Along with a minor refresh of the Roku Express and Roku Ultra this week, the streaming powerhouse also unveiled a new customizable remote. While it doesn’t do away with the “spam buttons,” as Roku is primarily an advertising delivery company (and Netflix requires it), the enhanced remote control adds two new numbered personalized shortcut buttons that can programmed to launch whatever apps you so choose. At least initially, this is a Roku Ultra exclusive. But I suspect it’ll be made available as an accessory for other models. Then again, with Roku’s expanding voice control, we may not even need these.
Roku Unveils Customizable Remote
Any idea on when this version (Ultra) will be available in retail? I would like this to be my first Roku
Roku.com taking pre-orders now and ships in October. Will obviously also be available through Best Buy, Amazon, etc.
One would optimistically hope that in doing this there may be third parties who figure out how to have a custom Roku remote with more programmable shortcuts. Right now I think the problem is only certain apps have an IR code to launch. This hopefully implies they all will be able to be assigned a code.
I also foresee people on eBay selling vinyl stickers with app logos.