The new design of the Xbox 360’s dashboard and press releases touting “the future of TV” make it clear that Microsoft is transitioning the Xbox from a gaming console that also does home entertainment to a home entertainment box that also does gaming. That’s an exciting move, especially for not-quite-hard-core gamers who spend more and …

The soon-to-be released Xbox 360 dashboard update features a slick Metro-based user interface and new cloud-saving functionality, but the most interesting aspect for cable-cutters and other streaming videophiles is the integration of Bing video search and Kinect voice recognition. Now playing: Watch this: Xbox Live update (December 2011) 4:39 We’ve had some hands-on time with a preview version of the …

Home theater isn’t the first place you’ll think of when it comes to gift ideas, but that’s too bad. Streaming-media boxes like the Roku LT and Apple TV are inexpensive and fun, plus they’ll give you plenty to watch over the holidays. I’ve personally had lots of success giving universal remotes like the Logitech Harmony 650 as a gift. Not …

If you’re thinking of picking up a Blu-ray player this holiday season, the buying process can be overwhelming. The differences between different models are often minor; every manufacturer supports a difference suite of streaming-media services and they all pretty much look the same. And a lot of the information you need to make an informed choice isn’t readily apparent by …

Boxee co-founder Avner Ronen took to the official Boxee blog this morning to announce the Boxee Live TV tuner. It’s a $50 TV tuner dongle coming in January that connects to one of the Boxee Box‘s USB ports and works with either free over-the-air TV signals (which typically include the major networks, plus PBS) or unencrypted Clear QAM cable channels. …

Here’s how you know the Roku LT is a great product: it’s both the cheapest and one of the best streaming-video boxes we’ve tested. Roku has managed to shave the price all the way down to $50, jettisoning unnecessary features, while keeping all of the streaming content that we love. The Roku LT supports the same list of channels as …

The $50 Roku LT showed up in the CNET office today, and it lives up to the hype. We were worried that Roku would have to cut some serious corners to hit the $50 price point, but after some quality hands-on time with Roku’s new budget streaming-video box, it looks like a winner. It delivers everything that’s great about the …

It took Google an entire year to deliver a major update to the first round of Google TV products, and it has not been worth the wait. When Google announced the Honeycomb update last week, we had a twinge of optimism, based on the slick press photos and the stated mission of simplifying the user experience, which was sorely needed. …

A year after Google TV first hit the market, Google has announced the first major update to the Google TV platform. The latest update is built on Android’s Honeycomb operating system and Google promises a significantly simplified user interface. The update also finally enables Google TV products to access the Android Market and Google says there will be 30 TV-optimized …

Now playing: Watch this: Monoprice 8247 2:26 Monoprice is an Internet retailer that made a name for itself providing tech accessories at insanely low prices. (It is, in our opinion, the best place to buy “good enough” HDMI cables at prices far lower than you’d ever find at Best Buy.) Not content with accessories, Monoprice is now branching out into …