Chromecast just got the Hulu Plus app and TV service for its TV streaming dongle. The app makes it easier for Hulu Plus users to use their mobile devices to "cast" TV shows onto the big screen.
The Hulu Plus app joins YouTube, Google Play, Chrome, and Netflix as the fifth app that works with the Google Chromecast. It should be noted, and AllThingsD's Peter Kafka has, that three out of the five apps - two months into the Chromecast's launch - are Google products. And, despite promises of a deluge of Chromecast apps to come, four of those apps were available for Chromecast out of the box in August.
Of course, this doesn't mean that Hulu fans have been aching for a Hulu Plus app. Hulu watchers can already cast the free version of Hulu onto their big screens using their Chrome browsers and the "cast" tab.
In fact, this "work-around" - which requires no technical skill other than the ability to stream a video full-screen and find the Chromecast button on Google's browser - has been seen as "potentially problematic for Hollywood." That because, though the $8 per month Hulu Plus service is supposed to be the way Hulu customers get content up onto the big screen, the Chromecast provides a user-friendly way to bypass subscription apps and fees.
That works not only for Hulu videos, but for nearly anything that can be streamed on your laptop (which, depending on your resourcefulness and/or respect for copyright law, could mean just about everything.)
Still, for people who prefer casting things without the Chrome browser, Hulu Plus for Chromecast is an encouraging sign that Google is starting to enable or entice developers to build that Chromecast app nation Google talked about in midsummer. Now if Google would only allow hacky screen-mirroring apps, like AllCast, again the dongle would start living up to its original potential.