roku ultra

It appears Roku is expanding from streaming hardware to smart home lighting.

Photos and two shipping manifests regarding Roku-branded smart home devices have appeared online. The smart home lineup from Roku could incorporate light strips, smart plus and even indoor/outdoor security cameras.

Roku has long secured its place in the streaming hardware space, whether it’s the Roku Express, Roku Streaming Stick, or the new Roku Ultra, many are aware of the brand.

A photo depicting a large stack of Roku smart light strips is circulating the internet courtesy of Reddit user ‘Negative_Source.’ Additionally, two shipping manifests show that Roku is working with Wyze on roughly half a dozen products for the home.

So far, the available information reveals the company’s plans to sell a Roku colour bulb and a white bulb. Additionally, there are mentions of the aforementioned light strips and a Roku smart plug. Finally, Roku appears to be releasing a Roku indoor camera, Roku outdoor camera and Roku pan cam.

Of course, this leak doesn’t officially confirm that there are new Roku devices on the way. However, this is substantial enough evidence to suggest Roku is planning to become an integral part of the smart home.

It’s worth considering how these products could communicate with one another. References to a ‘Roku Smart Home’ channel have been spotted as well. This suggests that Roku may be developing a way to control all devices via a set-top box or streaming stick. It’s likely integration into the Roku mobile app is on the way as well.

Roku’s investment in smart home lighting is interesting. Obviously, Philips Hue is a big player in the space and offers the Hue Play HDMI Sync Box for the living room. Though, it does involve quite the investment of cash. Perhaps Roku’s smart home initiative can provide similar results for a more modest price.

As far as rollout and pricing, it’s still unclear how Roku plans to announce these products. However, given that the packaging looks like it’s finalized, we can’t be too far away from official details.

Image credit: u/Negative_Source

Source: Reddit ‘Negative_Source’ Via: The Verge

Roku is finally bringing its $129 Roku Ultra streaming set-top box back to the Canadian market.

The Ultra is one of the most capable devices Roku sells and offers several cool perks, but the most interesting is the new Roku remote that includes a headphone jack, far-field microphones and a rechargeable battery.

Beyond that, the Ultra features an Ethernet jack, a USB port and can play high-end 4K content with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision high dynamic-range. This makes it comparable to the $70 Streaming Stick, but with extra ports and a wider Wi-Fi range than Roku’s other products. The streaming box also features Bluetooth, allowing you to connect wireless headphones to listen privately.

Roku says that the new rechargeable remote should last two months per charge and can be topped up with the included micro-USB cable. However, you’ll need to use your own charging block or plug it into the back of the streaming box.

The remote also features two programmable buttons that you can set up to work with just about anything. They can trigger a custom search, open an app or even work to turn on settings like closed captions within apps. This is pretty useful, and I think these buttons will make navigating the already user-friendly Roku interface even faster.

Other new features include a new switch on the side that mutes the far-field microphone if you don’t want to use hands-free voice search. That said, the hands-free mic is helpful when you misplace the remote and want it to play a sound so you can find it. Without the microphone, you need to tap a button on the side of the set-top box.

To round out the new announcements, Roku is also rolling out an update to its operating system that improves search better and adds a new section to the home screen to make finding free content easier