Android TV Box?

What is it?
It's a little box that turns your television into an Internet television. It's got a friendly user interface that resembles a physical desktop – with a computer, a desk tidy and a little android who periodically waves at you.
Does it work?
A recent study showed that most people use smart TVs mainly to watch television, so I focused in on television and film services, but you can also connect to social-networking sites, do some reading, shopping or gaming – which all work in a similar way to a smartphone. I added a mouse to make navigation easier, and you could also connect it to a wireless keyboard if you need to type smoothly.
Film streaming is tricky. The box I played with couldn't download directly from the Netflix website and the Google Play store wasn't pre-installed either. It's not easy to add it, which made for a limited experience of watching only iPlayer or YouTube. This model doesn't have Bluetooth and you need to be quite close to the Wi-Fi access point for it to stream clearly. It's not really intended for heavy-duty use, as it's got a 1.2GHz processor, with just 1GB of RAM, so movies and games with sophisticated graphics may appear jerky. You can get an Android dongle with Netflix pre-installed for around $65. It's worth getting if you're going to use it for watching films.
Is it worth the money?
It's cheap at between $30 and $40. But it doesn't do much that you couldn't do by hooking your television up to an Android phone. It has its limitations. There are more capable products out there with wired connections and more storage but they cost at least $80 – and for that price you could get a second-hand games console that could do the same job, and more.
It might be better to wait and see what the new Apple TV box has to offer. The latest prediction is it will be released in March, but Apple has had several false starts due to failed negotiations with cable companies. When it does arrive, the Apple TV should have enough horsepower to hook up all your tech products.