Thanks to Google, you can’t stream local content with third-party apps via Chromecast anymore. But you don’t need an app to share content with a Chromecast device.
At least as far as photos are concerned, it’s easy to port pictures over to a TV set using the Chrome web browser. Go to File-Open, or hit Control “O” in a new tab and select the photo from your computer to launch. The photo opens in the browser, and you can then cast that tab to your TV.
Videos are a little more complicated.Open up an MP4 file in your Chrome browser, and it streams easily via the Chromecast HDMI stick. Unfortunately, other video formats I tried didn’t transfer at all. A 3GP video file originally shot on my smartphone played in my Chrome browser, but didn’t show up on my TV. Quick Time movies don’t open in the browser at all.
On a positive note, we also discovered at home that signing up a second computer to our Chromecast device was even easier than the original installation. My husband downloaded the Chromecast browser plug-in on his MacBook and was instantly hooked up and sharing videos… over the web, and direct from his laptop.
It is also possible to stream Amazon Instant Videos if you first remove Microsoft Silverlight from your computer(s).