The Boxee Box costs US$179 and you simply plug it into your television and then connect it to the internet. There’s no monthly payment and Boxee has access to a wealth of TV shows and films from partners like Vudu. You'll also be able to play with your social networking pages and apps like TED, not to mention MLB and NHL which means you can watch live sports. Intellectual copyright lawyers must be gutted.

The interface is excellent and the unit itself looks cool but it’s also more powerful than Apple TV. Apart from being able to screen sports, Boxee is not limited by Apple’s ownership of iTunes - you can get your videos from various sources on the web. The other major advantage is Boxee can play almost anything you can play on your computer whereas Apple TV is tailored to stuff you can play on your iPod. Its superiority is so comprehensive we wouldn’t be surprised if it pushed Steve Jobs into retirement.

Giving new meaning to what's on the box.