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

3. Roku 3

AP Photo/ Roku/ File
A Roku streaming device with remote control. Roku first supported Netflix viewing on the TV five years ago, and has since added scores of other streaming options.

Roku runs in much the same way as Apple TV. The device plugs into a power source and a TV. It pulls in streaming video through a Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection. While Roku does not stream YouTube, it is compatible with a variety of operating systems unlike Apple TV. And, as an added bonus, you can listen to your video through a headphone jack in the remote, if so desired.

How it works: Roku streams videos over the Internet via Wi-Fi or Ethernet.

Supported: Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, Crackle, Vudu, HBO Go ... there are more than 750 total.

Mirroring: Yes, via the free Roku app for iOS and Android.

Price: $99, plus the cost of an HDMI cable

Where can you buy one: Roku.com, Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, WalMart, Target, and many other retailers.

Compatibility: iOS, Mac OSX, Android, and Windows

Remote: Yes; the remote also has a headphone jack, and can function as a gaming device.

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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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