How "The Interview" hack helped Google show off its capabilities

As 2014 draws to a close, "The Interview" became the most talked about movie of the year.  While many people may have otherwise ignored the Seth Rogen low-brow comedy, the Sony hack made it a must-watch movie.

An unexpected fall out the event was the release of the movie on online platforms after several theater chains refused to show the movie due to safety concerns.

For Google agreeing to show the movie was probably a risk-reward proposition.  Clearly there was some risk of cyberattacks, and of not being able to provide a smooth experience for what was expected to be a massive demand.  The potential reward was to expose the audience to a somewhat less used path for accessing movies and for providing producers with one more option to release content.

While several of the online sites had some problems, it appears that Google came out unscathed providing a very smooth experience.  In our case, with a large number of people in the house over the holidays and everything closed for Christmas, we bowed to popular opinion and decided to watch the movie. It was a completely seamless experience.  The fact that this experience involved using several devices and apps made it even more remarkable.

Let me describe the steps I took to access the movie.  There are many options, and there may be much simpler ones depending on your devices and platforms.

1. We have an LG SmartTV
2. A Chromecast device
3. iPhone 5
4. Win 8.1 Surface device.

So this is how we connected

1. On the Surface went to Google Play and used Google Wallet to rent the movie.  Once rented, you have to start viewing within 30 days and once started, complete watching within 48 hours
2. On the iPhone, installed the Google Play for Movies and TV app
3. As soon as I logged into it, the movie I had purchased in step 1 showed up in My Movies
4. Start the movie and chromecasted it to the TV

The whole thing worked without a single hitch.  The quality of the stream was superb and there was no issue with loading, buffering etc for the HD version.  

At the end of the day I was impressed at how well it worked and once set up the technology was invisible, and everyone could focus on the movie uninterrupted.  

It is quite possible that more people will be open to using Google Play to watch movies and TV shows.  The great thing is that you can go to a friend's place and start chromecast movies from your library easily.  

First chromecast experience - problems with Corporate WiFi.

I got the Chromecast finally and was eager to try it out.  If you saw my previous post, I was hoping to test it in our small-group learning rooms to share content from each student's mobile device.

The directions are so simple that you can read them upside down!  The monitor I was trying it on has the HDMI and USB ports co-located and thus made it easy to plug in the stick and its USB powered supply cord.  Once you change the monitor input to the HDMI port, it shows the set up screen.

Next you use your smart mobile device to navigate to google.com/chromecast/setup.  On my Win 7 laptop it downloaded an app to help me connect to Chromecast and configure it.  Right now there is no app for iOS and so on my iPhone I could connect to it via my Chrome browser.  Chromecast sets up a hotspot around it that lets your mobile device connect to it to set up the WiFi.

My problem was that Chromecast was not able to connect to either our secure corporate WiFi (LEAP).  I then tried our Public WiFi but it requires users to accept a boilerplate agreement.  Unfortunately there is no way to accept this agreement on a monitor with Chromecast.  

So my last attempt was to try a Verizon MiFi.  This worked reasonably well and I was able to test the system.  The best news is that I was able to project a tab from Chrome to the monitor.  There was a bit of lag with scrolling.  The most disconcerting thing was that you don't see the cursor on the monitor.  So you have to look at your mobile device to use the mouse but the entire audience can see the content on your screen.  

So overall I am happy with the ability to cast content from a Chrome tab though the lag and the absence of the cursor are small drawbacks.

The inability to connect to even a public WiFi due to inability to accept an agreement needs to be fixed.  This may be a problem with other entertainment devices like Roku but is a clear handicap when trying to use Chromecast at work or in a hotel for example.

Look Ma, no Chromecast!

Chromecast is making the news recently.   A cheap device/platform agnostic solution for casting content from any smart device to a large screen and then controlling the content from the original device seems magical.

The device is sold out and there is a 2-3 waiting period Google Play.  I had resigned myself to waiting it out and then this morning I was able to test it without the device!

What I mean is that I was able to test the functionality without actually having the device. 

I have an LG Smart TV which is connected to my iPhone with a LG TV Remote app.  This app allows the iPhone to be a fully functioning remote for the TV.  I was trying to watch the Ashes (England vs. Australia) Cricket match.  I checked my iPhone to see if it was available on YouTube (Willow Channel).  I found that the highlights were available and an then I noticed the Google Cast icon on the upper right of the YouTube App screen.  I tapped it and  the option came up to share on my Smart TV.

Casting a YouTube video from iPhone to Smart TV

I chose the TV and in a couple of seconds the match was being streamed to the Smart TV.  I could control the video from my iPhone.  

Controlling the content on the large screen via iPhone

watching the casted content on large screen

Seeing how well it worked, I can hardly wait for the device so this process can be extended to other apps and Chrome tabs.

ChromeCast - the reverse Second Screen Experience: Perfect for small learning groups?

The buzz created by Chromecast has been so "loud" that is appears to have caught Google by surprise; the device having been sold out at multiple sites (BestBuy, Amazon) and the 3 month NetFlix offer taken down within the first few hours.

A lot has been written about Chromecast, highlighting its features and comparing it to AppleTV and Roku.

The key point about Chromecast is that it is an affordable platform agnostic "Reverse Second Screen" device. What is a reverse second screen device?
Lets see what a second screen device is first.

From http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/16/tvsync-api-smart-tv-second-screen-apps/

Mashable defines second screen as

"Second Screen is the use of an additional monitor (e.g. tablet, smartphone) while watching television. It allows the audience to interact with what they’re consuming whether it’s a TV show, video game or movie."  

Thus a TV channel wanting the audience to interact with a TV show would get them to go to a web site with a smartphone or tablet and respond to polls during the show.  The key fact is that the process is initiated from the TV screen and the challenge is to get the watcher to go through the required steps on their second screen (phone/tablet/laptop).  This can be achieved by a audio or visual announcement or a QR code.

Chromecast enables the reverse process and makes it seamless.
The user starts at the smart mobile device and then extends the experience from a small to a large (TV) screen.  Make that from multiple small screens to a large TV screen.

From http://www.real.com/resources/social-television

The trend in education is to use small collaborative learning groups and not large group lectures.
Chromecast can be the prefect way to share each learner and faculty's screen on large TV screens on the wall.  As more and more content is stored in the cloud and is accessed via smart mobile devices, this would be a perfect accessory for education institutions.

From: www.kmu.edu.tw