Day: March 14, 2013

You know I LOVE my Roku! This one may cause me me to “trade up”… but the new interface will be rolled out to older Roku units soon.

Review: Roku 3 offers more power, new interface

From TechHive:
“I didn’t think Roku had much to improve on from its last high-end model, the Roku 2 XS, which I’ve been using for the past year or so to access Amazon, Netflix, and scores of additional streaming media. But the Roku 3, which replaces the 2 XS as Roku’s top-of-the-line media streamer, proves me wrong.

Hardware changes
Some of the enhancements amount to gilding the lily. The 2 XS was already petite (in fact, the Roku 3 weighs a bit more) and reasonably responsive, so the subtle industrial-design tweaks (gently rounded contours) and processor upgrade didn’t really excite me—although the new unit does seem snappier.

The new support for 5GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi, however, should improve multimedia quality for a lot of city dwellers who don’t have a wired home network. Previous models supported only 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, which tends to be overcrowded in densely populated areas, resulting in freezing and stuttering as neighboring networks fight for the few available nonoverlapping channels. Wi-Fi on the 5GHz band has a lot more channels, so neighboring networks can usually find the unencumbered bandwidth required for smooth streaming media.

The remote now has a headphone jack with volume-control buttons for audio played through headphones. The jack is a great addition for insomniacs, who can now watch Roku content without waking up spouses and other family members.

Roku even throws in a set of earbuds in the same purple the company has used to accent all of its hardware. The quality of audio through the earbuds is surprisingly decent, and the volume control works as advertised. But you can use any headphones with a standard 1/8-inch plug, and the headphone support worked equally well on a third-party headphone set I tried.

One thing I’d rather have found in the box is an HDMI cable. Roku doesn’t give you one, and the Roku 3 has dispensed with support for analog video—the unit no longer has component or composite video outputs.

The remote, by the way, still has motion-sensing technology that you can use to play the games you purchase and download from the Roku Channel Store (which is where you also select content sources for your channel lineup). Roku helps you get started by including a freebie: Rovio’s Angry Birds Space (replacing the original Angry Birds on earlier models).

I was unable to test one additional hardware upgrade: support for 7.1-channel surround sound passthrough over HDMI (previous models topped out at 5.1 channels).

Like the 2 XS before it, the Roku 3 has 10/100Base-T ethernet for wired networking, a USB port for sideloading content, Bluetooth to communicate with the remote control, and a MicroSD slot for extra game/channel storage. The faster processor lets it play MKV H.264 files sideloaded via the USB port for the first time.

New interface
On the software side, Roku has introduced a major user interface overhaul that does away with the scrolling-strip arrangement in previous versions. In its place is a more Web-standard pane-oriented layout, with a left navigation bar for various menus and filters, and relevant functions or content icons in a larger right-hand pane. It’s easier to find what you’re looking for, without a lot of scrolling action.

You can also choose from a handful of themes for the UI’s design elements—wallpaper and icons, for example—as well as a screensaver. All of this succeeds in making the Roku 3 look more like a consumer electronics gadget than a network device. (Roku plans to bring the new UI to older models—namely the Roku LT, Roku HD [model 2500R], Roku 2 HD, Roku 2 XD, Roku 2 XS, and Roku Streaming Stick—sometime in April.)

Bottom line
With 750-plus content channels and one of the easiest setups for any product, the Roku 3 maintains Roku’s position at the top of the media-streaming heap. It’s not innovative enough to warrant replacing the Roku 2 XS (unless you really want 5GHz support or the headphone jack), but it is a compelling offering for newcomers or people who own older models.”

This is a pretty decent update to DropBox!

Dropbox Desktop Update Adds Drop-Down Menus

“Dropbox on Tuesday launched a new version of its desktop client for Mac and Windows with a refreshed look and feel.

The latest version, Dropbox 2.0, should give users more visability into activity on their account and faster access to files. There’s a new drop-down menu (left), which essentially serves as a news feed from which users can see what’s going on with their account. From the new Dropbox menu icon, users can see recently added or changed files, view and accept pending invitations and shared files from other users, and see the overall status of their Dropbox sync.

‘If someone shares a link with you, you can now get to it immediately — directly from the Dropbox menu,’ according to a Tuesday post on the Dropbox blog. ‘You’ll get notifications in real time as people share with you, and can see them later just by clicking the Dropbox icon.’

From the new Dropbox menu icon, users can also quickly share recently changed files with other users.

In addition, Dropbox mobile users will also now get notifications when someone has shared a folder with them, the company said. This feature is available on the latest versions of the Dropbox iOS and Android apps.

Meanwhile, the new desktop version can be downloaded directly from the Dropbox website.

Dropbox, founded in 2007, hit 100 million users this past November. The company also last year partnered with Vimeo to ease the video-uploading process, and added the ability to share stored files inside Facebook Groups.”

Yep, Google has announced the end of Google Reader! Ouch!

Google Unplugs Reader, Sending Its Loyal Users Elsewhere

“On Wednesday evening, Google announced the imminent passing of Google Reader, age 7. Scheduled demise: July 1. According to its 2005 birth announcement, Reader was ‘a service we hope helps you spend more time reading what’s important to you.’ It was an RSS reader, basically a geeky way to get lots of news articles and blog posts from all manner of sources (remember: no Twitter back then), and organize it all conveniently. Though the service was never wildly popular, for a smattering of dedicated users it was essential.

Now those users are progressing through the Seven Stages of Internet Grief: denial, tweeting, anger, tweeting, bargaining, tweeting, and acceptance, or more precisely, figuring out a new way to get a satisfying news fix. Feedly, a popular news reader app for iOS, Android, and other platforms, has already said it will clone Google Reader and offer its users a new home.

I use Google Reader for two or three hours a day—it’s the official Google web app on my Mac when I’m at work or at home. During commutes I use Reeder, a third-party Google Reader app, on the iPhone. Mobile users could certainly shift to aggregators like Pulse or Flipboard, and indeed they are pretty and get the job done.

But serious RSS users aren’t into it for the luscious jpegged beauty. RSS feeds, taken straight, are a wall of text. That’s useful when you want to let news wash over you, to scan screenfuls of headlines without waiting for extraneous pictures to load. When I want to absorb a lot of information fast—which is to say, always— I don’t have time for Flipboard. I want exactly what Google will be taking away from me this summer.

Most people, if they’ve ever even heard of RSS, probably don’t use it as much as they used to, given the proliferation of social news sources like Facebook and Twitter. In this context, the end of Reader isn’t much of a surprise. (Reedly says as much on its announcement page.) Plus, Google’s been thinning its product portfolio for a while, as the company moves from a scattershot, invest-in-everything philosophy to a much more disciplined approach. Larry Page calls this putting ‘more wood behind fewer arrows.’

So, yes. Fine. This may make a certain kind of business sense for Google. But consider: Right now, the company is in the enviable position of having a suite of products that many users find indispensable — but not irreplaceable. There are other RSS readers, as well as other search engines, email programs, and productivity tools. Reminding your most loyal users that, in fact, you’re not the only game in town — oh, and it’s quite possible to switch — doesn’t seem quite as savvy.”