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link: Chromecast Now Lets Your Guests Take Over Your TV Without Needing Your WiFi Password
Back in June, Google announced a rather nifty new feature coming to Chromecast: your friends and house guests would soon be able to connect to your Chromecast without being on your WiFi network, thanks to the clever use of magic ultrasonic sounds.
after a few months of silence, that feature launches.
One bummer of a caveat, though: it’ll only work if your friend’s phone is running Android, for now. Why? It all comes down to that age-old problem: iOS apps aren’t allowed to do certain things required to make it work, so they’re rolling with it on Android until that changes.
Guest mode is off by default. Flip it on, and your Chromecast will start displaying a PIN on its idle screen. Meanwhile, your TV will start emitting ultrasonic sounds, inaudible to the human ear*, which Chromecast-enabled apps on your phone will be listening for. When the two find each other, everything falls into place and the pairing is made.
[* No word yet on if non-human ears (i.e. dogs) can hear it. If your dog starts whining whenever your Chromecast is on, you should probably turn guest mode back off.]
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday December 19 2014, @06:48AM
I would add, why do they do that? a low baud, audible pairing would be magic.
After all, magic is what you're not accustomed to.
in 1985 the idea of reading a disc with laser was magic, today reading audio with a needle on a groove is magic.
Account abandoned.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 19 2014, @10:58AM
...The best of both worlds....
Play vinyl records like CDs -- NO MORE WEAR AND TEAR ON THE RECORD GROVES!
http://www.elpj.com/ [elpj.com]
TL; DR:
Last time I checked:
The laser turntables were EXPENSIVE!!!
The laser turntables only play black vinyl records.
The laser turntables can play broken/badly warped records that are impossible to play on normal needle-based turntables.
The president/CEO of the company spared no expense to preserve analog audio as is for current and future generations of listeners as examples of culture and history.
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Saturday December 20 2014, @07:39PM
I heard of a device which was available in Hong Kong more than 10 years ago which used lasers to play almost any type of disk: vinyl, CD, Video CD, Laserdisc. I presume it wasn't widely available due to borrowed code and unlicensed codecs.
1702845791×2
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 20 2014, @03:49AM
After all, magic is what you're not accustomed to.
in 1985 the idea of reading a disc with laser was magic, today reading audio with a needle on a groove is magic.
How so? One of the first music CDs came out in 1981. Also, the first commercial LaserDiscs came out in 1978. If in 1985 you though it was magic then you must have been a backwoods rube.