As noted during the announcement, the dongle itself is a mere two inches long, with a bulbous circular end opposite the necessary HDMI port. It's got white Chrome branding printed on one side and the requisite FCC info on the other. While we take no issue with the shape itself, we're concerned that flared-out end might take up the space of two HDMI ports despite it needing only one to operate -- good thing you get an HDMI extender plug in the box to ensure that doesn't happen. It's a solid little thing, constructed of black plastic and jammed with the 2.4GHz wireless radio needed to talk with tablets and phones. There's no battery inside, however, which is why the dongle also comes with a micro-USB cable and an outlet adapter to provide it the juice it needs to keep the music and videos flowing. the act of throwing video from your phone using the YouTube or Netflix apps is dead simple, and anyone familiar with the mechanics of YouTube's "send to TV" feature will be right at home. In speaking with a Chromecast product manager, he was quick to point out that, while the underlying technology for Chromecast and send to TV isn't exactly the same; the major difference is that Chromecast has been built to scale and integrate with other services. During our brief demo, the system was able to send videos from both a Nexus 4 and an iPhone 5 with only a couple seconds delay before the requested content appeared on screen. Once a video was playing, the handsets could be used for other purposes or put into standby mode with nary a hiccup on the TV. Chromecast lets your stream online content to your TV and control it via your new Nexus 7 (also introduced today, along with Android 4.3) or any Android device running version 2.3 or later, according to published specs. To stream YouTube content, simply choose the "Cast" icon on the mobile app. I'm not saying Chromecast is a slam-dunk success, but I do believe Google has just done everything in its power to make it so. Its $35 price tag ($42 with shipping) is almost pocket change. The small size and likely low cost of the Chromecast components also mean Google has a better chance of convincing OEMs to embed this new technology.