Quick guide: Chromecast vs. Apple TV vs. Roku vs. Xbox 360 vs. PS3

4. Microsoft Xbox 360

Ted S. Warren/ AP Photo/ File
Microsoft Corp.'s next-generation Xbox One entertainment and gaming console system. The original Xbox debuted in 2001, and its high-definition successor premiered in 2005.

If you enjoy video games, then the Xbox 360 – or Sony’s PlayStation (next slide) – might be a better fit than the other TV streaming devices. Though the Xbox’s original function is as a gaming device, with an Xbox LIVE Gold membership, users can stream videos from services such as Netflix and HBO.

How it works: Connect you Xbox to the Internet, sign up for a Gold membership, and enjoy tons of video services in additional to a huge library of games. It occurs independently of your computer, but you can sync your Xbox video account with videos on your tablet or PC.

Supported: Netflix, HBO, YouTube, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, Crackle, and many more.

Mirroring: No

Price: $299, plus an Xbox LIVE Gold membership, which costs $5 per month.

Where can I buy one: Countless stores and websites.

Compatibility: iOS, Mac OS X, Android, and Windows

Remote: Uses the Xbox game controllers

4 of 5

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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