I discovered 4 useful things my phone can do when it’s plugged into a TV

The first upgrade I ever got for a TV, apart from speakers, was a first-generation Google Chromecast. For me and a lot of other people, it was a revelation — for $30, it freed you from the slow and terrible apps most smart TVs had at the time. You had to use phone apps or a computer to control it, but that was a small sacrifice. As a bonus, it was extremely portable. You could power it entirely off of your TV’s USB port if you wanted to.