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Saluting the Chromecast, one of the great HDMI dongles

Perfect as it was, the world passed it by.

When I was still a starry-eyed 20-something living with my then-fiancée, the only way I could stream video on my TV was through its HDMI ports and my laptop. Suddenly, I had this tiny black stick, shaped like an oversized key, that plugged right into my TV’s HDMI port and let me cast video through the air and onto my 55-inch screen in glorious high-definition. It was a basically invisible device that I didn’t even need an app for, and it let me beam music and video to my TV with almost no muss or fuss.

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