The Very Minor Benefits of Xbox TV

Microsoft's Xbox 360 Live, which customers can now sign up for, offers more than any other box in the lame streaming TV industry, but if you're looking to cut pricey cable out of your life and totally rely on the Internet for TV, these aren't the gadgets for you.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 Live, which customers can now sign up for, offers more than any other box in the lame streaming TV industry, but if you're looking to cut pricey cable out of your life and totally rely on the Internet for TV, these aren't the gadgets for you.  In general these TV boxes seem like a half-baked solution to the Internet TV watching problem. All the gadgets offer some things, no box offers everything. But, if you're into this type of thing and have no problem paying for cable, Xbox now has a partnership with Verizon, which put some popular Fios offerings on the device. With all that content and other minor perks, it's a decent supplement. Or at least a better option than the rest. Let's walk through what Xbox has got.

Motion Sensor Controlled TV

Microsoft beat Apple to creating the laziest TV possible. Instead of a Siri controlled TV, which Steve Jobs may have envisioned as the television of the future, Microsoft offers motion sensor TV now. Using Kinect technology, users can control their TVs with their hands and voice. It sounds pretty kitsch, but for the lazy it works. Users can command the TV with their voice and hands. Given the popularity of Siri, we imagine this is a nice perk -- at least SEO Reel's Cristophor Rick finds it "quite nice."

Lots of Content

Thanks to the Verizon partnership, Microsoft's offering has a lot of content to offer. Of course, to access all that TV, Xbox owners must have a cable subscription. That kind of defeats a lot of the purpose of these things: It's just a second device that can put TV on your TV. But, for those who already own an Xbox, or think a streaming box is a good idea, this one has a lot going for it content wise, as this handy chart we created awhile back shows. Fios will only offers 26 of its channel, but those include MTV, Spike, Food Network, Comedy Central, HBO, CNN and Nickelodeon.

As a promotion, Verizon is offering an $89.99 TV, Internet and phone service, including a 12-month subscription to Xbox Live Gold.  Yes, you have to BOTH subscribe to Cable and a $60 per year Xbox Live subscription. Like we said, not an ideal set-up.

All in One Entertainment Monolith

Unlike the competitors, on top of offering Internet, TV and movies this has video games and a DVD player (for those who still watch those), too. For gamers who already have the set and already subscribe to Xbox Live for gaming purposes: Look at all the stuff you get. For everyone else, it's still a (pricey) let down.