One of the only times I had a problem with my Roku.
One reason I was an early adopter of Roku was because I was an Apple Fanboy who wanted to try out Netflix's Instant Streaming. In the summer of 2008, if you didn't own a Windows computer, the next best way to stream Netflix was with Roku since Netflix wasn't offering streaming on Macs yet.
Today, Apple Fanboys have a tough decision; abandon our beloved Roku for Apple TV or stay behind Roku and renounce our Fanboy title.
I'm keeping my Roku and here's why.
The main reason is you can't purchase movies or TV shows on Apple TV. I love renting, but sometimes I want to own a TV show and if I can use my Roku to purchase TV shows on Amazon Video, I'd prefer that to renting.
Roku recently opened itself up to developers so anyone can write screensavers and channels/apps for it. Developers use BrightScript to write applications that can be private or public. Public applications need to be approved by Roku. Only people who know your private application's code can access it.
To access Roku's Developer Mode you hit this sequence on your Roku remote:
Home 3x, Up 2x, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right
If someone discovers something similar for Apple TV when it's released, we could assume Apple is planning apps down the road, but so far Apple TV apps have not been announced.
There's lots of other competition out there for putting streaming video on your TV like PlayOn and the soon to be released Boxee Box, so time will tell if all these products can coexist.
