Google released the $35 HDMI dongle, Chromecast, last year and it sold out soon after the fact. The company itself claimed that demand for the dongle had been underestimated. Tinkerers had their way with the dongle, rooting it and opening up additional functionality, before Google rolled out a firmware update and closed that door. Popular Android developer Koushik Dutta created the AllCast Chromecast app back then which allowed users to stream content from their device’s gallery, which the dongle doesn’t allow by default. He had to take the app down and remove the functionality, while continuing to support almost every major media streaming device. Today AllCast has regained its very beating heart.
That’s because Chromecast SDK has been officially opened up for all developers, previously Google had only provided access to a select group of partners which included the links of Netflix and Hulu. According to Dutta, once the SDK went live, it only took him 20 minutes to add support for Chromecast once again. Now the app is capable of streaming content from a device’s gallery to the dongle, it also supports content streaming from cloud sources such as Dropbox as well as Google Drive. The free version of AllCast Chromecast app imposes a one minute viewing limit on videos, the premium version with no restrictions costs $4.99 in the Google Play Store.
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