Utter Coolness compliments of Roku

My first Roku Soundbridge joined the family back in 2005. As far as wireless media players go, it was a bit pricey.  But it looked really cool and I got it through a special offer making it a lot more reasonable.  The form factor and styling was the main thing I attributed the cost to, but I quickly learned that it was all the cool features that were responsible for the cost.  That was pretty much the case with each Roku product I've owned, they looked really cool and had all sorts of unanticipated goodness brimming throughout.  With Windows Home Server, an XBox 360 as an extender and a few Media Center pc's in the house, it's been a while since I looked at any Roku products, mainly b/c I just didn't really need them - one network media player is usually plenty, let alone several.  But when I saw Endgadget's latest post on the sheer coolness of Roku, it made me realize what I was missing. 

So at first glance, it looked like Roku came up with a streaming media player which served up content from Netflix.  I always found Netflix's pre-addressed envelopes a really nice touch - and a convenient one at that.  But Every time I've signed up for Netflix, it ended up being a waste of money b/c I don't typically get around to watching many movies in any given month.  So I've signed up a few times only to cancel my account b/c of lack of use (Kim and I just can't seem to let go of paying for movie rental late fees ;-)  ).  After the third or fourth time, i just sort of gave up on the whole thing.    By the second sentence in this paragraph, I realized it's time to rethink that policy - and go enable my subscription.

Roku is a truly innovative company with nothing but cool products, but it looks like they might have just raised their own bar.