Roku design is normally so brilliant I am dismayed that Roku took several steps back in good design when they replaced the Roku Voice Remote Pro 1st edition with the poorly thought out 2nd edition.
The first edition had two reprogrammable buttons : #1 & #2 that you could repurpose for any use ... including Live TV Guide ... which now is in the 2nd edition model permanently & unchangeably assigned to what was previously the #1 button. I would bet not many people are particularly interested in Live TV in compared to assigning the #1 button (along with the other #2 reprogrammable button to one of the many (500?) streaming etc apps Roku is uniquely famous for making available via the Roku system.
The first edition also had a simple headphone jack which was brilliant in its simplicity but which was removed from the 2nd edition design. What is stupid about that removal is if you want to use headphones watching at night so as to not disturb others, with the 2nd edition you are forced to use your cell phone Roku app and blue tooth earbuds.
That means:
1) the beautifully otherwise simple & very utilitarian Roku Voice Remote Pro then has to be set aside in exchange for the MUCH less convenient and problematic to use Roku cellphone app.:
- a) The cell phone screen very inconveniently times out every minute requiring you to wake it up for each remote button push
- b) Using your phone as an remote Roku app discharges both your phone AND with the earbud batteries simultaneously so you are likely ... almost guaranteed ... to be left without sound... or worse yet the TV sound suddenly comes unexpectedly on in the middle of a nighttime movie or binge watching session... much to both your and your wife's late night consternation!
- c) In the dark at night, you can easily just use the physically simple but sophisticated Roku remote Pro 1st edition with your finger memory selecting the ALWAYS present uniquely position and shaped buttons with your finger memory. The 2nd edition Roku Voice Remote Pro forces you when using earbuds to ALWAYS USE YOUR EYES to read your Roku cellphone app buttons with EACH and EVERY button push... not to speak of having to first wake your phone up each and every time!
IMO, whoever was responsible for the 2nd edition Roku Voice Remote Pro design IMO obviously don't get in the least the long famous Roku design ethic of "great doing much more with much less and doing so ever so simply and transparently."
Roku devices are programmable digital tools and normally do and when modified IMO should continue to provide more simple user utility ... NOT less.
As is unfortunately the case with the Roku Voice Remote Pro 2nd edition.
It incorrectly assumes that all things cellular are an improvement and in doing so takes away significant utility and ease of use that the 1st edition design had.
2nd edition adds nothing useful really other than a bigger battery and backlit buttons ...
Please bring back Voice Remote 1st edition for sale.
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