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If you thought Sony screwed up your pre-orders for the PlayStation 5, then you might be surprised by this mess from Google. To be fair, overzealous retailers may have been the ones to go the other way with the PS5 rampage and may be the culprits once again for hitting the ‘sell’ button too early. It appears that both Home Depot and Walmart have already started selling the Chromecast with Google TV, aka “Sabrina,” two days before Google even gets a chance to fully reveal what it’s all about.
Of course, given that things have been trickling down these last few weeks, Google may leave little to announce anyway. But it’s one thing to see the device in leaked hands-on photos and another thing for retailers to start selling and shipping retail units to buyers. Of course, it is also another matter that there will be people willing to buy a device without knowing the full and official details for the moment.
For better or worse, Home Depot and Walmart have not only put the $ 49.99 device on shelves, but have also allowed customers to buy it, including online. In the end, it works best for all of us, as we’re getting a glimpse of what Google will announce in two days. Unfortunately, it is not all good news.
Chromecast with Google TV is so different from its predecessors that it may have been called by a different name as well. It runs Google TV, which is reported simply as a Google specific skin on Android TV, in the same way that Pixel phones also have a unique Android identity. It very well could have been called Pixel TV and no one would have been wiser.
Even more troubling are the clues that the dongle may not be Stadia compatible, which would be quite a puzzling situation. Stadia works on both Chromecast Ultra and Android TV, so one would assume it would work for this Google TV as well. I guess there will still be at least one thing left for Google to confirm at their hardware event on Wednesday.
