Switched On: Casting light on the Chromecast

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Sold out for weeks after its launch, everyone seems to be in love with the Chromecast -- the ultra-cheap, ultra-small, interface-free, HDMI-toting TV appendage that stole the show from the new Nexus 7. Building beyond the DIAL device-discovery protocol that Netflix and YouTube have supported, Chromecast is a client of Google Cast, which enables the kind of second-screen control for volume and other features impleme...