Google celebrates Chromecast’s 2nd birthday with free movie rentals

By David Nield July 25, 2015

google celebrates chromecasts 2nd birthday with free movie rentals chromecast black hdmi final — Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you’ve picked up a cheap streaming dongle from Google in the past couple of years then you might want to go and check up on the offers page for the device — Google is celebrating the Chromecast’s second birthday with a number of promotional deals, including a free movie rental from Google Play.

Right now it looks like these offers only apply to users in the U.S. (as that’s where the Chromecast launched first) but pay close attention to the deals available as the anniversary rolls around in your own country. Users are also seeing offers for other third-party services and products.

Head to the official Google Q&A page for more details of what you can pick up. As far as the free movie rental goes, the company says you have to redeem the offer from Google Play and must do so by December 31, 2015 — there’s plenty of time to wait if you don’t like the current movie selection.

It may not be the biggest or flashiest Google product out there, but the Chromecast has been one of the company’s most popular devices, letting users stream content from laptops, smartphones, and tablets up to a larger television set or monitor. It’s certainly captured the public’s imagination more than Android TV.

Now entering its third year of existence, there are plenty of rumors that the Chromecast is going to get an update of some sort in the near future. Google has confirmed that a second edition of the dongle is in the pipeline, but quite what it will bring to the table or when we can expect to see it isn’t clear. Chances are Google will largely stick to its winning formula next time around.

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Dave is a freelance journalist from Manchester in the north-west of England. He's been writing about technology since the…

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