Fans of Google's little $35 streaming stick known as the Chromecast are in for a treat, as the company has just announced a bunch of new apps coming to the device. Most of them are centered around applications for watching some of your favorite sports, but there is also a feature that will come in handy for those who like to use Google+ to share their photos with friends and loved ones.

The first new app added by Google is WatchESPN. This is a cool way to watch live sports on your streaming stick, but it does come with a pretty limiting caveat - you must have an ESPN subscription with a cable or satellite provider to use it. This makes it pretty useless for cord-cutters using a Chromecast as a replacement for traditional cable. On the positive side, WatchESPN will have a tremendous amount of World Cup coverage, so football (soccer) fans will be able to watch their country compete with ease. This is of course, in addition to the others sports content offered by ESPN such as the NBA playoffs, X-Games, and others.

chromecast

For fans of American soccer, a new app called MLS Matchday is also hitting Google's Chromecast. This will let fans watch live MLS games, but it does require a premium MLS subscription.

For anime fans, Google is adding an app called Crunchyroll. This app has all kinds of shows available, some of which are even available one hour after after they air live in Japan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAUKV5zf7Qk

The final app allows users to turn their Chromecast into a photo slideshow with their Google+ photos. Users simply cast their photos from their Android or iOS device, and they will show up on the big screen for all to see.

WatchESPN releases next week, while the MLS and Google+ app are available right now. Google did not announce exactly when the Crunchytime app would make its way to the device.

Source: Google