The Roku streaming media device has already sold more than 10 million set-top boxes, which is a considerably astounding number—especially since the small company just began selling the devices about 5 years ago. (The company did have some other media streaming devices before then.) As part of an effort to harden its strong position, this company has updated and upgraded 2 of its highly popular Roku devices: the Roku 2 and the Roku 3 streaming media players.

The newest Roku 3 still has a price tag of $99.99, but it now has a new voice search feature as well as a new remote control device that allows users to activate it. It also comes with the Roku trademark headphone jack as well as motion control. The Roku 2 has become even faster and matches the Roku 3 performance-wise, it just lacks the enhanced remote control device. The Roku 2 currently has a selling price of $69.99.

On the software side of things, there are some new updates as well. The Roku Feed lets users see prices and release dates of upcoming movies, as well as when they will be available for streaming. Users can also search for any specific channels using the Roku Channel store. The channel store houses over 2,000 channels and covers more than 250,000 television shows and movies. All of the new current-generation Roku models will be receiving these software updates by the end of April.

The Roku company has also overhauled its mobile applications. A new voice search feature has been added, as has the Roku Feed feature and a host of other features. The newest players, upgraded mobile applications, and all-new features are presently available, except fro the iOS applications update, which is expected to land very soon.

Roku announced on December 19 that it’s US Roku Channel Store has surpassed 2000 channels for online video and music. The popular set-top box, which has expanded its reach into a streaming stick and a new smart TV line, now offers the most online channels.

New additions to the set-top box’s content include NatGeo, FXNOW, CBSN, Cosmobody, CinemaNow, Smithsonian and Google Play Movies and TV. Comcast Xfinity subscribers are now also offered HBO Go and Showtime Anytime. A Roku Recommends channel has also been recently added.

A much-awaited search feature among the top fifteen streaming channels is a recent addition. The universal search lets you search for a TV show or movie among the top 15 channels which include FOX NOW, CinemaNow, FXNOW, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, HBO GO, Crackle, Vudu, M-GO, Time Warner Cable, Popcornflix, Blockbuster On Demand, Snagfilms and Acorn TV.

The new content has come at a good time as people will be home for the holidays. Roku says that it now streams over 200,000 movies and TV episodes. Media content is available in a variety of interests from music, news and weather, sports, kids and family, fitness, international movies, and more.

In the numbers game, Roku is quite ahead of its competition. Chromecast has less than a thousand apps, Apple TV has about fifty, and Amazon Fire TV has about one hundred entertainment channels (and 340 games).

Roku has officially added a new “barker” channel to its library of over 1600 apps and channels. Apparently, the purpose of this new channel is to select a few particular channels into the spotlight every week.

The name formally given by Roku to its innovative new channel is “The Roku Recommends Channel.” The channel was initially offered in the United States. Roku claims the point of the new channel is to essentially find and highlight “hidden gems” within the streaming media player’s largely extensive channel store.

These highlighted “gems” will include channels about anything and everything such as TV episodes, movies, fitness and/or cooking videos, and even tips on manoeuvring through the streaming platform.

Roku posted on its blog about the new feature. The Roku Recommends channel is reloaded with a fresh set of channels each week. The company has taken on Ellen Fox to be the host of new “barker” channel’s segments. Ellen Fox is an actress who appears on both “The Rotten Tomatoes Show” as well as “Wizard Wars” on the Syfy channel.

The very first episode of the Roku Recommends channel is holiday-themed  and features content from both the Screen Dreams Fireplaces channel (a channel offering seven different yule log options) and the HolidayKitchen.tv channel.

This newly offered Roku Recommends channel is being made available on all of the current version Roku streaming media player models and Roku TV models that were released after June of 2011.

The new channel offers Roku a alternate means of driving advertising revenue. The content for the “barker” channel is “editorially-driven” by the official team of Roku editors. A Roku official claims that the media streaming company utilizes an editorial process that locates and then spotlights the best content and channels available on the Roku player.

The primary purpose of the Roku Recommends channel is to essentially enable Roku users to discover the extent of all the entertainment currently available in the vast Roku library.

If you happen to be a Comcast Infinity customer who also owns a Roku streaming device, you’ll be happy to hear that the two companies have recently made an agreement that will allow both HBO and Showtime subscribers to download and run the HBO Go and Showtime Anytime apps from the channel store on their Roku players. Roku updated its blog post with a confirmation of the deal on Tuesday.

Before this new conformity between Comcast and Roku, the cable access company had allowed its subscribers to use their mobile devices (i.e. smartphones and tablets) to access HBO Go, but not any TV-connected devices. Verizon Fios, ATT U-verse and DirecTV were just some of the many major TV providers who were already supported on the Roku when the agreement was ultimately reached.

Apparently, The HBO Go app has been available on the Roku streaming device since 2011. However, in order for users to actually be able to run the app, it had to be authenticated with the channel’s coinciding TV provider. Until now, Comcast had denied that authentication ability to its customers.

Recently Comcast has been looking into merging with Time Warner Cable, a TV provider who is already supported by Roku. This fact along with Roku’s complaint to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) may have led to the cable company’s decision to join the growing list of TV providers whose are already supported on the streaming media player.

Sony PS3s, Amazon Fire TVs and Samsung smart TVs are still on Comcast’s “blocked” list, although the cable company claims they are in the process of conducting product and platform evaluations for those particular streaming devices. They will likely be forming a similar deal with the cable company in the near future.

A spokesperson for Roku stated that company is glad to be able to bring the long-awaited feature to Comcast Xfinity TV customers.

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Source URLS:
1.) http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Roku/Comcast/XFINITY/Cable/HBO_Go/showtime-anytime/Game_of_Thrones/homeland/shameless/true-detective/comcast-customers-can-now-stream-hbo-go-showtime-anytime-on-roku-devices/20105
2.) https://gigaom.com/2014/12/16/comcast-customers-can-finally-watch-hbo-go-on-their-rokus/
3.) http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/12/comcast-to-stop-blocking-hbo-go-and-showtime-on-roku-streaming-devices/

On December 10, 2014, Rdio, one of largest music streaming services in the world, announced its partnership expansion with Roku. The expansion introduces new enhancements to the Rdio app that make accessing and using it on the Roku easier and more convenient than ever before.

Roku customers in the US, UK, Ireland and Canada will all be able to take advantage of these new features on Rdio’s free internet radio stream and the app’s paid on-demand subscription service.

Roku customers can instantly access the Rdio channel’s 30+ million song library from the newly added Rdio shortcut button that will now appear on the Roku remote controls. This button will appear on the following Roku models: Roku 3, the Roku Streaming Stick (HDMI version) and Roku TV models in the US.

Also included in these new enhancements is integrated billing for paid Rdio subscribers and more convenient upgrades for any free ad-supported Rdio users interested in the benefits of upgrading to a paid subscription. All billing and payments can be conveniently performed via customer Roku accounts.

Another result of this expansion is that Rdio is now the default channel whenever any new Roku activation processes take place. This makes it easier for customers to add the Rdio channel to their Roku home screen. Also, until December 31^st, all new Roku player or Roku TV model purchases and activations will come with a free 2-month Rdio Unlimited subscription.

Rdio was originally founded in August 2010 by Janus Friis, who is also a co-creator of Skype. The Rdio headquarters is located in San Francisco, CA.