Technology

I keep checking for the interface update release that Roku announced a while back but I keep getting disappointed.  Now finally Roku has announced on their blog of the release being launched.

With Google I/O 2013 going on I feel this update has been missed in some tech blogs. For Roku users this will be a large update for how the Roku interface is utilized. Now Roku users may arrange channels in the order they want in a tiles formation. In addition Roku users will gain the use of a search tool and home screens theme.

This update is only for users of newer Roku devices such as: Roku 2 XS (model 3100), Roku 2 XD (model 3050), Roku 2 HD (model 3000), Roku LT (models 2400 & 2450), Roku HD (model 2500) and the Roku Streaming Stick (models 3400 & 3420). I had a user question why their two year old smart phone could update to use some of the new content coming out bbut not their two year old first generation Roku. The answer is simply that Roku releases a product at a very low price.  To meet this price the CPU and memory are not comparable to a current generation Android device. There are some Android stick devices coming out now that compete well with the Roku. You may look at them to see if the content you want is well supported. For my household we are sticking with the Roku for the simple user interface.

Another big update for the Roku is the addition of Official PBS Channels. PBS and PBS Kids give access to full length shows and clips. I’m happy for this addition and I hope my nearly two year old son will enjoy seeing more of his PBS favorites on the Roku. We currently watch some PBS shows on the Roku via Netflix but having a few more would be great.

I received an email today about Forbes Magazine having free wifi hotspots in them today. After some investigation I found out that sadly these magazines were only delivered to select customers.

The hotspot was delivered in select US editions of Forbes Magazine today with built in routers, and its all part of a marketing campaign by Microsoft to draw attention to Office 365.

The built in router will serve five devices and remain powered for three hours. The hotspot user may use a USB cable to charge the device. The trial subscription is for 15 days on the hotspot and I suspect it can be renewed or swappable with a new SIM.

For those unfamiliar with office 365, it is the competitor to Google Docs built by Microsoft.  It is also a viable upgrade path for users of Microsoft Office.

A YouTube video has already been posted with a tear down of the device.

If you would like to see a better quality video tear down and you happen to know someone that received one of these devices, please send it my way. I would love to tear one of these open and see if I could mod it into a better case. 🙂

Anyone that has been in my house knows that I love our Roku boxes. We have one on our 46-inch RCA LED TV in our living room and a box on each of our 32-inch RCA LED TV’s in our bedroom and loft. We primarily watch Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Mormon Channel, BYUtv and Plex on our Roku box. On cable we watch the History Channel, HGTV, TV Land, PBS and a few other channels. We don’t rent a cable box so the channels we access to all fall under the “standard line” up. We also get our internet through Time Warner on the basic tier of internet service.

I missed the blog post announcement from last month that TWC had launched a channel on Roku but I noticed the announcement in an email I received yesterday. I had heard TWC was going to launch a Roku channel and I was excited to actually see it happen. So far I have been impressed but what is available on the box.

I downloaded the channel and then I entered my TWC ID information. And pretty soon most of my channels were showing up for me to select. I had a few additions and a few omissions to my channel line-up. The additions I had were a few channels that I had access to as a standard cable subscriber but were not showing up on my other TV due to my lack of a cable box. My omitted channels were my local TV line up. The only thing I miss there being PBS but I can always switch the TV source back to regular cable for that. I prefer watching the channels that show up through the Roku as most of those are the HD version of the channels and I get a limited channel guide to what’s currently playing and what’s up next. The only thing I feel I am missing is a more complete channel guide and PBS. I noticed a PBS show was in a screenshot of the TWC Roku channel so I will investigate if I can get that added somehow or if it was just photoshopped onto the screenshot.

If you have TWC Standard TV, TWC Internet and a Roku box… I would recommend this as something to look into using. It seems to be a good product to add a TV in a room without a cable connection or to add some cable box like features to a TV without a cablebox.