New Chromecast gets leaked after Best Buy accidentally sells a customer the new product

Well, we can now confirm that a new Chromecast is coming our way, too. Google has its upcoming fall hardware event on October 9th and while we know way too much about the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, we haven’t heard much about the other products we can expect. It’s not exactly a surprise that Google is updating the Chromecast now but it has been leaked in a surprising manner. Best Buy sold the unannounced device to a customer who just picked it up off the shelf. The customer, who goes by GroveStreetHomie on Reddit, took a photo of the device and recounts how it didn’t even show up in Best Buy’s system but the cashier rang it up under a listing for an older Chromecast. You can see the two products side by side above.  

Source: The Verge 

Google Chromecast and Home goes down due to backend issues

If your Google Chromecast or Google Home is fritzing, you’re not alone. A backend systems issue caused the outage for the two products for users from different parts of the world. As of 7:00 p.m. ET, TechCrunch reports that Google is working on the fix to the issue and are working to make sure this doesn’t happen in the future.

Here’s Google’s official statement on the issue as well as the fix it offers in the meantime as they work to bring everything back to normal: “We’ve identified a fix for the issue impacting Google Home and Chromecast users and it will be automatically rolled out over the next 6 hours. If you would like an immediate fix please follow the directions to reboot your device. If you’re still experiencing an issue after rebooting, contact us at Google Home Support. We are really sorry for the inconvenience and are taking steps to prevent this issue from happening in the future.”

Chromecast will now let you skip intros on Netflix

If you use a Chromecast to stream Netflix on your TV, it wasn’t possible to skip through intros when you were binge-watching. That’s just changed. Android Police reports users seeing a new Skip Intro option at the bottom of the controller interface on your phone app. If you’re on Android this should be showing up, but as The Verge pointed out, users on iOS don’t seem to have this functionality just yet.

Google Home now gets CBS All Access support

Google Home has already been a voice-enabled remote control of sorts for Netflix. Now it’s adding that support for CBS All Access and CW TV accounts in the US. The CBS All Access support will be particularly useful when the streaming service makes its way here next year. You can start streaming if you have a Chromecast connected to your TV or a Chromecast-enabled TV and, of course, if you have a subscription to the services. You can link this through the Videos and Photos section in the Google Home app. The feature is rolling out so keep an eye out for it.

Source: Engadget