Chromecast rooted, apparently runs Android from Google TV, not Chrome OS

Unsurprisingly, the Chromecast has been rooted by a team of hackers who were apparently able to reveal that the device runs rather Android than Chrome OS, or better said a “modified Google TV release.”

Initially, Google said the device runs a stripped-down version of Chrome OS, but the GTVHacker crew thinks otherwise:

[quote qtext=”No, it’s not. We had a lot of internal discussion on this, and have concluded that it’s more Android than ChromeOS. To be specific, it’s actually a modified Google TV release, but with all of the Bionic / Dalvik stripped out and replaced with a single binary for Chromecast. Since the Marvell DE3005 SOC running this is a single core variant of the 88DE3100, most of the Google TV code was reused. So, although it’s not going to let you install an APK or anything, its origins: the bootloader, kernel, init scripts, binaries, are all from the Google TV.” qperson=”” qsource=”” qposition=”center”]

Those of you interested in rooting your Chromecast, can do so right away – at your own risk – by following the details at the Source link below, but as you can see, you won’t be able to install Android apps or anything like that. Or at least, not just yet.

Thanks to the same hackers we already know that Chromecast-specific apps may be coming soon to the dongle, including Pandora, HBO Go, Washington Post, AOL ON, Qello, Revision 3, Songza and Tic Tac Toe.

While you wait, you can already do a bunch of interesting stuff with the Chromecast, so don’t forget to check out our tips and tricks for the device (video above).