Five years ago this week… Back in 2020, Google’s rumored rebrand of Android TV to Google TV, plus a Chromecast with a remote and tighter smart home ties, seemed like branding fluff. But it quietly marked a turning point—graduating Chromecast from a dumb dongle to a proper UI-driven platform, and laying the groundwork for Google’s broader hardware ambitions in the smart home arms race with Amazon. WBD revives HBO for global streaming push: In a titanic U-turn of inevitable irony, Warner Bros Discovery is rebranding its streaming service to HBO Max this summer, reversing last year’s move to the generic Max name. The revived branding aims to capitalize on HBO’s cultural weight, with global rollout tied to hitting 150 million…