One of these days I will buy one...just to see what it does :laughing:

Heat added reindeer and have a good day...

...you too sradmmmmmad, hope you're well :laughing:

I bought one of these without reading any info written on here.
I just assumed it would play all my music from my phone through my speakers.
But it's not as straight forward as that.
While it's good at what it does,it doesn't play all your music,or Spotify for that matter.
It doesn't play my iTunes music,doesn't play my Amazon music,and only plays my google play music,when I went online and added loads of my music to a music manager app.
I was hoping I was going to be able to listen to all the music I own through my iPad,phone etc.....but in truth,it's very limiting.

Heat added :stuck_out_tongue:

A musical reindeer :laughing:







It really is, seems like summer is here at last :smiley:

This was all I needed to read to realise you are a smug prat and I don't need to read any more. Good luck with with that

I'm guessing you don't work in IT? Or certainly not in retail systems, or you didn't understand the comment about Halfords, this is a company offering click and collect only of their shop stock, yet, a good percentage of the time the products do no exist. This is a typical scenario for retail, the fact that click and collect has been around doesn't mean a store is going to implement the changes to manage it, not only have you got to worry about distribution, you're adding shop floor stock control and a multitude of other problems.

If it's as simple as changing a couple of lines of code in a retail system, how many companies do you know who do both shop floor click and collect and combine that with delivery systems to store, when stock isn't available. Many operate just in time systems, but that is attempting to ensure stock doesn't run out, not that when it does you have it available next day for the guy who's ordered it.

As for cost, changing retail systems costs money, that is a fact, if you perceive no benefit in offering it, then you're going to implement the changes, no matter how many bright sparks have come up with ideas.

Perhaps the biggest reason to think the businesses are charging, is because at the moment, it IS costing them more money to deal with click and collect, and therefore they are often losing money on the orders, this is especially true of Tesco, now where in the world would you find a business that thinks losing money is a good idea.

I worked on an IT system for a large health authority, which was designed to bring together lots of small orders and produce large orders, making shipments efficient, this system cost millions, but was designed to save lots more, which it does, but this is on items where the costs where huge, e.g. shipping a single loaf of gluten free bread from the supplier, adding around 400% to the cost of the item. Tescos, JL and the others operate on tiny retail margins, it could potentially take years to recoup the costs of an IT change, which is by no means guaranteed.

I'm sure you think you know best, but I reckon the bods at both Tesco, JL and the rest have their reasons, and it won't be to **** off a couple of people on the HUKD forums.

mike

I just picked one of these up, and in case anyone was wondering, it's £30 in store but JL will match their online price.

Anyone with this tried the Shuttle+ music app for casting music from micro SD? I cast music from my phone stored on my SD card using the Chromecast TV one was just wondering if it will work with the audio one.

If YOU actually think about what I've said, you wouldn't just support the way these companies do these things blindly.

I said they should take from the shop floor and then get any other items delivered to store the next day as part of their regular deliveries. Not everything from C&C is a mass-order sparked by it being posted on hukd. I'm sure they get thousands of small orders all the tin to the other, regardless of the shop floor stock, is a total waste.

And C&C has been around for a long time, so they have their stock control and IT systems in place. If anything, they should have changed C&C when they first started to take online orders and it should be free by now as they have the IT, logistics and staff training in place.

The click and collect range from JL and especially Tesco, is far greater than the stock on the shop floor, it would probably cost as much as £2 per parcel for a few years to update the IT systems if they weren't already capable, they've also got to have good stock control, otherwise you're heading for a pile of negative publicity, how many posts do you get for Halfords complaining about the item not being there. The system only works well for businesses like Argos, where stock control is mostly handled by not allowing customers near the shelves.

If you actually think about the logistics of this you'd see why a lot of companies do not offer click and collect off the shelves.

mike

I agree wholeheartedly Plex is so much better than any DLNA system I've used, and for a relatively cheap app and free server you get to add a whole load of capabilities. I've got my Plex system with 22TB of storage (all mirrored so only 11TB of data), Plex pipes audio to chromecast audios connected to my old hifi systems, video to NowTV boxes including a white one for a CRT tv.

It all works seamlessly and pretty much better than any alternative I've ever used. Cheap Android tablets (hacked HP touchpads) control the whole lot, you've got a fantastically capable audio video system at a real budget price. I suspect I've paid little more than a reasonable two room Sonos setup to manage video and audio in 5 rooms, plus get a great big server for storage within that cost.

mike

I've often collected stuff at JL and saw the exact same item on the shop floor. Rather than them putting one from the shop floor aside, they ship one from a warehouse in who knows where and package it in various boxes, bags and labels.

So you've got all that extra packaging, all that air pollution from couriers vans - so bad for the environment! They should exhaust all the stock from the shop floor first, then get a shipment with their own delivery vans (no special courier vans) to top up the shop floor, which would save a huge amount of packaging and mileage.

But for all this wastage, we have to pay them £2. It's so backwards. C&C really should be free, as it would encourage these companies to be more efficient. When they are getting £2 an item, things will remain wasteful and inefficient.

Picked one up from Currys to use with an iphone after the guy said I could use it with the app. Setup was easy but I could only stream certain apps like YouTube and tune in radio. This might be enough for some people but not for me so i gave it to my android phone owning friend. Not voted either way

Yes, it should say 'aux input' (or optical digital input, with the correct cable). BTW Some hi-fi buffs have found that you can use the ChromeCast Audio to drive some headphones directly, which was unexpected. E.g. see http://www.head-fi.org/t/782899/chromecast-audio-can-anyone-comment-on-sound-quality/105#post_12171364

Surely there is an error in the description? Isn't the headphone socket output only? Surely it needs connecting to an aux input? :confused:

Sorry about my English!

If you've got a PC or a spare laptop on a cupboard set up a Plex server. I think the basic service is free. It collates very well all your music, to and movies and with the app allows you to cast to chromecasts in my opinion it's probably one of the best home entertainment bit of software out there!!

Bought three from curry's. Spotify had problems (wouldn't play if you skipped a track) moved to Google play music and so far everything good. Currently one through Samsung speaker the other through tv.

What are the odds on this being the same price in store?

this has breathed new life to my(formally stored in loft) 20 year old Bose cd system. works and sounds great

​you can use either a dlna app on your phone or a bit more trouble you can do what I do and use it as a squeezebox player with a free squeezebox server proggie - it works fine as long as you don't expect it to be as good as the superb and sadly now long killed off squeezebox players .. down to my last duet now so the chromecast is useful to extend the life a little more

It does stream Spotify. Apparently you need premium service to do so.

I bought one Chromecast Audio recently when on deal in Currys. Loved it so much I bought a second. I now use it in preference to Bluetooth streaming. Better quality audio, more relaible / fewer dropouts and less hard on Phone / Tablet batteries

I bought one of these without reading any info written on here.
I just assumed it would play all my music from my phone through my speakers.
But it's not as straight forward as that.
While it's good at what it does,it doesn't play all your music,or Spotify for that matter.
It doesn't play my iTunes music,doesn't play my Amazon music,and only plays my google play music,when I went online and added loads of my music to a music manager app.
I was hoping I was going to be able to listen to all the music I own through my iPad,phone etc.....but in truth,it's very limiting.

Just because people don't really understand how click and collect works.
Your order doesn't come in with a store delivery. It is couriered which COSTS MONEY to the company in question - most expensive products are free to click and collect as obviously they're making more money, but say you click and collect a dvd or game from Tesco which is under the limit, they've lost a big part of the profit there.
Click and collect is more convenience of not having to be in when it's delivered, the charge is a courier charge. It's not going to be free ever again lol

I guess you think the IT infrastructure, delivery to the store and all the associated manpower involved in processing the click and collect is free? Don't be surprised if lots more do it.

As John Lewis and Tesco, both ship the item to the store, there is an inherent cost associated with the order, in addition to normal processing, that's why both companies were losing money offering it for free, and why they introduced the fee.

Whereas Currys, Argos, Halfords etc. you can only collect stuff from a store that has it in stock, so it costs the effort of a probably under-utilised member of staff, to go and pick it off the shelve and put in near the counter.

I don't much like paying, but understand why they charge.

mike

They don't have a fixed customer population though, do they? Theoretically everyone who shops in Sainsburys, Morrisons, etc is a potential Tesco customer. If they were a monopoly, then they would, but for the minute, they should still be trying to tempt new customers to increase their growth.

Returning benefit to shareholder is correct, but the killer shafting customer is due to cummulative 10% gowth year on year. Should be 0% cummulative growth as gorwth plateaus to a gentle flat curve as otherwise for a giant supermarket, for a fixed customer population, consumption has to ,in principle, double every ten years due to year on year growth on sales e.g. if you eat 4 sausages today, you have to eat 8 sauages after ten years as an illustrative general concept.

And see what that attitude will do to them over the next few years. Another behemoth private enterprise in line to be destroyed by its own greed by cheaper/nimbler competition.

Good old Tesco, always finding new ways to reward grasping shareholders by royally shafting their customers :smile:

thats why i would rather use currys or argos who dont charge a payment for C&C. The fact that some companies have starting charging for click and collect stinks and is another way to rip off the consumer and i refuse ti do business with them unless absolutely necessary

It's atrocious , a con to charge for click and collect. Tesco started doing that, now JL,, soon more will follow

yes you could but I was replying to the comment of trying your luck in store

Phone the store...................

but if they're not available in store you've wasted the journey as its then too late to C&C whilst your still there

In a rush - was just trying to help...

Instead of paying to C&C you could try your luck to see if they are selling them instore, saving yourself the £2 charge.

I'll attempt to translate from textspeak: ''If you are paying to Click and Collect, you might as well see if they are in-store''..?

eh? english, do you speak it: :P

If you are paying to C&C, you miles of see if they are instore??

Better price for this at Currys with FREE delivery and additional cashback

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertainment/digital-and-smart-tv/smart-tv/google-chromecast-audio-10137628-pdt.html

Picked up two from Currys. They are fantastic little devices. Sound quality is great and easy to use.

Mentioned in this post...
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/google-chromecast-audio-half-price-again-15-currys-2438713

Heat added :stuck_out_tongue:

Don't let her hear you saying that :laughing:

Right must go, have a lovely day :smile:

:laughing:

Summer is not fun for Reindeer :laughing:

A musical reindeer :laughing:







It really is, seems like summer is here at last :smiley:

Good morning Maccy, all good, hope your well too, beautiful day, enjoy :smile:

Same, tempted to get one! But mainly listen to music through headphones these days!

Have a great day too!

Heat added, good morning, have a nice day, :smiley:

Uhhhhh this is not a freebie!