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Roku Wants To Start Streaming To Third-Party Devices (variety.com)
According to Variety, Roku is looking to start streaming videos on devices made or controlled by competitors like Apple and Google. The company's first foray into streaming on third-party hardware will likely involve mobile devices. From the report: The move could further accelerate Roku's efforts to transition from a hardware-revenue-based to a services-based business model -- a transition that has been in progress for years. Now, it plans to also stream some content on devices that don't run its operating system, with mobile being a likely first step. Key to Roku's expansion into mobile video is going to be the company's existing mobile app, which has already been downloaded tens of millions of times on iOS and Android. The app's current primary function is remote control, as it allows owners of Roku streaming devices and Roku-powered TVs to control these devices directly from their phones. In fact, the app can't currently be operated if there is not a Roku device available on the same Wifi network. This could change soon, as Roku is looking to integrate video playback directly into its mobile app. A first step is likely going to be the integration of the Roku Channel, an ad-supported channel that the company launched last month. The Roku Channel currently offers free, ad-supported access to several hundred movies from major studios like Lionsgate, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. as well as smaller publishers like American Classics, Fandor, FilmRise, Nosey, OVGuide, Popcornflix, Vidmark, and YuYu. However, Roku has been asking publishers to also grant the company the rights to stream their titles on mobile devices, according to a source familiar with these stipulations.
It's going to pollute the radio spectrum with stupid shit. I hope it has radiation poisoning indicator.
Since when does Roku stream? Roku provides a client device that streams from services other than Roku.
The be part of someone elses device, Roku has to add some value or it will ultimately fail.
"His name was James Damore."
IMO Roku makes the best hardware box specifically because they have no significant streaming service, so it's in their best interest to ensure it works well (or at least acceptably) with all the streaming services that matter.
I can see why Roku themselves might want to ruin it all (for their customers) by becoming a big streaming player, which they could leverage to get onto other platforms and stop doing all that hard work of making their own good hardware (Hell, maybe even sabotage Rokus for competing services or stop supporting them). But in the long run wouldn't that inevitably devalue their most valuable business segment (hardware), and probably leave them in a much worse position as "just another streaming service" on platforms owned by someone else (Google/Apple/etc.)?
P.S. When I set up my Roku 3, it demanded I give it a pointless Roku user/pass and credit card number. There's an alternate activation URL that bypasses the CC# requirement, but you'd only learn it if you were pissed off enough to call Roku tech support (or simply google for it, as I did). So at the moment Roku's ambitions are merely a temporary annoyance, but that sounds likely to change for the worse.
Once Roku decided that they were disabling 3rd party stream channels, the Roku devices because useless.
https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/16/roku-cracks-down-on-private-channels/
That would actually be pretty cool and give it an actual use beyond just mirroring the PC screen if they could turn it into a standalone Roku as well.
Adding it to stuff like Chromecast, Firestick, or the Nvidia shield would be a little redundant.
But to be able to add them to the Steam Link and maybe stuff like that, would actually be pretty cool.
How will it work Gesture Lock Screen
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