Roku has (finally) announced the winners of their Developer Contest. Although the panel of judges was a bit suspect. ;)
Yours truly will be picking the winner of the Photo category. Some of my counterparts… ZNF patron saint and friend Harry McCracken (Technologizer) helms Screensavers, while LeVar Burton beams up Social Media.
Each category winner receives a cool $5000, with the overall winner getting an additional $5k. In my category, Picasa Web Albums was clearly head and shoulders above the competition as the Best Photo Channel. In fact, I don’t even have to write it up — as Rakesh Agrawal (aka CEO of Snapstream/BeyondTV) was so impressed, he blogged the Channel a few weeks back:
The Picasa channel for Roku is a big winner. The quality of the photographs is great. It handles videos. It nails my core use-cases. I’m already using this thing all the time, sharing photographs I’ve taken with my family, with friends that have come over. It’s great! I’m surprised that this thing hasn’t gotten more attention.
Here’s a roundup of all the winners:
- Best Video Channel: Khan Academy
- Best Music/Audio Channel: MainSqueeze
- Best Screensaver: Picasa Web Albums Screensaver
- Best Social Media: SocialKast
- Best Photo Channel: Picasa Web Albums
- Founder’s Choice: Video Poker
- Grand Prize: Video Poker
will the Picasa channel be added to roku?
I believe all these channels are there now. As long as the developer doesn’t pull the plug, it should remain available.