I still can’t get over the fact that for 45 USD, you can take a Raspberry Pi board, and an RCA or HDMI cable, you can create a video streaming device and retrofit your existing Television.  Wow, amazing.  So, in short, does the value add of the graphical user interface, and the physical hardware of a device such as a streaming branded device, such as Apple, or Google TV, or web streaming only product, such as Amazon Instant Video, also offered on the Amazon Fire, outweigh the cost effective mechanism.  It’s all economics, and opportunity cost for you, i.e., a personal decision.  The only factors I would add into the mix, is you have both the web only and hardware specific devices in one cost effective device, which theoretically, someone could overly an inexpensive User Interface to access all four.  The Amazon Fire also offers the benefits of a Tablet.

The interfaces and devices are slick, so it’s a very tough decision.

Notes: Raspberry Pi Board, HDMI Cable, Raspberry Pi Quick Start Guide