I bought a few Roku's for $79 each. Shockingly I didn't need a two year contract.
Does the Roku/Apple TV play 360 games, much less live? Or do they have cable On Demand services built-in?
If I were recommending a set top box, I'd obviously recommend a Roku (or AppleTV, depending on the person). We use a Roku at our place.
But it's a savvy move. I think sooner or later, we're going to have cable/dish partnerships with settop makers. Think Tivo/DirectTV but with Sony, Microsoft, maybe Roku, etc.
I'm not for it or against it. I see some pitfalls down the road if this winds up being the exclusive channel, but it doesn't make intuitive sense for Microsoft or Sony to do that. Microsoft isn't loving dealing with the carriers right now in the phone space, after all.
It's a clever way to extend the lifecycle of a product that takes advantage of less savvy consumers.
Anyways, overall, we've survived with terrible interfaces (god damn Motorola Comcast boxes!) for years. I'm excited to see rapid innovation in that space. Think of where we were with cellphones in 2007? Just 5 years later, and we take smartphones for granted. I just want a responsive DVR, damnit!