WD TV streamer is a Play on Apple TV, Roku
Small, square, sub-$100 black boxes dominate streaming internet-television devices in the US, in the shape of Apple TV and Roku’s LT, XS, XD and HD boxes.
There’s no shame then in Western Digital imitating this successful formula in launching today the WD TV Play - the latest variation of its WD TV lineup of content-streaming set-top boxes. Read more
CESsentials 2013 – Roku adds content, TV partners
We pick our highlights of the product unveilings, bringing you the essential news from the 2013 International CES in Las Vegas (January 6 -11).
What it is: Roku has added six new TV partners that will use its streaming stick with their sets and announced new content, bringing its internet-streaming offering to more than 700 channels.
Key points: Coby Electronics, Harman Kardon, HiSense, TCL, Voxx and Westinghouse join eight other “Roku-ready” partners that will integrate its streaming service through the stick that fits in an MHL-enabled HDMI port. Fourteen new channel apps are being announced including Blockbuster on Demand movies and live TV channels Fox Now and Time Warner Cable TV, the latter offering up to 300 live TV channels Read more
Roku Stick, Simple.TV to ship for cord-cutters
Roku has announced pricing and availability for its Streaming Stick device that plugs into an HDTV to serve on-demand channels over the internet, without the need for a separate Roku set-top box.
The stick, about the size of a packet of chewing gum, will be available in the US in October for $100. It plugs into an HDMI port that is enabled for MHL technology – many new TVs and other devices are beginning to feature such ports – and does not need a separate power supply. Simple.TV followed up on Thursday with its own shipping announcement for its Broadcast TV -streaming box. Read more
Roku raises $45m to spread smart TV streaming
Roku and Vizio are the battling underdogs of the US TV industry, surviving and even prospering against bigger players thanks to their aggressive pricing strategies and rapid innovations.
Roku’s set-top box for streaming internet content has held its own against Apple TV, while Vizio has duelled effectively with Samsung over TV sales leadership. Now Roku has earned fresh legitimacy with a $45m investment led by News Corporation and its part-owned broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting. Read more
Roku adds $50 box and HBO Go
Roku, which shares more than 90 per cent of the US market for internet media player set-top boxes with Apple TV, according to estimates, has come up with a model half the price of its bigger rival and is adding HBO Go as a channel.
Roku set a benchmark price of $100 for its original box that was later matched by Apple and others, but its newest model - the LT – announced on Tuesday, costs $50. Read more
Wi-Fi, Spotify glorify WD TV Live
Western Digital this week made its WD TV Live internet media player more competitive with the likes of Apple TV, Roku and the Logitech Revue, adding more hardware features, new content channels including the Spotify music service and pitching it at a lower price.
This category of small set-top boxes seems up against it compared to the more integrated efforts of internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and game consoles, but they keep fighting back with lower prices, improved interfaces and imaginative additions to their services. Read more
Roku, a tiny company next to its Silicon Valley neighbour Apple, has had to move fast to stay ahead and survive in the face of Apple TV – a set-top box that was revamped last year to challenge its own established product.
Where Roku had led with Netflix streaming and other internet content channels, competitors followed, and this makes the Roku 2, just announced, an interesting product in terms of showing where Apple and Roku’s other bigger rivals are likely to go in future.
Roku 2 adds games to net TV box
Roku, a tiny company next to its Silicon Valley neighbour Apple, has had to move fast to stay ahead and survive in the face of Apple TV – a set-top box that was revamped last year to challenge Roku’s own established product.
Where Roku had led with Netflix streaming and other internet content channels, competitors followed, and this makes the Roku 2, just announced, an interesting product in terms of showing where Apple and Roku’s other bigger rivals are likely to go in future. Read more
Apple TV – love at second bite
The second-generation Apple TV looks like being a bigger hit than the original, judging by a report that it is selling out across the US.
I tested Apple TV and compared it with the Roku XDS and a Western Digital media player in this week’s Personal Technology column in the FT’s Business Life section. There are also earlier separate reviews of Apple TV, the Roku box and WD TV Live Plus HD on this blog. Read more
New Roku boxes take on Apple TV
Roku is a feisty and fleet-footed Silicon Valley company that has been running ahead of a flood of internet-connected devices threatening to engulf its tiny set-top box.
With its new lineup just launched, Roku stays out in front on price and content and gets in just ahead of its biggest challenger to date – Apple TV, which is due to go on sale by the end of the month. Read more
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Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
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