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If you are looking to improve your home media setup and want a streaming stick or dongle, then youll no doubt be aware of the Chromecast series of devices, but which is right for you? Lets simplify with our easy-to-follow Chromecast Buyers Guide for 2021.

Despite sharing the same name and having much of the same core features, not all Chromecast devices have been created equally. Much of that is owed to the various release cycles, but because of this, you might be confused as to which is right for you. And with a staggered pricing model, making the right decision is pretty important.

The Chromecast has been a truly pivotal product for Google. It was arguably the first successful product from the firm. While Android TV is undoubtedly the future of the Chromecast completing an arc with the original Nexus Q only one in the current lineup is powered by the OS at the moment.

The fight for your living room is an important one, but its a role the Chromecast fills very nicely. So lets run through all of the differences so that you are clear about the strengths and weaknesses of each streaming dongle in this extended Chromecast Buyers Guide for early 2021.

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Firstly, we need to assess what you want from your home entertainment setup. Are you looking for a complete home control system where all of your services live and are accessible by everyone in your home? Or are you happy to have a more freeform approach to watching and listening to all kinds of internet video, radio, and audio in general?

Its important to try and refine or at least have an idea what you want to do ahead of time. A piece of Chromecast hardware might not even be the right fit for specific scenarios. Do you want to stream at UHD? Are you going to be the sole user or will there be multiple people accessing the device? Is gaming a major component in a streamer to you?

Youll need to think about each of these, as while there is some crossover between each Chromecast within our buyers guide, some are better than others in specific scenarios.

There are currently three distinct Chromecast models in the Google lineup, but the Google Store only officially lists two. However, the Chromecast Ultra is sold in a bundle as part of the Google Stadia Premiere Edition which confuses matters further for potential buyers out there.

If you have no interest in streaming at resolutions higher than 1080p, then the entry-level Chromecast will be a great companion. 4K UHD streaming is only possible on either the Chromecast Ultra or the Chromecast with Google TV.

Beyond screen or video streaming resolution, the big differentiator between the older Chromecast, Chromecast Ultra, and Chromecast with Google TV devices is an interactive UI. One of the biggest selling points of the older generations is simplicity. Just plug in and then connect when you want to watch TV shows, movies, and YouTube videos or listen to music, radio, and podcasts.

Google TV is bundled in with the newest Chromecast. This changes the entire product as a result but the core usability is still retained should you prefer that. If you have ever seen or used Android TV, then Google TV will be fairly familiar.

Its a brand-new UI developed especially for the new Chromecast that is designed to surface new video content and based heavily upon recommendations. The system still uses streaming apps, but the main interface gives you recommendations and shows, plus Trending content from, in some cases, competing services such as Disney+, Netflix, Amazon Prime video, and more.

You can also sideload or download applications on the Chromecast with Google TV. It uses an Android-based system so the possibilities are quite expansive. There is a reasonably paltry 4 GB of onboard storage but you can expand that with a USB-C hub. If you are insistent on adding more applications, then wed highly recommend doing so. It also allows you to add extra peripherals like keyboards, mice, and gamepads. This is not possible on the standard or Ultra models.

To put it in simple terms, the original Chromecast dongles do not come with a dedicated remote. You have to use your smartphone to connect to your device and then Cast the media. The Chromecast takes over the streaming process, while you can pause/play and skip from your smartphone. Its all relatively simple and makes it easy if you have multiple people accessing your TV set.

A remote is provided with the Chromecast with Google TV for the very first time, which is one criticism that has been leveled at the product lineup since first being unveiled. You can still use your phone as a supplementary control method, but a dedicated remote does enhance the experience especially when navigating the interface.

While all Chromecast devices have Bluetooth connectivity, the Chromecast and Chromecast Ultra only use the wireless connection method during the setup process. The new Chromecast with Google TV allows you to connect just about any Bluetooth device. That includes gamepads, wireless keyboards, mice, and even speakers.

The Stadia controller can be synced with the Chromecast Ultra, and if you are happy to sideload the Stadia Android app on the Chromecast with Google TV, it will work just fine. Unfortunately, the original Chromecast will not work with the Stadia controller or any Bluetooth devices.

All Chromecast hardware can also be controlled using your voice with the Google Assistant. Voice commands can be used to play/pause, skip, and rewind content. This does become a two-step process for the Chromecast with Google TV though, as youll need to specify the device name when shouting commands i.e., Hey Google, play cat videos from YouTube on Google TV.

Because the Chromecast Ultra is technically discontinued and can only be bought directly from Google as part of the Stadia Premiere Edition, it skews the pricing ever so slightly but does net you three months of Stadia Pro usually priced at $9.99 or 8.99 for free.

The basic 1080p-only Chromecast has a good $30 entry-point and is ideal for turning an older TV into a basic smart TV set. If you only watch some YouTube or maybe a little Netflix every now and again, its the best bet. If you consume a ton of online media from multiple services, the Chromecast with Google TV is among the very best streamers available as you can tailor it just how you want. It comes in under some of the competition at $59.99.

For gamers, at the moment, youll need to look at the Stadia Premiere Edition to game natively on your TV. Otherwise, youll have to sideload the Stadia Android app on the Chromecast with Google TV, which itself is a frustrating task. That said, it does work fairly well and lets you use third-party Bluetooth gamepads alongside the Stadia controller. You wont be able to game at 4K though with this sideloaded app, even if you have a UHD TV.

If you are a gamer who is interested in playing Stadia on your TV, at least for the moment, the Chromecast Ultra and Stadia Premiere Edition is an anomaly. Until a dedicated Stadia app for Android TV arrives, it is the only streaming dongle that natively supports the cloud gaming platform. Google has confirmed that the option will arrive before the end of 2021 though.

You can get comparable Android TV set-top boxes that, with the upcoming update, will resemble the Google TV UI and experience. One of the most popular alternatives is the Nvidia Shield TV, which includes some exclusive GeForce features and can even be used as an emulation box for your favorite classic consoles. You can achieve something similar with the Chromecast with Google TV, but a lack of CPU grunt might limit your options for playing certain 3D console emulators.

For just basic streaming of video from your phone to a TV, the entry-level Chromecast is superb for 1080p videos. There is no remote to lose, anyone can connect with the added benefits of a Guest Mode making it easy for friends and family members to stream their own content. Plus its simple with no real room for issues.

If you want a remote and more features moving forward, then the $59.99 Chromecast with Google TV is a no-brainer. The added expansion functionality turns it into a powerful little piece of streaming kit for your home, and it should supersede the Chromecast Ultra by some margin over time.

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Chromecast Buyers Guide: Which is the right model for me? [Video] - 9to5Google

EXCLUSIVE: The Young Turks has launched a new venture, TYT Productions, a film and television company that will develop and produce original non-fiction projects that examine stories of national importance that would be better served through long-form storytelling.

The launch of our film and television arm, TYT Productions, will continue to amplify the important stories that match our mission to boldly pursue truth, challenge the establishment, and drive positive change, said Cenk Uygur, Founder and CEO TYT, an online news outlet that produces a variety of programs, including its flagship talk show, The Young Turks.

We pride ourselves in sharing unfiltered commentary in our daily news coverage and were going to continue to deliver the same authentic and honest perspective through TYT Productions.

Related StoryIATSE Launches Drive To Unionize The Young Turks News Site

The first project under the new label is The Oxy Kingpins, a documentary that is set to premiere at the upcoming 2021 SXSW Film Festival during SXSW Online. Directed by Emmy nominee Brendan FitzGerald and Oscar nominee Nick August-Perna, the docu counts Oscar-winning filmmaker Adam McKay as an executive producer along with Maeve Cullinane and Todd Schulman, and Chris Smith.

Drea Bernardi at TYT produced the pic, which tells the untold story of the web between pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, street criminals and retailers as they conspired to facilitate this drug-fueled crisis responsible for the deaths of half-a-million Americans. It exposes the unseen middle layer of the distribution pyramid consisting of the distributors who shipped pills to pharmacies, hospitals, and pain management clinics across the country.

Brendan FitzGerald and Nick August-Pernas captivating film tells the unbelievable story of how Big Pharma started legally selling heroin to the American people. Its a staggering and unbelievable tragedy that when all is said and done, looks and feels like just what it is: a seedy drug deal gone wrong, said McKay.

Uygur also served as an EP along with TYT CBO Steve Oh, XRM Medias Michael Y. Chow, Sue Turley, and Bonnie Buckner, in addition to Second Natures Hayley Pappas and Matt Ippolito.

The next project in TYT Productions pipeline is a film from director Zefrey Throwell (Flames) and it looks at the battle between progressive and establishment Democrats in America.

We are beyond excited to launch TYT Productions with our first feature documentary, The Oxy Kingpins, said Bernardi, EVP of TYT Productions. TYT has long been covering the daily news cycle from a progressive perspective, and now we are bringing that same ethos to documentary films, where we dive deeper and bring more color and context to the complex issues that impact our world in so many profound ways.

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The Young Turks Launches TYT Productions With Debut Docu The Oxy Kingpins - Deadline

Maisonette, a four-year-old, New York-based company, has aimed from the outset to become a one-stop curated shop for everything a family might need for their young children.

That plan appears to be working. Today, the company which launched with preppy young childrens apparel and has steadily built out categories that include home dcor, home furniture, toys, gear and accessories says it doubled its number of customers last year and tripled its revenue. Indeed, even as COVID could have crimped its style sales of childrens dress-up clothes slowed for a time its DIY and STEM toy sales shot up 1,400%.

Though the company keeps its sales numbers private, its growth is interesting, particularly given the unabated growth of Amazon, which became the nations leading apparel retailer somewhere around the end of 2018.

Seemingly, much of Maisonettes traction owes to the trust it has built with customers, who see its offerings as high-end yet accessible relative to the many luxury fashion brands that are also increasingly focused on the childrens market, like Gucci and Burberry.

Specifically, the 75-person company has a merchandising team that prides itself on working with independent brands and surfacing items that are hard to find elsewhere.

Maisonette also launched its own apparel line roughly 30 months ago, called Maison Me. Focused around elevated basics at a more reasonable price point, the line, made in China, is seeing brisk sales to families who buy items time and again as their kids outgrow or wear holes in them, says the company.

It helps that Maisonettes founders have an eye for whats chic. Co-founders Sylvana Ward Durrett and Luisana Mendoza de Roccia met at Vogue magazine, where Durrett spent 15 years, joining the staff straight from Princeton and becoming its director of events (work that earned her a high profile in fashion circles). Roccia joined straight from Georgetown the same year, 2003, and left as the magazines accessories editor in 2008.

For those who might be curious, their former boss, Anna Wintour, is a champion of theirs. Yet they also have some other powerful advocates, including NEA investor Tony Florence, a kind of e-commerce whisperer who on behalf of his firm has also led previous investments in Jet, Goop, and Casper.

NEA is an investor in Maisonette, as is Thrive Capital and the growth-stage venture firm G Squared, which just today announced it led a $30 million round in the company that brings its total funding to $50 million.

Another ally is Marissa Mayer, who first met Durrett back in 2009 when Mayer was still known as Googles first female engineer and its most fashionable executive. Not only has their friendship endured Mayer says she named one of her twin daughters Sylvana because she adored the name but Mayer is on the board of Maisonette, where she has presumably helped refine its data strategy, including around an inherent advantage that the company enjoys: its very young customers.

One of the things thats really helpful when it comes to data and e-commerce is when you can capture people at a particular life stage, Mayer explains. Its why people liked wedding registries. You get married, then you have children and [the retailer] can follow the childrens ages and start anticipating that customers needs and what theyre going to want two years from now.

In terms of predictable supply chain, for inventory selection, for just being able to meet that moment, having insight into those stages is really important and helpful, she says. It can also be very lucrative for Maisonette as it continues to build out its business, notes Mayer.

Certainly, much is working in the companys favor already. To Mayers point, Roccia says that more than half of Maisonettes sales last year came from repeat customers. More, it already has an audience of more than 800,000 people who either receive emails from the company or follow its social media channels. (Maisonette also features a healthy dose of content at its site.)

Unlike some e-commerce businesses, Maisonette is asset-lite, too. Though it has opened a handful of pop-up stores previously and was contemplating a bigger move into retail (thats now on pause, says Durrett), the company doesnt have warehouses to manage. Instead, items are shipped directly to customers from the various retailers featured at its site.

Perhaps most meaningful of all, the company is competing in what is a massive and growing market. In the U.S. alone, the childrens apparel market is estimated to be $34 billion. Meanwhile, the childrens market is $630 billion globally. While Maisonette is selling to U.S. customers alone right now, it plans to use some of that new funding to move into international markets, says Roccia, who has been living in Milan with her own four children during the pandemic, while Durrett began working out of Maisonettes mostly empty Brooklyn headquarters in January to create a bit of space from her three.

Indeed, on a Zoom call from their far-flung locations, they talk at length about parents needing to create new space to work from home right now, as well as to update rooms for kids attending virtual school. While no one asked for a global shutdown, home dcor is a category that has picked up due to the COVID effect, notes Roccia.

Asked what other trends the two are tracking for example, Maisonette features the mommy-and-me clothing pairings that have become big business in recent years Roccia says that even with the world shut down, it remains a huge trend. It started with holiday pajamas that was kind of the catalyst to this whole movement and now swimwear and just casual dressing has become a pretty big piece of the business, too.

As for what Durrett has noticed, she laughs. Llamas are big. We sell a llama music player that we had to bring back on the site several times over the holidays. Also rainbows and unicorns. As clich as it sounds, we literally cant keep them in stock.

Unicorns, she adds, are a thing.

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Newly funded Maisonette is becoming a go-to brand for fashion-conscious families; heres how - TechCrunch

Fearless is being born again. Taylor Swift was not just talking a good talk when she vowed to independently re-record all six of the albums she originally released on her former Big Machine label: The singer announced Thursday morning that her blockbuster sophomore album from 2008 would be the first in a series of full-album remakes that is set to roll out one by one. The first out of the shoot will be Fearless: Taylors Version, expanded to include 26 songs instead of the original 13.

The first single from the album will be out Thursday night at midnight. Its Love Story, just as the first version of that song was the lead single from the first version of the album in 08.

i have now finished re-recording all of Fearless, which will be coming out soon, Swift said on Good Morning America. My version of Fearless will have 26 songs on it, because Ive decided to add songs from the vault, which are songs that almost made the Fearless album, but ive now gone back and recorded those so that everyone will be able to hear not only songs that made the album but the songs that almost made it. The full picture. Six of the 13 added tracks are promised as never-before-heard.

Besides appearing on GMA, Swift also dropped a mini-essay about the remake campaign on social media.

Although soon was all Swift had to say about how quickly Taylors Version might arrive on GMA, fans quickly picked up on the fact that not-so-randomly capitalized letters in her social media message spell out an APRIL NINTH release date for the full album.

Ive spoken a lot about why Im remaking my first six albums, but the way Ive chosen to do this will hopefully illuminate where Im coming from, Swift wrote in her social media message. Artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really knows that body of work. For example, only I know which songs I wrote that almost made the Fearless album. Songs I absolutely adored, but were held back for different reasons (dont want too many breakup songs, dont want too many down tempo songs, cant fit that many songs on a physical CD).

She continued, Those reasons seem unnecessary now. Ive decided I want you to have the whole story, see the entire vivid picture, and let you into the entire dreamscape that is my Fearless album. Thats why Ive chosen to include 6 never before released songs on my version of this album, written when I was between the ages of 16 and 18. These were the ones it killed me to leave behind.

Swift has not released any track list, so its yet to be revealed what the seven additional tracks will be beyond the 13 songs from the original album and the six shes touting as completely unheard before now. But Swift did release a platinum edition of the Fearless album in 2010 that expanded the lineup with six additional tracks, so she may be drawing from at least some of those to push the number of new recordings on Taylors Version up toward 26.

Few things are random in Swift world, not just with the capitalized letters that spell out a release date, but especially when it comes to numbers of any sort and any combination that aligns with the number 13. So it was with Thursdays news, which was revealed on 2/11 as in, 2 + 11 = 13. Not every tie-in is strictly numerological, though, as Swift also tied the new version of Love Story (the most unremittingly happy song in an early catalog of otherwise somewhat tortured teen songs) to the imminence of Valentines Day.

What is expected to become even clearer as the full new version of Love Story is released Thursday night is that Swift is not coming up with refreshed arrangements for her old songs., Shes apparently trying to make them as identical-sounding to the originals as humanly possible, to try to make the Big Machine versions as valueless as possible an exercise never before attempted on anywhere near this scale by any pop star, and one that may reset the bar for unalloyed chutzpah.

Fearless, which marked the beginning of Swifts serious crossover from country to pop, has been characterized as the most awarded album in country music history. It won Swift her first Grammy Award for album of the year, a feat she later repeated with 1989 which, of course, is also in the remake pipeline. Fearless remains the one album in her catalog to be certified diamond by the RIAA for shipments of more than 10 million units in the U.S., although 1989 is in similarly rarefied air with certification for 9 million

The singer first promised in 2019 that she planned to replicate the releases after the sale of her original master recordings, along with the rest of Big Machine, to sworn archenemy Scooter Brauns Ithaca Holdings. Braun was subsequently revealed this past November to have sold off Swifts catalog to Shamrock Holdings for hundreds of millions of dollars, a move that will continue to profit Braun and certainly did nothing to lessen Swifts resolve to diminish the value of those recordings by providing substitutes.

While Swift cant do anything to take the original Big Machine albums off the sales and streaming market, what she can do is push the original versions down in rankings and search results as the new versions are embraced by her fans, many of whom will be eager to follow her lead in trying to teach Braun and Big Machine a lesson, or will just be curious how the remakes sound. Perhaps just as significantly, Swift will be able to license the new do-overs for whatever purposes she likes, including synchs for advertising or film and TV placement. Big Machine and Shamrock will be prohibited from using the original versions for those purposes, as that also requires the permission of the song publisher who, in this case is Swift.

Indeed, Swift already licensed one of the remakes and gave fans a tease of what the new/old music would sound like when a snippet of Love Story made its debut in December as the soundtrack to a comical Match ad campaign directed by pal Ryan Reynolds.

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Taylor Swift Sets Fearless: Taylors Version as First in Her Series of Full-Album Do-Overs - Variety

Video screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET

Britney Spearsis in the news again, but not for her music. Fans, including celebrities, are speaking out in support of the 1990s pop princess following the release of The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears,currently streaming on Hulu. If you're wondering why you keep seeing the hashtags #FreeBritney and #wearesorrybritney, read on.

A Spears-focused episode of the documentary series The New York Times Presents came out on Feb. 5. The show, Framing Britney Spears, runs about an hour and 13 minutes, and has "generally favorable" reviews on CNET sister site Metacritic. Chicago Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper calls it "a thought-provoking retrospective on Spears' life and career, up to and including the conservatorship battle as Spears continues to fight her father in court."

The filmmakers contacted Spears and her family for interviews, the show's credits reveal, but none ended up in the film. However, friends, supporters, former employees and reporters all speak on camera about Spears' life, career and the campaign to end or adjust her conservatorship. Two contributors to the documentary, Babs Gray and Tess Barker, are launching a podcast series that will focus on Spears' life, including the legal struggle with her father, and the birth of the #FreeBritney movement to release her.

Back in 2008, a California court put Spears under a conservatorship, meaning her father, Jamie Spears, has complete control over her assets and business affairs.

Spears' father remains her conservator, and he's now the sole person in that role, since lawyer Andrew Wallet resigned from a co-conservator role in 2019. Some fans support a movement they dub #FreeBritney, hoping social media pressure will convince the courts to release the now-39-year-old singer from the legal arrangement. The singer herself called the conservatorship "voluntary" in court documents filed on Aug. 31, but also said she is "strongly opposed" to her father continuing as the sole conservator.

In November, Spears' court-appointed lawyer said she will not perform again as long as her father remains in the conservatorship role,The New York Times reported. "My client has informed me that she is afraid of her father," the lawyer said.

The next court hearing in the case is scheduled for this week, Feb. 11.

The singer hasn't directly addressed the matter, but on Feb. 9, she posted to Instagram and Twitter, and many fans believe she was hinting at the situation. Spears posted a video and wrote "can't believe this performance of Toxic is from three years ago!!! I'll always love being on stage .... but I am taking the time to learn and be a normal person ..... I love simply enjoying the basics of everyday life."

And in a follow-up tweet, Spears wrote, "Each person has their story and their take on other people's stories!!!! We all have so many different bright beautiful lives! Remember, no matter what we think we know about a person's life it is nothing compared to the actual person living behind the lens."

In addition to Spears' fans, some famous people have weighed in on the singer's issues since the documentary came out. Singer Courtney Love was among the many people who tweeted using the hashtag #wearesorrybritney.

Singer Bette Midler also tweeted her support, using the #FreeBritney hashtag.

Actor Valerie Bertinelli tweeted that Spears' story "makes me crazy grateful for my parents and how they protected me as a young girl in this insane business."

Journalist Tamron Hall wrote, "Finally watched the 'Framing of Britney Spears' on Hulu. It's an understatement to call it heartbreaking."

Actor Heather Matarazzo delivered a heartbreaking message, writing, "The rage and sadness I felt watching #FramingBritneySpears last night traveled with me into my dreams. I woke up wanting to burn everything down and be her friend."

Older commentary about Spears is also under a microscope. Some people are calling outjournalist Diane Sawyer for a 2003 interview with Spears that appears in the documentary, while others are praising talk-show host Craig Ferguson for saying on air that comics shouldn't joke about Spears' troubles. Other fans have criticized Spears' former boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, and others who were involved in some way with the singer, or who once offered commentary on her troubles.

If you've somehow managed to get to 2021 without ever hearing of Britney Spears, here's the briefest of rundowns. Spears was just 11 in 1992 when she was cast on The Mickey Mouse Club. Her debut album, 1999's ...Baby One More Time, sold more than 25 million copies worldwide, and is one of the best-selling albums of all time. She's won a Grammy Award, six MTV Video Music Awards, seven Billboard Music Awards, and earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. There's no question she's one of the best-selling, best-earning, and most-searched stars of all time.

But her personal life has often outshone her career successes. She wed childhood friend Jason Alexander in 2004 and that marriage was annulled after just 55 hours. She later starred in a reality show, Britney and Kevin: Chaotic, with eventual husband Kevin Federline -- whose girlfriend was still pregnant with his child when he started dating Spears. Spears and Federline had two sons of their own, and she later lost custody of both of them, with the couple's various parental battles always making news.

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Her mental health and other struggles became excruciatingly public: In 2007,Spears shaved her head, reportedly saying she was "tired of people touching me." But public sympathy often seemed to favor Spears, who came off as a troubled young woman who found fame and fortune too early and was understandably unable to cope with it.

The New York Times Presents Framing Britney Spears is now available on FX and FX on Hulu. You can watch it on streaming service Hulu, on the FX cable channel, or on FX's website as long as you pay for a cable subscription that includes FX, or subscribe to a streaming bundle that includes the channel.

The official FX YouTube channel has also been exceptionally free with clips from the show, if you don't mind getting highlights in two-minute video blocks.

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Framing Britney Spears documentary on Hulu and #FreeBritney: What to know - CNET