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Popcorn Time for Android beta update brings Chromecast support, native UI and more

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popcorn time chromecast

Popcorn Time — the service that lets you watch torrented movies on the fly — has received an upgraded Android beta app that now includes Chromecast support! It’s as simple as any Chromecast app has been since the $35 media streaming dongle released: simply hit the cast button and watch it get beamed over to your television set effortlessly.

There were some other big changes in beta 2.0, including a fully native user interface, faster downloading, automatic app updates, and support for more devices. The user interface still doesn’t seem to support portrait mode, though we imagine if you’re looking to watch movies and TV shows you’ll want to be in landscape anyway. We also had issues running this thing on Android L, but considering that’s just a developer preview we can’t hold that against Popcorn Time.

For those of you worried about privacy? Popcorn Time has confirmed that the next upgrade will bring a 100% free VPN solution built into the client. Popcorn Time says that update should be here in about a week, though don’t be surprised if that schedule has to be altered a bit by the time a week comes and goes. For now you can grab the beta right here and give it a go.

[via Popcorn Time]

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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19 Comments

  1. It’s worth mentioning that this isn’t the open source popcorntime.io site. This is the closed source time4popcorn.eu version of Popcorn Time. A lot of people get those two confused. Since this app is not on the Play Store and is closed source, I’ll be waiting for someone smarter than me to determine if this app is safe.

    1. glad you stated that cause I was wondering if it was safe as well since it is not in the playstore

    2. I have determined that the app is terrible. The UI is more iOS than Android, good luck getting a video to work, if the video works… good luck with audio. If you only have Android L, videos won’t play and app reboots (not expected to be supported but just FYI) and when you get a video with audio to play it keeps buffering and buffering… terrible experience if you don’t have a day to kill on playing a video.

    3. Well anytime people are looking to get their music/movies illegally they are at the mercy of the provider, with torrents as well as with this. I stick with the legal channels, yeah you pay, but you get quality and safety with it.

    4. This app was determined to be pretty sketchy by some folks on Reddit. Try a safe alternative like Showbox.

      1. Is showbox open source and does it have Chromecast support?

    5. THIS. I’d really like to know if the closed source Popcorn Time is safe to use.

    6. Yes, and if you always forget which is which… just goto http://get-popcorn.com/ which redirects to http://popcorntime.io/

      But what sucks is the official github was taken down: https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-app

      Take down notice: “Repository unavailable due to DMCA takedown.”

      A good overview of what is up is here: http://torrentfreak.com/popcorn-time-rivals-prep-tv-android-and-chromecast-support-140406/ (one main link did change though).

      Keep in mind both groups are not the original developer, from my understanding. Two different groups providing two different solutions to keep Popcorn Time a supported product. What .eu did was steal lots of code (even the latest website layout) and encrypt the torrent traffic… they open, then close connections providing the new connection in an iframe.. so its kind of just weird.

      Here is a good reddit thread to read up on: http://www.reddit.com/r/PopCornTime/comments/241y7i/remember_to_tell_anybody_that_time4popcorn_is/

      The popcorntimewar: https://github.com/misuto/popcorntimewar.com/

  2. I see the cast icon but it’s greyed out. :(

    1. Make sure you have the chromecast app installed and you are “ready to cast”. When I tested this I saw the icon fluctuate back and forth from greyed out to white.

      1. thanks, i went to youtube made sure i could cast and then went back in and the icon is white now.

  3. It’s telling me chromecast don’t support the video type

  4. Am I going to have the producers of The Hurt Locker suing me for using this? Anyway not interested in piracy, and Phandroid shouldn’t be promoting it either. I’m not saying it is but movies listed to watch that cost money elsewhere is a red flag for me.

  5. ShowBox is so much better. And with AllCast or BubbleUPnP app, is perfect for Chromecast users.

    1. I use yatse to cast between Chromecast and my ouya with xbmc. Works perfect every time.

  6. I used an older version of this app a few months ago. After a couple weeks of using it I started getting cease and desist letters in my email from Disney and Paramount pictures. They were actually sent to my local internet provider since all they had was my IP address and then they forwarded me the email.

    Needless to say I will never be using this app again.

    1. You need a VPN dude… you pay for internet so you shouldn’t have to be a slave to your ISP and not download anything they say you can’t download. I recommend PIA, it’s like $30 a year… well worth it!!!

  7. http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-pulls-popcorn-time-off-github-140711/

    Both popcorntime.io and time4popcorn.eu got hit

  8. You guys better make sure you’re behind a VPN before you use apps like showbox or popcorn time…your ISP can still track what you’re doing on your phone or tablet over *home* Wi-Fi by DNS snooping. If it’s public Wi-Fi you don’t have to worry about it…

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