Hi there! My name is Janko Roettgers, and this is Lowpass. This week: casting at a crossroads, and Augie gets acquired.

The history and future of casting

Last month, Netflix made the surprising decision to kill off a key feature: With no prior warning, the company removed the ability to cast videos from its mobile apps to a wide range of smart TVs and streaming devices. Casting is now only supported on older Chromecast streaming adapters that didn’t ship with a remote, Nest Hub smart displays, and select Vizio and Compal smart TVs.

That’s a stunning departure for the company. Prior to those changes, Netflix allowed casting to a wide range of devices that officially supported Google’s casting technology, including Android TVs made by companies like Philips, Polaroid, Sharp, Skyworth, Soniq, Sony, Toshiba, and Vizio, according to an archived version of Netflix’s website.

But the streaming service didn’t stop there.

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