If you are wondering what to get your road warrior friend or family member for the holidays, consider a Chromecast. It’s just $35 and it will come in handy time and time again.
We arrived on our family holiday with a ton of movies to watch and a desire to keep up on the NBA and NFL action. But the TV in our rented house was only connected to the local cable TV system which had none of that.
Not to worry, my friend John travels with a Chromecast in his briefcase. We connected it to the HDMI port on the TV in our rented house, plugged it in and now any laptop in the house can drive the TV via the Chrome browser. Plus all of apps we have on our phones with Chromecast support can also take over the TV. Adding a VPN to our phones and laptops was also quite helpful.
John tells me he pulls this move all the time in hotels around the country. And from time to time he accidentally leaves them there. Not to worry. For $35, you can afford to keep a couple in your briefcase.
I’m a huge fan of Chromecast and AppleTV’s Airplay. These services allow you to bypass the traditional TV distribution system and go “over the top” with relative ease. And for $35, you certainly can’t beat the price. So my vote for the killer stocking stuffer this year is Chromecast.
