Roku brings v3.1 software update to first-gen boxes, Amazon Instant Video channel gets refaced

Early birds may get the worms, but early adopters aren’t always as equally rewarded. But, as they say, maybe first-gen Roku owners should simply be elated that their box is still on the update trail. A week (and change) after the Roku 2 and Roku LT …

Google Translate API gets reprieve, servers will accept cash for interpreter duties

Last month, Google said it intended to pull the plug on a variety of APIs, including one rather curious pick — Google Translate, which had actually been getting so much use that it was allegedly causing an “economic burden” for the company. Well, i…

Google creating YouTube ‘channels’, spending $100 million on original content?

You can do quite a lot with a sufficiently large catalog of semi-popular footage, but original content is king, and today the Wall Street Journal is reporting that YouTube will sink $100 million into original programming. The idea, according to the us…

HDX versus PC-over-IP

At a recent conference, I said, “The remote protocol no longer matters. Both options [Citrix HDX and VMware PC-over-IP] are good enough.” While I stand behind that statement — both protocols are good enough (with caveats of course) — that doesn’t mean that the remote protocol war is over.

For years, there were only two Windows remoting protocols: Microsoft’s built-in Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Citrix’s add-on Independent Computing Architecture (ICA). Lots of others popped up here and there, some standalone and some that enhanced RDP, but really it was RDP or ICA.