News: 0183429892

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Roku Updates Its UI For the First Time In a Decade (engadget.com)

(Wednesday May 27, 2026 @05:00PM (BeauHD) from the new-and-improved dept.)


Roku is rolling out its [1]first major homescreen update in a decade . The UI doesn't look too dramatically different, but users will notice more personalization-driven changes, including frequently used apps, "top picks," household-specific layouts, and recommendations based on viewing habits. Rest assured, Engadget adds, "Everything is still in various shades of purple and Roku City is still available as a screensaver." From the report:

> Today's update certainly brings more clutter into the mix, including a new "marquee" ad spot that takes up a large chunk of the screen. It's worth remembering that Roku makes most of its money on ads and not its hardware. "More than 100 million households will feel the difference the moment they turn on their TV -- and it opens up a better, more powerful experience for our partners as well," CEO Anthony Wood wrote in a [2]blog post .

>

> The update does bring one novel feature, according to [3]The Hollywood Reporter . The company says the new homescreen platform will adapt to how households use Roku devices. This is to accommodate "multiple people living in homes." For instance, a child's bedroom TV might have a different homescreen than TV in the living room, and so forth. This expansion is rolling out right now to US-based customers, though it might take a while to reach every user. Roku says "additional countries will follow in the coming months."



[1] https://www.engadget.com/2182099/roku-updates-its-ui-for-the-first-time-in-a-decade/

[2] https://www.roku.com/blog/new-home-screen

[3] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/roku-changes-homescreen-overhaul-1236606121/


Pi-hole ftw (Score:4, Interesting)

by Kargan ( 250092 )

I have Roku to thank for my newest Linux pc hardware purchase late last year, with a 4GB Raspberry Pi that I set up specifically to block ads on our Roku players. This was the first dedicated Linux hardware that I had picked up in a couple of decades and I opted to go with a headless configuration, which also allowed me to get back into the CLI and relearn a few things I had forgotten over the years.

Fun geek project to play around with for sure and a bit of a reacquaintance with Linux. Cheers, Roku! :)

Re: (Score:2)

by jheath314 ( 916607 )

Would you mind sharing a little more about what you learned from your experience setting this up? Was there a guide you found particularly useful, or things that you discovered on your own?

I have a couple old Raspberry Pi boxes lying around, and I wouldn't mind following your example if there are no issues with performance or high availability.

Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

by ArchieBunker ( 132337 )

They were probably talking about Pi Hole.https://pi-hole.net/

Re: (Score:2)

by Ritz_Just_Ritz ( 883997 )

I did the same. Roku is extremely chatty. It's easily the most chatty device in our home (thousands of connections per device outbound to their telemetry per day). It didn't take much time to block everything and then gradually figuring out which was absolutely needed for the level of functionality I wanted. Everything else gets dropped on the floor. Roku gets "desperate" and demon dials home base when you block connectivity to the data harvesters. Luckily only the small raspberry pi needs to be invol

Everything is becoming a variation of (Score:1)

by Tablizer ( 95088 )

endless scrolling, a never-ending click-bait engine.

Re: Everything is becoming a variation of (Score:2)

by OrangeTide ( 124937 )

The future is now. And that future is endless scrolling while drool dribbles down our chin.

Re: (Score:1)

by dfghjk ( 711126 )

Imagine using any of Roku's competitors then!

Anyone who thinks $30 is the most important measure is a perfect target for Roku.

Re: (Score:2)

by fropenn ( 1116699 )

If they are familiar with the UI on a Mac or if they like their Apple phones than an Apple TV would be a great investment (although if they have a bunch of TVs this could get pricey at $129+ each).

Dumped Roku 2 years ago (Score:2)

by lucifuge31337 ( 529072 )

I dumped Roku a couple of years ago when they made it clear that I was the product rather than the customer. Generic android boxes work just fine these days and if you're just running Plex/Emby/Jellyfin or whatever you don't even need to sign into a google account - in fact you can remove the play store all together if you buy one that is ASOP. Add to this projectivy or some other sane launcher and you don't have to worry about ads or things changing that you did not ask for or want.

Annoying (Score:3)

by Cpt_Kirks ( 37296 )

I got this update a couple of weeks ago, and it is ANNOYING.

Trying to shove crap I could care less about in my face, plus MORE ADS.

It takes a bit of work, but most of it can be turned off.

Re: (Score:2)

by SoCalChris ( 573049 )

Same here. And it puts all of this new shit at the top, forcing you to scroll past it each time.

They should have put some effort into fixing whatever memory leak keeps me having to reboot the ting every few days.

Re: (Score:2)

by fropenn ( 1116699 )

Ublock origin blocks most of the Slashdot ads, except for one banner which could probably be blocked with some more tinkering.

Re: (Score:2)

by tonique ( 1176513 )

The script in question is aptly named "ad_top.js".

Solution: "Factory Reset" and then never connect.. (Score:2)

by PubJeezy ( 10299395 )

Solution: "Factory Reset" and then never connect it to the internet again. I did this after the last UI update put a 3rd or 4th row of ads on the home-screen and it's made my life a whole lot easier.

Re: (Score:2)

by MBGMorden ( 803437 )

1. Factory reset restores default settings - it does NOT roll back system updates.

2. A Roku device not connected to the internet is going to be lacking its core functionality. If your goal is to use it as a dumb display, or to solely just a local media library (eg Jellyfin), then maybe, but 99% of all Roku users want to do more than that.

"users will notice more personalization-driven..." (Score:2)

by Growlley ( 6732614 )

is that code for ads?

Pervert (Score:2)

by PPH ( 736903 )

> a child's bedroom TV might have a different homescreen than TV in the living room

How do you know it's in a child's room? Turn off the camera, pervert!

Right to the point (Score:2)

by Himmy32 ( 650060 )

> opens up a better, more powerful experience for our partners as well

Nothing like a CEO knows how to sell enshittification as a good thing.

Roku TV bult into Westinghouse Smart TV (Score:2)

by King_TJ ( 85913 )

I'm sure I'm just an outlier here. But I bought a cheap big screen LCD smart TV at Best Buy 3-4 years ago. It was a Westinghouse branded set running Roku TV.

At some point, they updated the firmware to consolidate the TV guide in it so it displayed all the streaming content and your over the air TV stations in the same guide. (Used to be, you had to pick a Live TV icon/button to look at your OTA content in its own place.)

Ever since that happened, the TV forgets all my OTA stations regularly so I have to go

And their update is, without question,... (Score:1)

by NoOnesMessiah ( 442788 )

...the same standard garbage that many, many companies before them have done to try to figure out where they can "add value" (meaning make more money doing exactly what they're doing now) without bothering to innovate again. Think AVG, Avira, MalwareBytes, Office, blah blah blah. More benign or useless features masquerading as a face lift while their memory footprint quadruples ...or worse. Microsoft has been re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic since Windows NT got a bump from v3.51 and Windows M

On this morning in August when I was 13, my mother sent us out pick
tomatoes. Back in April I'd have killed for a fresh tomato, but in August
they are no more rare or wonderful than rocks. So I picked up one and threw
it at a crab apple tree, where it made a good *splat*, and then threw a tomato
at my brother. He whipped one back at me. We ducked down by the vines,
heaving tomatoes at each other. My sister, who was a good person, said,
"You're going to get it." She bent over and kept on picking.
What a target! She was 17, a girl with big hips, and bending over,
she looked like the side of a barn.
I picked up a tomato so big it sat on the ground. It looked like it
had sat there a week. The underside was brown, small white worms lived in it,
and it was very juicy. I stood up and took aim, and went into the windup,
when my mother at the kitchen window called my name in a sharp voice. I had
to decide quickly. I decided.
A rotten Big Boy hitting the target is a memorable sound, like a fat
man doing a belly-flop. With a whoop and a yell the tomatoee came after
faster than I knew she could run, and grabbed my shirt and was about to brain
me when Mother called her name in a sharp voice. And my sister, who was a
good person, obeyed and let go -- and burst into tears. I guess she knew that
the pleasure of obedience is pretty thin compared with the pleasure of hearing
a rotten tomato hit someone in the rear end.
-- Garrison Keillor, "Lake Wobegon Days"