpose of Songdrop is more tool (for your music) than radio. Songdrop has an insane amount of potential to grow, and we’re sure it will.

Happy streaming!

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Five Streaming Music Services That Are Definitely Worth a Spin

Last Updated: October 15, 2013

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Spotify, Rdio, Grooveshark, and Pandora are streaming music services that have revolutionized the way we listen to the tunes we love. What you may not know is that there’s a whole host of lesser-known services out there that rock just as hard. Here are five of the best:

Turntable (streaming music services)

Regarded as the most social streaming music service on the market, Turntable has you log in via your Facebook or Twitter account. You can then enter a previously created themed listening room where other users spin the disks for your pleasure, or — and this is the best part — you can become a DJ yourself and create your own public or private venue for discerning listeners to rock to the beats you’ve selected. Each DJ and listener is represented by a cartoon avatar. Although the visuals are not to everyone’s taste, they do add to Turntable’s unique party atmosphere.

This Is My Jam

This Is My Jam is a great way to find new music that strikes a chord with your own specific tastes. It works by letting you pick a song you’re currently grooving to and making it your “jam.” Other users will then discover it and give it a listen. They then have the option to “like” it. In turn, you can do the same to their “jams,” which will lead you on a musical voyage of discovery as the service will recommend other users who enjoy similar “jams” to yours.

Ex.Fm

If you’d prefer letting the music find you rather than your having to actively search it out, then Ex.Fm is one of the streaming music services that will push all the right buttons. Bursting to the seams with a range of genres and styles as well as hooking into an array of quality music blogs and stores, Ex.Fm offers tons of free streaming tunes. By following other users and friends who use the service and listening to their playlists, you’re guaranteed to get hooked up with some amazing new tunes.

Noon Pacific

If you dig the idea of getting a playlist full of new music via email every Monday at noon Pacific time, then Noon Pacific is definitely one of the streaming music services you need to tune into. Probably the most passive music discovery service out there, it works by handpicking and curating a hour-long playlist tailored to you and lets you float away on a heavenly musical cloud every Monday.

Jango

Jango is a music service which offers free streaming as well as the added benefits of unlimited skips, social networking, artist promotion, and other key ingredients that the hardcore music fan likes to throw into the mix. Independent artists can add their own music to Jango, which means it has something to offer even the most non-mainstream tastes. The only downside is the intrusive advertisements, but overall that still doesn’t ruin the Jango experience.

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What Takes up the Most Home Bandwidth: YouTube, Spotify, or Netflix?

Last Updated: September 6, 2013

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Streaming media content continues to be a major reason for people to use their Internet connections. Unfortunately, this same content also takes up a lot of bandwidth. Between three of the major online streaming services — YouTube, Spotify, and Netflix — which uses up the most home bandwidth?

Streaming Music: Much Less Bandwidth Than Video

Those of you who prefer to stream music from Spotify instead of streaming video are using a much smaller amount of bandwidth compared to any video site. This also applies to streaming music off of YouTube when the “video” in question is simply a static image of a band’s album cover. Although bandwidth rates vary widely depending on the media format and quality, a good rule of thumb is to expect video streaming to require anywhere from 10 to 20 times the bandwidth as audio. The difference is even greater if the video is in HD format.

Spotify itself offers its audio streams in the Vorbis format, and premium subscribers are able to switch to a higher fidelity stream. The normal format is around 160 kbits per second, while the premium stream doubles the resolution to around 320 kbits per second.

Bandwidth Differences Between Netflix and YouTube

In general, YouTube gives its users a wider array of options in video-streaming quality when compared to Netflix. YouTube videos are streamed in resolutions from 240p all the way to full HD: 1080p. You as the user control the resolution of the video and how much bandwidth you are using.

Netflix also provides some measure of video-quality choice for their users, but it recommends that subscribers’ Internet connections are at least 1.5 megabits per second, with 3.0 megabits per second recommended for DVD quality. Obviously, HD quality requires even more bandwidth.

Summing Up

Either YouTube or Netflix can take up more bandwidth than the other, depending on your choice for video-streaming quality. Considering that Netflix has a wider selection of commercial movies in HD format, Netflix takes up the most monthly bandwidth for more users. Both video-streaming services take up much more bandwidth than Spotify or any other music-streaming service. Thankfully, users still hold a lot of control over their own bandwidth usage.

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Google Play Music Review: Is Google Play All Access Any Good?

Last Updated: August 13, 2013

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Google Play Music All Access is a new streaming music service. It allows unlimited listening access to millions of songs and is $9.99 per month, but you can also try it for free for 30 days (it’s absolutely worth it at this time). Keep in mind that iTunes Radio is still a few months away, so after iOS 7 releases this fall, we will see what the comparisons are like.

What’s Different About Google Play Music?

You can create personalized radio from any song or artist, as you can with Pandora, and listen to radio with unlimited skips. What Google Play has that other music streaming services don’t have is storage. You can upload your own music or buy from the Google Play library, which is a nice plus. Everything from the sound quality to the user experience is exceptional.

How Does It Work?

If you’re a Chrome or an Android user, you’re in heaven. Once you pick a few artists or albums, Google Play Music really starts working. Your home page becomes a selection of records, similar to an iTunes library or Rdio playlist. Select My Library, and every artist is listed in alphabetical order with a nice image in each selection. In the header are Artists, Albums, and Songs. If you pick the Albums header, all of your Albums are listed randomly. If you pick the Songs header, you get a Spotify-like list in alphabetical order.

What Other Features Does It Have?

Google Play music has a Radio feature and an Explore feature, as well. Radio is by artist, or genre, and is similar to Pandora in design, although some might argue that Pandora is a bit more advanced with its music selections. Explore is also great and similar to Songza. Users compile Playlists, which are pretty good in taste and selection. In addition, with Chromecast, your Google Play account can now stream to your TV (that alone justifies the monthly fee).

Is Google Play Music All Access the Best Streaming Service?

As far as music streaming services go, Pandora and Spotify are better. Spotify has more tracks available (more dance, hip-hop, world, indie tracks) and some may argue that Pandora has a better radio selection experience.

While Google Play has some room for improvement, what makes it worth the monthly fee is very similar to why you loved (back in the day) your favorite record stores. Some record stores have the best dance music and some have the best reggae and world music. But you like both, so you buy from both. Having Google Play, Spotify, Rdio, and Pandora subscriptions just opens up more streaming for your library. That’s nothing but a good thing for music lovers.

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Top Five Streaming Music Services

Last Updated: June 17, 2013

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Some streaming music services to use

There are an incredible amount of streaming music services now, but unfortunately a lot of them tend to be subpar because of minimal content and bad-user experience. Here are some strong, free music streaming services for music folks who love streaming at work and on the go.

1. Spotify

Spotify is one of the best music streaming services available. If you know what you like by artist, album and track, you don’t need programming. That’s the magic of Spotify. It’s comparable to a free iTunes Store. If you’re not using Spotify, you’re seriously missing out. The best thing about Spotify is their immense library, good taste, amazing quality and their iPad app version just to name a few. With Spotify, you don’t even need the paid service at all. And if you do pay, it’s not that expensive. Try it out!

2. Pandora

Pandora is the streaming radio mecca of the online world and is where music streaming began to get serious. It may be safe to assume that most people have a Pandora subscription and a mobile app as the iPad app interface is amazing.

3. Songza

Songza has Internet radio playlists compiled by music critics, legendary DJs, musicians and music lovers. You can even submit a playlist (i.e. a 70s Turkish Psych playlist of your favorite artists like Selda and Baris Manco). They also have some amazing playlist categories like working, boosting your energy, hanging out or taking a sunny stroll. Even cooler offerings are the Record-store Clerk categories, like Classic Prog, Krautrock and Early West Coast Punk (i.e. The Germs, Gun Club, Black Flag). Plus, the mobile app for iPad and iPhone are both totally amazing.

4. Whyd

Whyd is like the Pinterest of music and could be the solution for all of your endless YouTube and Soundcloud bookmarks. The service is part organization tool—like an RSS reader—and part social network. It can save anything from YouTube, Vimeo or SoundCloud and is totally free. Check out their website to request an invitation so you can start uploading.

5. Songdrop

Songdrop is another tool with a bit of a fancier UI/UX and the spinning records are super-cool. What makes Songdrop different is the “drop” feature, which is very similar to the Pinterest “pin” feature.

There are many more music streaming services and many more soon to come, but for now, try these out and start developing your own process for collecting and listening to free streaming music.

Alan Henry and his life-changing article called The Best Streaming Services You Aren’t Using (But Should) was an influence while writing this article.