Search results for 'app:weblogs' matching tag 'Roku'

Utter Coolness compliments of Roku

William — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:00:00 GMT

My first Roku Soundbridge joined the family back in 2005. As far as wireless media players go, it was a bit pricey. But it looked really cool and I got it through a special offer making it a lot more reasonable. The form factor and styling was the main thing I attributed the cost to, but I quickly learned that it was all the cool features that were responsible for the cost. That was pretty much the case with each Roku product I've owned, they looked really cool and had all sorts of unanticipated goodness brimming throughout. With Windows Home Server, an XBox 360 as an extender and a few Media Center pc's in the house, it's been a while since I looked at any Roku products, mainly b/c I just didn't really need them - one network media player is usually plenty, let alone several. But when I saw Endgadget's latest post on the sheer coolness of Roku, it made me realize what I was missing.

So at first glance, it looked like Roku came up with a streaming media player which served up content from Netflix. I always found Netflix's pre-addressed envelopes a really nice touch - and a convenient one at that. But Every time I've signed up for Netflix, it ended up being a waste of money b/c I don't typically get around to watching many movies in any given month. So I've signed up a few times only to cancel my account b/c of lack of use (Kim and I just can't seem to let go of paying for movie rental late fees ;-) ). After the third or fourth time, i just sort of gave up on the whole thing. By the second sentence in this paragraph, I realized it's time to rethink that policy - and go enable my subscription.

Roku is a truly innovative company with nothing but cool products, but it looks like they might have just raised their own bar.

Roku's new Product Showcase

William — Wed, 04 May 2005 05:00:00 GMT

Ok, this is pure keeping up with the Joneses (or Ryan's in my case) but it's way cool. A certain Punjabi homie of mine decided it would be funny to send me links to Wireless media players that only cost $50.00 - immediately after I got my Soundbridge , well, they might not work any better but they look a lot cooler. Anyway, there's some cool stuff there and no doubt, hagning out with Michael Earls is probably only going to encourage me to bling up my media game (ok, I know I know, if I bring up Michael Earls one more time this week, I'm going to have people unsubscribing from my blog for all the Michael Earls Circle Jerks).

Streaming around the house

William — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 06:00:00 GMT

Well, even though we got off to a bad start, http://www.rokulabs.com really came through. I got a new player, express shipped, everything was awesome. It was pretty neat hooking into my wifi network without a keyboard - using the remote control is like ultra hard core command line. It looks like you can even fire Linux command line commands from it. I guess I need to get my Windows Media Services hooked up now and see what I can do with it. My networking game is pretty weak but I'm getting there and this thing looks like it'll be a lot of fun to learn. Just what I need, another gadget.

Anyway, I know there are a few other similar devices - I saw an add for one when I got my new G Router last week - does anyone use one of these?

I knew they'd come through

William — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 06:00:00 GMT

Ok - the guys from Roku responded and well - they couldn't have been any cooler. Seems I just called at a bad time and the front line people aren't there. They were so cool in fact that I feel like a total dumb a33 for even getting annoyed in the first place. But I'm good like that.

Now the real challenge is going to be if I can pull of something cool. I have Windows Media Services running on my 2k3 box. I'm wondering if I can get TTS to feed into it - It's got to be possible - heck, KC probably already did it. But then you could have it read you blog posts and stuff while you were doing other things. I already got the TTS on XP to read blogs - I need a cooler voice though - like the chick that's on my macintosh's voice. Those default voices on XP start sounding too much like NPR after 20 seconds Which gets me to thinking - what' the hype with NPR these days? I've run across a lot of people that are into it in the past few months. Sure, some stuff like All things considered is ok - but the stuff that sucks - REALLY sucks. Like that story telling dude that's always talking about Minnessota. Nothing against MN - but damn that dude is lame.

Anyway, I see that some dude already wrote a RSS Reader reader for it - and there's a lot of other cool stuff.

Still Nothing

William — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 06:00:00 GMT

1:04 AM and still nothing from http://www.rokulabs.com . 5 hours to answer a 30 second inquiry. Not boding well for them right now.

I'm getting pissed off

William — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 06:00:00 GMT

Ok, it's 10:58, I put my support email in 4 HOURS ago. Still nothing. I have a bunch of work to do tonight and I'm in my office - my XM Radio is in my bedroom. I was going to move it in here tonight, hook it into my 2K3 box and pump everything through my Roku. But NO, I can't. Why? Because I think the Roku is defective. And I'm not going to move all my radio stuff in here b/c I'm pouting. That and I have the antenna hooked up on the other side of my place, it's cold as hell down here right now, and I'm not going to move it, just so I can move it back in an hour when I decide to go to sleep. But it should be working now and it's not. I should have it all hooked up and ready to go - so I could listen to the Phil Hendrie Show on my computer and then go to sleep later, and be able to listen to Art Bell all night - but I can't. Being the spoiled little sh1thead I am, I get really mad when i can't have something right now when I want it. And there's no way I'm getting a Roku in my place tonight. Sure, I can go get one at the store tomorrow - but I haven't made up my mind if I really hate them or not. I keep looking at the box and drooling - and then looking at their email and getting mad. I could probably take my Ritalin and then focus again on stuff that actually mattes, but instead I'm sitting here blogging and whining about the fact that I don't have a WiFi media device. AND IF I HAD A PLASTIC SPOON - I”D BE BANGING IT ON MY DESK RIGHT NOW! Goddammit, what good is living in a first world country and having high speed internet and a dual processor server if I can't listen to XM Radio in TWO Different rooms whenever I damn well feel like it?

So I could take some Ambien and go to sleep. But there's an hour lag time on that and I won't rememer ANYTHING if I go that route. I could take my Ritalin and then actually concentrate, but then I'll be up all night, and morning, and evening and night. I could get drunk, but it's cold outside and if I get boozed up, I'll just end up making an a33 out of myself.

Well, Pastor Rennick is on Phil's show and he always puts me in a Good Mood so maybe I can get back to work. He's talking about “It's betta to engage in unBiblical sex, than to have an abortion. What's wrong with two young people doign something the Bible says is an abomination, if it keeps them from having an abortion. I've prayed on this. I've tried to get God to understand. But it's better for a boy to have sex with a goat, than to knock up some skank - and have another fetus on the fire. Because fetuses haven't accepted the Lord, so they're going to hell.” Then he says that Andrea Yates should be let out of jail because she did the real Christian thing and stopped her kids before they could put “another fetus on the fire”. If you haven't heard this pit, it's better than “You ISLAM” and almost as good as “All you can eat Negro” (The bit where a Mavis Leonard is mad at the Catholic church because they eat people, they eat Jesus too. And she thinks “Them Catholics at my nephew, how come you Catholics done macked on my boy” It's the best Phil Hendrie bit to date b/c a real Catholic priest calls in and starts talking about the Eucharist. He says “We believe that we eat the Body” and she interrupts him “Do you eat up on the Booty too?” If you haven't heard it - let me know - I”ll send it to you - it's priceless. Right now Rennick is talking about “I needed to understand, so I went on the internet. I've been to TurtleHeads dotcom, I've been to Bangbus dotcom. I've seen BlackesOnBlondes.com. And I'd rather see that then see another Fetus on the Fire.” A white Preacher calls in and reads Rennick the riot act, and Rennick asks him “Have you seen BlacksOnBlondes.com” It's so over the top.......

My Roku Soundbridge

William — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 06:00:00 GMT

Well, I finally got it and was really stoked. http://www.rokulabs.com/products/soundbridge/index.php and everything. Except that, after turning it on, it's a safe bet I got a defective unit. They have like 10 trillion warnings about not plugging it in unless the caps are on the end - so I was extra careful to make sure that I did exactly as I was told. Then, I plug it in and instead of the welcome message, I got a bunch of gobblidegook and something that looks like a C:> prompt - but I can't be sure. So I try to contact the company. Guess what, they don't have a telephone for customer support - not even if you're willing to pay. I had it shipped overnight (about $30.00), took it out of the box, can't even get to step 1 of the setup and then if I want to return it, either for a replacement or credit - I have to pay for shipping. Actually the response was “You can take that up with accounting”. So either way, I'm paying for shipping up front, I may get a refund on it but who knows.

I was really impressed with these things so whereas I'd normally have been a bit pissed off by now - I still want the thing. But folks, it's 2005. Telephones really aren't that expensive. And if you piss off your customers - well, then you won't have them for long. I was a customer for 20 minutes before they really pissed me off. More than anything I think what's irritating is talking to people that just really can't answer anything - at all. The girl on the other line actually reads me an email address over the phone and says “You can try them”. Ok, how long could it possible take someone to determine if the behavior I'm seeing is a defect or not? 20 seconds? Maybe a minute. The time it took me to compose an email to them took longer than it will for them to answer my question. Then she tells me to write this refund number on the outside of the box. In any particular place? Or maybe attach it inside. No, just write it wherever you want. So I'm like - look, I understand this stuff happens, but it will take someone all of 10 seconds to say “Yep, that's defective”. If it's defective then considering I flipped the bill for overnight shipping - the least they could do is pick up the return shipping. But again, i can type up an email, after i send the thing back, and take it up with someone in accounting. I mean, how hard is it to say this “Our policy is that if it's broken, we'll pick up the shipping, but if it's a problem on your end, you have to pay for it.” She didn't know this and couldn't find it out. Did she tell me how I can get a hold of the Accounting deparment? Nope. Since they have my email and phone number, could she have someone contact me and answer either of my questions? Nope.

Somehow I know this was just the result of some clerk who was probably new and wasn't hired for her commitment to customer care. Roku looks pretty cutting edge and appear to put a lot of money into marketing. So i'm really hoping that this is just some fluke. However I still haven't recieved an email back, from customer support or the dude who's email she gave me over the phone. It's a lot easier to tell a company to go take a hike when there are like a lot of competitors and you don't really care about their product.

Now here's the part that kills me. Does anyone doubt that if I send a bunch of nasty emails saying I'm totally pissed off and all that crap, and that I'll never buy anything from them again blah blah blah - that they'll pick up the shipping and 'fix' it. Of course they will. So why waste the money having some person in accounting talk to me on the phone and waste a bunch of time getting approvals, after the fact? Why not just do whatever you're going to do up front? I mean seriously, if you're that hard up that sticking customers with return shipping fees is going to make you rich - then you have real problems. That's obviously not the case here. But why in the heck is that some companies will go to the end of the world to fix a problem once you're pissed off, but don't really seem to have much interest in nipping the problem in the bud?

TigerDirect is the ultimate example of this. The pissed me off more than any company ever has. I hated them almost as much as the people that spam my blog. So I sent them an email saying basically that I'd never buy anything from them - along with the emails I got from their 'support' people. The next morning I had a manager, call me at work, apologizing up and down telling me he'll do everything possible to fix this. The dude sounded like he was trembling. So I told him that I wasn't mad any more - but if he wants to make it right, just see to it that other people don't go through what I did. I didn't want money, a refund, nothing, just fix the problem. So the guy says, he'll see what he can do. He calls me back 10 minutes later and credited my account for the cost of shipping which was around $40.00. Then I got an apology letter and all sorts of other stuff. Now, I think the way they handled it after the fact was totally cool - I have no gripes with them. But what in the hell people thinking. You know damn good and well that appeasing a pissed off customer is going to ALWAYS cost more than just not pissing them off. So why go through the charade? Why? Aren't you supposed to like “make” money in business? Why pay a higher paid manager to talk for 30 minutes with a customer when you could just train your new people a little better and be done with it.

Oh well, hopefully they'll be able to answer my question - to which I already know the answer - “Yes, it's defective” and we can be done with all of this.