The future Motorola-branded set-top (cable) box will soon get a whole lot better. Like, way better.

Thanks to a new software interface called DreamGallery, you won’t need to look for entertainment on your TV the way you do now, linearly (you know, flipping through channels in order that they appear and by time).

DreamGallery will bring you TV as pieces of content. Using an interface that’s part AppleTV, part Apple Coverflow, part Netflix and, the rest, which is totally innovative, lets you flip through content regardless of where it is or when it comes on. It can grab entertainment (TV shows, movies, YouTube clips, music, personal videos, etc) from wherever it is (Internet, CableTV, on your phone, your PC, wherever) and let you preview it in a thumbnail-like preview action — then play it full-screen or even split-screen with other stuff (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, live sports).

The CableTV companies that have seen this, so far, love it. Some are even calling it the future of watching TV.

The irony of this is not lost on me.

Why? Well, if Google, ahem, if Motorola can get everyone hooked on browsing TV in a non-linear way – as aggregated content, it makes it easier for Google (oops, I mean Motorola) to eventually eliminate the CableTV pipeline and only use that Cat5 connection to serve up entertainment to the masses (sans traditional cable TV). In other words, they can bring you any content from anywhere you want, to whatever you want. They can even use DreamGallery as the interface for the future GoogleTV box, phones and tablets.

So, as cable TV companies think they’re being helped by this new interface, they’re also helping their own viewers to not need them any more.

What a killer app!