Chromecast is Google's Low-Cost Answer to Smart TVs

Google blasted into the arena of television streaming Wednesday with the announcement of its Chromecast device at a San Francisco event, the Washington Post reported.

The device looks like a flash drive and is only slightly bigger. It plugs into a user's television and allows for streaming from any tablet, smartphone or laptop running chrome.

The Chromecast is $35 dollars and will be available in Best Buy stores on July 28. It is currently available online at Amazon.com, BestBuy.com and on the Google Play store.

The device is also friendly with different both the Android operating system, of course, but also Apple's iOS. Chromecast will work with any mobile Chrome app and with Chrome for Mac and for Windows.

Many companies have been exploring the realm of smart TVs and getting the Internet in synch with the household's largest screen. Apple is reportedly revamping its Apple TV service and is rumored to even be developing its own smart television set.

Microsoft's newest gaming console, the Xbox One, is designed to stream online multimedia and other Internet content from one device to another.

VentureBeat.com obtained a Chromecast device and tested it out. The device needs USB power and comes with a power plug, otherwise it can use a port on television if it has one.

Google said it is developing an Apple iOS app for the device, but currently, only Netflix, YouTube and Google Play have applications compatible with Chromecast.

The device will project any image from a laptop running Google's Chrome web browser, but users will experience the best quality from YouTube videos. For example, Hulu has yet to be optimized for use with Chromecast and users will experience a lesser quality on the television screen than on the computer.

Connecting a smartphone, tablet or laptop to the Chromecast is fairly simple, but not quite seamless. With the Chromecast plugged into the television, the device must be connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the smartphone, tablet or laptop the user wishes to connect to. The process also involves entering a code onto the television's screen.