Gadgetory

hey I'm Matthew Mackowiak from cnet and today we're taking an early look at the just announced Roku streaming stick this is a new version of Roku's old streaming stick but with two major differences it now works with any hdmi compatible TV and it's half the price at just $49 the streaming stick hardware is pretty basic the company's essentially managed to squeeze an entire Roku box into a small adapter it's not much bigger than the HDMI port itself it connects right into any spare hdmi port on your TV and then it also needs power either by connecting it to a USB port if your TV has one or using the included AC adapter if that design seems familiar that's because it's awfully similar to Google's $35 chromecast and it's not hard to see the updated streaming stick as a response to Google's popular streamer but the Roku streaming stick does a few things differently unlike the chromecast the streaming stick includes an old-fashioned remote it's a pretty standard Roku remote and it works via Wi-Fi direct so it can still control the streaming stick when it's hidden behind your TV you will notice that the remote doesn't have that neat headphone jack for private listening so you still need to step up to a Roku 2 or Roku 3 for that feature another difference from the chromecast is you get a standard on screen interface which lets you browse thousands of channels or use Roku's excellent cross-platform search which lets you find a specific movie or TV show on whatever service that's available on the streaming stick will also have some chromecast like push capabilities as both YouTube and Netflix will let you cast from a mobile device exactly like you would with a chromecast in terms of the specs the streaming stick will have full 1080p output dual band Wi-Fi support and roku says the internal chip is similar to the one in a Roku one so it likely won't be quite as lightning fast as a roku 3 the roku streaming stick is scheduled to come out in April for forty nine dollars I'll have a full review with comparisons to the chromecast as soon as I get my hands on a review sample but at first glance this seems like a very promising streamer I'm Matthew miskovic and this is early look at the Roku streaming stick