Apple TV app comes to Chromecast with Google TV

By Simon Cohen Published February 18, 2021

Chromecast with Google TV users can add the Apple TV app to their devices from the Google Play Store starting today. This gives Apple yet another device that can run its curated entertainment experience, as well as its subscription streaming service, Apple TV+. The Apple TV app is already available on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and several smart TV platforms from brands like LG and Samsung.

What’s unusual about the Chromecast with Google TV announcement is that it appears to create a Russian Matryoshka doll effect in terms of the user experience. Both Google TV and the Apple TV app are designed to be holistic streaming experiences that can bring all of your content into one place, with suggestions curated by an algorithm. By adding the Apple TV app to Google TV, users will effectively be putting a curated experience inside a curated experience.

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Despite this weird meta-curation situation, Google says that:

With Google TV in the U.S., you can browse Apple Originals in your personalized recommendations and search results. And with Google Assistant, you can also use your voice to ask Google to open the Apple TV app or play an Apple Original title. If you aren’t ready to watch right away, you can add Apple Originals to your Watchlist for later.

Making the Apple TV app available on Google-controlled devices (Google says that other Android TV-based products will be getting the app in the future) is yet another reason why Apple’s own streaming media player (awkwardly also called Apple TV) might not be around for much longer.

At just $50, the Chromecast with Google TV is an amazing device, with a slick and responsive interface, as well as support for 4K resolution at 60Hz, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos. When you compare that to the Apple TV 4K, which costs $180 for the 32GB version, it’s hard to justify Apple’s steep price premium.

Granted, there are still a few features that are exclusive to the Apple TV streamer, like Apple Fitness+ and Apple Arcade, but it’s getting harder to see these as strong reasons to stick with Apple’s box, especially when the company has licensed its AirPlay and HomeKit technologies to an increasing number of third parties.

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Contributing Editor, A/V

Simon Cohen is a contributing editor to Digital Trends' Audio/Video section, where he obsesses over the latest wireless…

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How to watch the FireAid benefit concerts on streaming services

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In the wake of the devastating fires that continue to rage in the Los Angeles area, dozens of the music industry's biggest names, including Billie Eilish, No Doubt, Green Day, Olivia Rodrigo, Katy Perry, and Alanis Morissette, have banded together in support with FireAid, two huge benefit concerts happening simultaneously on Thursday, January 30th at two LA venues. But if you can't be there in person, the concerts will be available to watch on various streaming services, and we've got all the details for you below.
What is FireAid?
Focused on helping to rebuild the communities affected by the wildfires that have spanned 45 square miles of densely-populated LA County and that have, so far, killed 28 people, FireAid's proceeds will go towards "short-term relief efforts and long-term initiatives to prevent future fire disasters,” a rpress release stated.

The dual FireAid benefit concerts will be held at two Inglewood, California venues that have been unaffected by the fires -- the Intuit Dome, beginning at 6:00 pm, PST, and the Kia Forum, which will start at 7:30 pm PST. Concertgoers will have to select the venue/show they wish to attend.

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Plex gives Apple TV users a preview of its new design

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If you're a Plex user who owns an Apple TV with tvOS 14 or later, you can now take the company's new user experience for a spin. Previously only available to testers on mobile Android and iOS devices, the beta Plex app can now be appreciated on a TV -- arguably the most important screen for the popular media streaming and organization software.

The expanded use of artwork throughout the app is the most noticeable change, but Plex says the entire flow has been re-imagined to make things like content discovery more intuitive. Thankfully, the beta app is just that -- a separate app from the most current stable Plex release -- which means that if you sign up to be a tester and hate what you see, you can jump back to the classic Plex experience anytime.

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Glance’s AI-driven TV screensavers are coming for your attention, and your shopping budget

An AI-generated image of Simon Cohen on a GlanceTV screen.

For millions of Android users in Asia, glancing at their phones doesn’t just reveal the usual clock against the background of a favorite vacation spot or the family pet. Instead, it’s a collection of news headlines, weather conditions, or sports scores, interspersed with ads.

That experience, known as Glance, made its way to U.S. Android handsets in 2024 and was greeted by what could be diplomatically described as a lukewarm reception.

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