Today, Roku is launching the
newest version of its streaming media box, the $99 Roku 3. While keeping a
similar form factor to previous Roku set-top boxes, the latest in its series
should be much faster and more responsive, thanks to hardware upgrades. It also
comes with a new remote control with built-in headphone jack for private
listening, as well as a new user interface for navigating its hundreds of
channels.
Available for
sale on Roku.com and Amazon.com, the new Roku 3 is the next evolution in the
company’s streaming set-top box hardware. While the Roku folks wouldn’t go into
specifics about the hardware in the new box, they said it represented a
significant upgrade over the Roku 2 XS, which was the previous $99 box. (No
worries — I’m sure there will be a teardown of the Roku 3 within the next few
days.)
Anyway, the
updated hardware under the hood should mean a faster browsing and navigation
experience for Roku users as they click through all the various content choices
on the box. The Roku 3 also supports up to 1080p video, has dual-band wireless
connectivity, as well as Ethernet and USB ports. It also has an available MicroSD
slot for extra storage.
The Roku 3
also added an interesting new feature to its remote control — a headphone jack
and in-ear headphones to allow users to privately listen to the TV without
disturbing others around them. It has more or less the same form factor as the
one that shipped with the Roku 2, and like it, the new remote also serves
double duty as a game controller. That’s important, since the Roku 3, like the
Roku 2 XS, comes with Angry Birds Space pre-installed.
All that said,
the biggest new change to Roku’s offerings probably isn’t the hardware, but the
addition of a new interface for navigating its Channel Store, apps, and
settings. There are more than 750 channels available to Roku users worldwide,
the previous up-down-left-right navigation scheme for the Roku Channel Store
wasn’t very good. It also resulted in a lot of navigating around different
channel information screens to determine whether or not you wanted to install
them.
With that in
mind, Roku has updated the streaming box’s user interface, with an
easier-to-navigate flow for scrolling through categories of apps, finding out
information about them, and installing them. With an average of 15 channels
installed per box, Roku also needed to improve the way that users got around
the apps they had already chosen to watch. As a result, the new Roku UI also
has an updated grid interface for users to scroll through the channels that
they’ve already installed.
Rather than
scrolling left-to-right like in the previous interface, users now can see nine
tiled apps on the home screen. The interface provides a view of more detailed
information for the apps that users are looking at on the left side of the
screen. Viewers can also set their favorites, and see a stream of apps as they
scroll down below the top nine.
In addition to
the new UI, Roku has added a universal search feature, which will allow users
to quickly find their favorite pieces of premium content. Like other streaming
devices, the new search works across multiple apps, highlighting TV shows and
movies that are available through subscription services like Netflix or Amazon
Prime Instant Videos, as well as electronic sell-through or video on-demand
services like Vudu.
New Roku 3
owners will have the new UI and search functionality immediately, but Roku
plans to make the same features available to existing Roku boxes through an
update in the coming weeks.
Last summer, Roku raised $45 million to help expand into new markets
and get its devices adopted as secondary set-top boxes in pay TV homes. The
company has been working with partners like BSkyB and Time Warner Cable to make
their programming available for streaming on the box. In fact, Time Warner
Cable released its Roku Channel earlier today, just in time for
the new hardware. [TechCrunch]
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