If you go all in with Roku’s new Voice Remote Pro, you might get one without the Apple TV + button in marketing materials.
When I got a Voice Remote Pro Last week, the one I received had four streaming buttons on the wand: Netflix, Disney +, Hulu, and Sling TV. But marketing images for the Pro showed the remote with the Hulu button on the bottom row and an Apple TV + button instead of a Sling shortcut. The discrepancy was initially noticed by Zatz not funny!, and Roku confirmed to Gizmodo that the remote with the Apple TV + button takes a minute to start sending.
“The button transition on the Roku Voice Remote Pro takes several months, but in the meantime, customers can use their voice to program a personal hotkey to launch their favorite channels,” said a spokesperson.
Indeed, having a few programmable buttons is one of the few great things about the Voice Remote Pro, which is also rechargeable. Besides his “find my remote” and hands-free features, personalized keyboard shortcuts allow Apple TV + subscribers to get around this hiccup quite easily. However, the button problem will likely be annoying to anyone who is not a Sling subscriber but a paying Apple customer maintenance.
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It is unclear why the button was depicted in marketing materials and why the change appears to have taken place so late in the game. But it does indicate that Roku has doubled down on its initiative to convince Apple users, even for a service that is fairly new to the space and is still building a significant library of originals.
Roku has aggressively expanded support for Apple users opting for streaming appliances above Apple’s own set-top boxes, which are significantly more expensive than many of Roku’s devices. Roku finally introduced AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support on its 4K devices with the Roku OS 9.4 update, and the inclusion of the Apple TV + button directly on its remotes further demonstrates the company’s willingness to target Apple users.
But it looks like marketing collateral has jumped out a bit. So if an Apple TV + button is a make-or-break upgrade requirement for you, it looks like we’ll have to wait a few months before seeing it become widely available.