Roku users got a big surprise late last week when the company provided an unexpected update to its official iOS and Android applications. Previously, the free apps were mainly a secondary remote control for the streaming media player. With this update, announced on the official Roku blog, Roku has added the ability to stream music and pictures directly from your mobile device.
The application update requires no setup on the Roku box itself, which is a welcome surprise. I’ve been using the new Roku app for a few days, and while third-party mobile-to-Roku streaming apps have been around for a while now, having that capability built into the device for free is a huge step forward. This is an especially good move because major competitors like Apple TV and Google TV have offered such capability for ages.
Roku’s new functionality is certainly exciting, but the device needs to provide several minor tweaks to make the app truly great. At least on the Android version, the remote control buttons vibrate at the maximum setting, and there doesn’t seem to be any way to shut that off. Secondly, the Android “back” button shuts down Roku video play rather than just returning the mobile device to the home screen. [Update 9/27/12: The good folks at Roku took care of these two issues in an update released today.]
But the biggest issue is that Roku was unable to find my music. At least on the Android version, it appears that the app only looks in the SD card’s higher level folders, which is a problem for those of us who exclusively use Google Music for short-term music downloading. To make the music playable, I had to duplicate Google Music’s fifth-level audio files and dump them to the system’s default music folder using a third-party file manager. This doubles the amount of space my music takes up, and that halves the amount of music I can play on my good speakers through the Roku.
With these minor adjustments, and the addition of the glaringly absent video streaming capabilities, Roku can claim a first-class mobile-to-Roku experience.
The free Roku app is available from iTunes and Google Play. Download it now and let us know what you think.
Are there any plans to support DLNA and video streaming