Google had promised us it was coming, and how its here: Chromecast has been updated with a new Backdrop feature that lets you display your own photos when you're not busy streaming something. You can also display popular photos from elsewhere, and news and weather snippets.
No, to soften water, you need a water softener. The salt used in the brine tank of a water softener does not directly soften the water, but is used to regenerate the resin beads in your water softener. These actually soften the water from your well by removing the hard water ions, calcium, magnesium and iron.
You should also not drink water that comes from water softening systems because of the high sodium content. You would need to use a desalinating filter such as a reverse osmosis system to remove the excessive salt. With the reverse osmosis system you run into the problem of having acidic water.