Today’s best deals: Google Chromecast, Audible Premium Plus, and more

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

It's Wednesday, which means it's time for another Dealmaster. Our latest roundup of the best tech deals from around the web includes the Google Chromecast back down to $40 at various retailers. While we've seen this deal a handful of times this year, it's still $10 off Google's MSRP, making it another solid opportunity to save on what we consider the best 4K streaming stick for most people.

Compared to competing devices from Amazon and Roku, we still find the Chromecast's interface to do a cleaner job of organizing and proactively recommending content you might want to watch. There are more powerful 4K set-top boxes on the market, but the Chromecast's performance still gets the job done for casual browsing, works with all the major streaming services, and supports both Dolby Atmos and HDR video (via Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HDR10+).

The main complaints are that Google's UI isn't especially customizable and that Google TV's curation is only so savvy because you're sharing your browsing information with the company. That said, the latter is an issue with almost every major streaming device; Google's platform is just better at using that data to make browsing more convenient. The device also doesn't support Google's newer, more efficient AV1 video codec, though that shouldn't be a deal-breaker for most. A new Chromecast model that supports AV1 is reportedly on the way, but it's expected to be limited to 1080p streaming.