roku

Can two competing operating systems really make it work in the game of love? Maybe not. Maybe the world really does need Cupidtino, the Apple fans-only dating site discussed in Thursday's episode of Loaded.

My first reaction to this site was a resounding, "Oh brother!" I can't stand unabashed Apple love, even though I am exclusively a Mac user. However, being raised a Jehovah's Witness (which I am not any longer, but that is a topic outside the range of this post), I was taught not to date outside of my religion.

Later in life, … Read more

Netflix online video streaming is nearly ubiquitous on newer network-connected TVs, Blu-ray players, and game consoles. But a common complaint about most iterations of the service is that it's "read only"--you're locked into whatever queue you've previously set up on your PC. That's changed in recent months on some devices, however: the Xbox 360, for instance, also includes a variety of genre-based "what's new" lists, so you can instantly access new and noteworthy titles. Now that sort of functionality is finally on its way to the original Netflix device: the … Read more

The fact that Twitter is making all tweets easily embeddable is on the surface benign, but it does give pause when you think about a tweet being used as a quote.

It gets under my skin when a news broadcast uses tweets and Facebook screenshots as an indication that the network is "interactive." That isn't real interactivity. That is anecdotal proof of what a producer has already decided is the narrative of the story. Twitter's new feature will facilitate this a bit more easily across various media platforms: broadcast news, online news, blogs, etc. I'm … Read more

When we reviewed Seagate's FreeAgent Theater+ USB media player last year, we gave it good marks but lamented the fact that it didn't offer the Netflix streaming capabilities of the Roku HD Player. Well, now Seagate's added Netflix streaming via a firmware upgrade, so we'll have to update our review and eliminate that critical sentence.

If you're new to the whole USB media player category, it goes something like this: storage brands like Western Digital, Seagate, and Iomega are looking for ways to tap into the growing number of consumers who have multimedia files stored … Read more

The Roku Player's initial claim to fame was Netflix streaming and while that's still it's main draw, it's now accompanied by a full suite of streaming media services, most notably Amazon Video On Demand and MLB.TV.

Roku has continued to add functionality to its family of streaming media players, and announced Wednesday two new services: MHz Networks on Demand and Highway Girl. Roku describes MHz Networks on Demand as a "popular international channel" and Highway Girl as a "collection of interviews and live performances with various indie musicians." We're not … Read more

The Roku SD Player is the entry-level model in Roku's line of streaming media boxes. The "SD" stands for "standard definition"--it's the only one of the three that has no HD video or digital audio outputs. The price is $80--which is 20 percent less than the otherwise identical Roku HD Player.

We haven't reviewed the Roku SD Player, but the review of the HD Player should give you a good idea of how it will perform (with the obvious caveat that video quality will be limited to standard-definition). However, we'd recommend … Read more

It's episode 59 of the Digital City, and if our cast looks a little different today, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Joey, Julie, and Scott all called in sick, so we recruited some of our CNET colleagues to step in and offer their holiday shopping advice.

David Katzmaier, John Falcone, and Matt Fitzgerald weigh in on Black Friday tips for big-screen TVs, home theater equipment, and digital cameras, and we go over some of the best and worst laptop deals around.

Also discussed was the high-concept Tony Hawk: Ride skateboard video game, the surprise popularity of … Read more

Microsoft is apparently willing to pay Rupert Murdoch to block Google from indexing any of his company's Web sites. Are we headed toward a world where the search engine you use determines what news you get? Probably not. We explain why Murdoch may be thinking in an old fashioned limited way rather than in the current infinite Internet way. We also declare the patent office baroque, and ask it to lose weight.

Microsoft offers to pay News Corp. to “de-list” … Read more

Aiming to expand beyond movies and baseball, set-top box maker Roku is adding 10 new content channels ranging from social networking to music and podcasts.

Roku, which makes a small, wireless device that can stream content from the Web direct to any TV screen, is expanding from 3 channels to 13, as expected. Channels for Blip.tv, Facebook Photos, Flickr, FrameChannel, Mediafly, MobileTribe, Motionbox, Pandora, Revision3, and TWiT will join the current lineup of Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, and, more recently, MLB.TV. All of them will be available in the newly christened Roku Channel Store.… Read more