NBA lands on Roku, NHL on Boxee

Good things are happening in the over-the-top sporting video realm this week. Boxee and the NHL have launched a port of the GameCenter Live computer-based video streaming service. Like MLB.TV, a subscription ($20/mo or $80/yr) is required and grants you access to all of the (out of market) hockey – games, live or archived. Of … Read more

DVPRemote App Gets Virtual Roku Keyboard

DVPRemote, the 99 cent app that turns your iPhone into a virtual Roku remote control, has recently been updated to version 1.4. New in this release is a QWERTY keyboard, which greatly simplifies text entry as developer Phil Irey demos above. Roku’s WiFi interface doesn’t actually include hooks for individual keys, so DVPRemote has essentially … Read more

Yahoo on Roku?

Alright, I’d admit that headline is a bit of tease, but it certainly seems possible that we could see Yahoo Connected TV widgets on Roku boxes (and lots of other hardware) in the next few months. I talked to a Yahoo spokesperson at Digital Experience last night and heard some impressive updates on the Yahoo … Read more

Christmas Gadgetry

As anyone who’s read my posts in previous years knows, gadget giving in my family is practically a competitive sport, especially around Christmas. While I don’t think we topped last year, 2009 definitely brought in some great loot. My household landed a new Roku box, and I personally snagged a Kodak Zi8 video camera and … Read more

Roku WiFi iPhone Remote(s) Upgraded

DVPRemote, which I originally came across back in August, has just received a substantial refresh. In addition to fundamental WiFi remote control of Roku’s media streamer ($99), the app author has worked closely with Roku to incorporate their graphics, enable auto-discovery (versus direct IP address entry), and add support for multiple units. I’ve had a … Read more

WiFi Roku Remote? There’s an App for that.

I didn’t realize that my little Roku ($99) video streaming box has an open network interface. Like TiVo, one simply needs to telnet into port 8080 of the Roku from a LAN to issue commands. The first practical implementation, which I discovered over on Hacking Netflix, is the 99 cent iPhone/Touch DVPRemote app which allows … Read more