Roku 11 is here!! New and unimproved!.

A few days ago when Roku announced the new OS 11 had been released. And, within a day of the announcement, I had it on one of my devices. I didn't find out until later, because it was on a device in a spare room, and because Roku doesn't send the updates out all at once, even to the same user. As is normal, one of my devices got it early (though never before this early) and the other ones will have to wait.

So, for that one device that's running OS 11, how is it you might ask. No, really. Go ahead and ask.

Well, since you asked, here's what I found different: nothing.

Yep, absolutely nothing different.

What the ...???

Well, as it turns out, all of those fancy dancy changes that will come with OS 11 will come later to OS 11. So, all this hype about what Roku OS 11 brings is ... just hype. Nothing rolled out with the update. No new features. Those seem to be updates to the interface. And what rolled out was the behind the scenes changes that are needed to support the features. So, yeah, technically, Roku OS 11 is on one of my Roku devices, but none of the promised features are there.

If you recall, last April, when Roku announced OS 10.0, Roku promised "Improved convenience of the Live TV Channel Guide." Remember that? The Live TV Guide Customization feature? Well, it never rolled out with 10.0. It finally showed up later, in 10.5. Now I'm wondering how much of the new features that run under OS 11 will roll out soon. I'm not holding my breath.

Now, it could be that Roku rolls them out today. It could be they roll them out next week. Or next month. Or late in the year. Or next year. But, sure, yeah, the features promised will arrive. Eventually. Probably.

Roku has been a valuable part of my Streaming Life for many years. But doggone it, they sure can be aggravating at times.