Roku

Roku has announced an update to Roku OS, the company's smart TV platform. With this latest update, Roku now sits at version 7.6; users can expect this update to arrive over the air sometime in the next handful of weeks. Once it arrives, Roku smart TV owners will have access to a new feature called 'More Ways to Watch,' which determines the cable show you're watching and then scours online streaming services to discover if there's an on-demand alternative available.

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Makers of Roku apps of the past get a wake-up call thanks to the company's newest "sunset" announcement. As of February 1st, 2017, Roku has made clear that they'll be ending the use of legacy Roku Software Developer Kit visual screens. App makers for the Roku universe have been working with the same setup here since October of 2015 - now they'll have a short while before they need to move forward to the new style.

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We've been waiting quite some time for the promised Xfinity TV app to arrive on Roku boxes, but the day has come at last. Beginning today, Comcast subscribers can participate in a beta test for the new Xfinity TV Roku app. Most of the Xfinity features you're used to will be present, but there are a few restrictions while the app is still in beta.

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Roku's mobile app is getting an update today on iOS and Android, and streamlining is the name of the game. The update adds a number of shortcuts to the main screen, putting some of the more popular Roku features front and center for easy access. On top of that, a new "What's On" tab aims to make finding content a little easier for you indecisive types.

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If you thought Facebook already has enough presence on the screens of your various devices, get ready for one more: the TV. The social network behemoth is gearing up to expand its ever-growing advertising network with a test that will run video ads within certain apps on the Apple TV and Roku set-top boxes. The tests could start as early as next week, but there's no word yet on a pre-determined video length.

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Roku has pushed out a couple of updates, one to its mobile apps and another to its Roku TV models...including the ones that are a couple years old. With the mobile updates comes a new feature enabling users to listen to audio via the headphone jack on their smartphone. The Roku TV update, meanwhile, makes it possible to pause live television being delivered via a digital TV antenna rather than cable or satellite.

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Roku wants to make it easier for publishers to get their content to Roku home users and to facilitate this Roku has announced Roku Direct Publisher. Direct Publisher is an update to the Roku Publishing Platform intended to make it easier for the publishers to reach the over ten million homes that stream content via Roku devices. The big benefit of the new publishing platform is that the publisher doesn't need to create a single line of code to get content onto their own streaming channel on Roku devices.

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Back in June, we talked a bit about the new Hitachi HD and 4K Roku smart TVs that would be landing in stores around the US this fall. The fall is here and this week is the week that the new 4K Ultra HD Hitachi Roku TV will launch in the US. There will be three new TV models for shoppers to choose from that run the Roku OS.

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Roku has opened the floodgates today, announcing a total of five new streaming players at a variety of price points. These new Roku streamers range from the fairly basic to feature-packed, and aim to satisfy everyone regardless of if they're using a composite A/V cable set up or a 4K HDTV. This announcement follows a number of leaks, with the latest happening just a few days back.

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The living room entertainment market is getting a bit more crowded, with an increasing number of players in the smart TV, set-top box, and streaming markets. In order to maintain its prominence as the set-top box brand, Roku is expected to do a refresh of its entire line, from top to bottom. Instead of the numbered models from 1 to 4, this latest leak shows five, yes five, models to take their place. With features that sometimes bleed into each other, the Roku Express, Express Plus, Premiere, Premiere+, and Ultra could give consumers more options, or confuse the hell out of them.

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Following its arrival on Apple TV on August 26, FOX Sports has announced the availability of FOX Sports Go on Roku devices, saying it is now available on both the set-top-boxes and Roku smart TVs. FOX Sports Go provides access to FOX Sports' “full slate” programming, which amounts to more than 3,000 live events plus access to original content and studio content. All of this depends, though, on whether you have a pay-TV subscription already.

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It seems Roku is preparing to launch five new models in the near future, at least two of which will apparently include support for HDR video. The models have surfaced in various ways, including in FCC filings; while those filings have had many of their details redacted, other info has seemingly been made public via a pair of Canadian websites. Assuming one of the leaks is accurate, the official launch will happen on September 7.

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