As we gear up for 2014, TiVo’s plans have begun to crystalize. First, based on pre-show outreach from Olson, it appears Android streaming is a lock for a January CES announcement – although supported devices and a specific release date remain foggy. Further, and as you can see from these exclusive pics, TiVo remains on track to deliver the Opera TV App Store in the next month or three.
However, whereas I’d assumed Opera would become Roamio’s core app engine, as currently implemented, it’s a tacked on meta app of HTML5 apps (akin to Flingo’s TiVo Launchpad that now goes by “Hotlist”). While the Opera platform doesn’t currently possess much of interest, with Vimeo being perhaps the most compelling video offering, the companies are hopeful that synergies from their combined audience (and 100 Opera TV engineers) will motivate developers to take action. Although we assume tent pole services like WatchESPN and HBO GO would require independent dealios (and feature more prominent placement in the TiVo interface).
Speaking of apps, also in TiVo’s pipeline are updated Netflix and Pandora experiences for Roamio, Premiere, and Mini hardware. And, yes, we’re talking the brand-spanking-new Netflix UI… which partially accounts for Netflix being pulled from the fall Premiere update and Roamio rollback. It’s quite possible both of these will hit before the end of the year. Nice!
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The new Netflix UI is on my Roamio Plus already. Looks nice. It doesn't work much differently; it still uses horizontal scrolling, but its much improved visually and has a couple new categories of interest to me.
Its all well and good updating Netflix and Pandora ... but the one everyone has being waiting for is Amazon with prime support.
Yeah, Amazon is so overdue for a refresh and it seems as if the ball's been in Amazon's court. Unfortunately, they haven't been motivated to do anything and we know they're working on their own Roku-competitor. But I'm hopeful they'll still find time to see this app refreshed (given that icon we saw on the TiVo Mini a few months back). Of course, an updated app would probably be the end of movie downloads and it'd be a streaming-only solution... perhaps of lesser quality. Hm. But, yeah, as a long time Prime member I'd like to take advantage of my video without flipping to another input.