Microsoft announced an HDTV dongle today that looks and works a lot like Google's Chromecast. The Wireless Display Adapter, as it's called, lets you wireless display your PC or device's screen to your HDTV using Miracast. But Microsoft just announced another Miracast device, the awkwardly-named Screen-Sharing for Lumia Phones HD-10. Why would it make two devices that do the same thing?
The newly announced Wireless Display Adapter will ship in October and cost $59.95 at the Microsoft Store online. It looks like a Chromecast (or Roku Streaming Stick) in that it is an HDMI dongle with a USB connector on the other end for power. (If your HDTV doesn't have a USB port, there's a power adapter.)
Like any Miracast device, you can expect spotty reliability and plenty of unplugging, which sort of renders the behind-the-TV benefits of such a thing moot.
By comparison, the eerily functionally similar Microsoft Screen-Sharing for Lumia Phones HD-10 is $20 more, at $79.95, but comes with an NFC pairing plate, which will make device pairing a bit easier if your device happens to have NFC. It's not clear how this one-time nicety is worth $20, let alone a completely different device, but whatever.
I'll be getting both of these devices to review, of course. I just don't understand why they need both.
Here's a wishful-thinking video.
