With a small update to its iOS app, Roku has just turned your Apple device into a video beamer.
Last September, Roku launched “Play on Roku,” a feature that allows users to stream photos and music from their mobile devices directly to their TVs via a wide range of Roku devices. Today, they’re pushing an app update that will incorporate video into the mix.
Starting today, Roku for iOS will let users stream video from their devices to their TVs. This functionality supports iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, and you can stream to your TV with the following Roku players: Roku 3, Roku 2, Roku HD (model 2500) or Roku LT (models 2400 & 2450) player or the Roku Streaming Stick.
This means that you can take a video with your iPhone, and easily stream it on your HDTV. It’s kind of like Roku’s answer to Apple’s AirPlay, except it doesn’t support third-party apps – meaning that you can’t just stream any type of video from your phone to your TV using a Roku box (for instance, no Netflix streaming). Of course, with Roku’s family of apps, this probably wouldn’t be necessary anyway.
There are a few other minor tweaks shipped alongside the new video streaming:
“In addition to video streaming from iPhone and the usual minor bug fixes and performance improvements, the 5.1 update also adds support for audiophile-requested FLAC and WAV audio file formats. The USB Media Player channel has been updated to support these formats,” says Roku’s Tom Markworth.
You can download the new Roku app over at the App Store today. Android users – your update is coming.