Boxee Box: More fun than kittens?
(Credit: daveyp.com)Even though Hulu Desktop and other software have stolen its thunder a little, we love Boxee. It was one of the first and best ways to browse streaming media from multiple outlets on a big screen, and we like its indie spirit, even though some content providers have given it a hard time.
Rumors of a Boxee Box--an actual piece of hardware to free the software from a PC--have been floating for a while, but it's becoming real very soon, according to the Boxee blog. Boxee's first hardware partner has been found, and we are already guessing as to what the Boxee Box will have inside. More importantly, how will it compare with Roku? Or, could it possibly be...
A launch event on December 7 in Brooklyn will give a lot more details including mock-ups, and CNET will be there. Look for more then. Until that day, enjoy the kittens.
The TiVo: close, but no cigar.
(Credit: TiVo)Roku announced this week that it signed on with Major League Baseball to deliver MLB.tv Premium to its set-top box. It's the first live content that the device, which is best known for its Netflix streaming, will offer.
But like many other set-top boxes on the market, the services the Roku box offers aren't unique to that device. Netflix streaming is available on a large and growing number of devices, including TiVo DVRs, the Xbox 360, and all newer LG and Samsung Blu-ray players and home theater systems. In addition to the Roku, MLB programming is available on the PC, through Boxee, and through various cable and satellite TV packages.
Indeed, many TVs, Blu-ray players, DVRs, and home theater systems now have a baseline configuration that makes it relatively easy to add streaming services via postpurchase firmware upgrades. At this point, adding content seems almost as simple as calling the content provider and having lawyers work up an agreement between the parties.
The problem is, those partners are not necessarily working together. The hardware providers want those streaming or download services to be exclusive to their boxes. The content providers want their entertainment to be made available on as many devices (STBs or otherwise) as possible. Those very different goals are causing set-top boxes to provide most, but not all, the services that consumers want.
... Read moreDon Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Boxee, the open-source software platform that combines Internet media with personal content, announced a slew of updates Tuesday.
Most notably, the company announced that it has made Boxee publicly available to Windows users.
The public alpha version of Boxee for Windows will work with Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Users will also be able to run it on Windows Media Center, making it possible to bring Boxee to HDTVs through Microsoft's platform. A beta release of the software should be made available later this year.
MLB comes to Boxee
Boxee has also inked a deal with Major League Baseball that will bring MLB.tv Premium to the platform. According to the company, Boxee users will be able to watch "thousands of baseball games, live and on-demand in HD."
Users will be able to pause and rewind a live game. But in order for them to access those games, they will need to sign up for the MLB.tv Premium service, which costs $89.95 per year or $19.95 per month.
Even more content
Since Digg has a popular video section, it only makes sense that Boxee would sign a deal with the social-news site to bring its videos to the platform.
According to Boxee, users will now be able to watch Digg's most popular videos, as well as upcoming clips. Users will soon be able to Digg videos from within Boxee, but that feature is currently not available.
Boxee also signed on with Tumblr to give that site's users the option to stream music and slideshows to Boxee. The company said more Tumblr features are on the way, but it wouldn't divulge what those are.
As if that's not enough, Boxee also announced that Current TV shows are now available on the platform. Current is home to popular shows, including The Rotten Tomatoes Show, InfoMania, and SuperNews.
New navigation
Since Boxee has made so many content enhancements, the company apparently had to improve its user interface. Boxee now features two new categories: Applications and Local Media. The Applications menu will feature all the Internet content available for the platform. The Local Media menu lists content from the user's computer and local network.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
After yesterday's much-lauded episode with Jill Schlesinger, Jeff, Justin, and Wilson are back to classic 404 goodness today. We're glad that for once in the world we can offer some helpful financial advice. And yes, we're still offering 404k options, so please send your checks to the show.
(Credit:
Joseph Fedele)
On today's show, we've got a First Look at the new Hulu Desktop app. It kind of destroys Joost and Boxee's previous efforts. For those of you who don't know, it's an actual application like Front Row or Windows Media Center that plugs into Hulu content and can be controlled with a remote. Pretty cool.
Also, we're pretty excited about Sonic the Hedgehog coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch platforms. Jeff and Justin don't like that the game will be controlled via tilt, but Wilson thinks that--considering you spend most of the game just hitting forward and jump--it's not really that big of a deal.
Finally, we spend the second half of the show picking up the pieces after Justin offends millions and millions of Dave Matthews Band fans, who call in to unleash their hatred. Hopefully, Justin learns never to mess with DMB fans again. They are rabid. After that, we spend the rest of the show going over the hundreds of 404 logo submissions. They are fantastic! Please continue to send them in. We're extending the contest until the beginning of next week. Have a great weekend everyone!
EPISODE 352
Download today's podcast
Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video
... Read more
(Credit:
Screenshot by John Falcone/CNET)
ZeeVee has released the latest beta version of its Zinc "Internet video browser." Beta 3 of Zinc adds access to Netflix (for subscribers) and CBS (the parent company of CNET), in addition to such online video stalwarts as Hulu, ABC, YouTube, and the like. For now, Zinc is a free download for Windows PCs, though ZeeVee pledges that a Mac version is in development.
Zinc is an offshoot of the ZViewer software that was originally developed for ZeeVee's ZvBox Zv-100. We reviewed that product back in the autumn of 2008, and found it to be overly convoluted and complex--but our problems were largely limited to the hardware. By focusing on the software aspect of its product, ZeeVee is aligning itself as a competitor to Boxee. But since Zinc is just a meta-browser--aggregating already available online video into a more easy-to-access package, but keeping it on the PC--it might even sidestep some of the problems Boxee's encountered with its unauthorized Apple TV version.
We ended our of the ZvBox--which was then retailing for $500--by suggesting that users "might as well just get an entry-level PC [...] and connect it directly to your TV. Pair it with a good wireless keyboard like the Logitech diNovo Mini, and you've got sofa-based access to the entire panoply of Web-based video on your living room HDTV--for roughly the same overall price." While ZeeVee is still offering hardware such as the high-end ZvPro 2500, this focus on software is, in my opinion, a smarter way to go. If Zinc really delivers, users will figure out a way to enjoy it on their big-screen TV. Plenty of enterprising folks are already doing just that.
The Zinc beta is available for download at ZeeVee's site.
(Credit:
John Falcone/CNET Networks)
Apple has released a minor firmware update for Apple TV, taking the unit from version 2.3 to 2.3.1. The changelog has yet to appear on Apple's site, but Apple Insider users are discovering just very minor feature changes, such as the inclusion of a built-in bandwidth monitor. (Unfortunately, we got the error message pictured when we tried to use it.)
Otherwise, the only big achievement of the 2.3.1 update is to cripple the Boxee installations that some enterprising users have added to their Apple TV. (Boxee, a popular software package that allows easy access to Web-based videos, is an unauthorized hack that's not supported by Apple.)
Bottom line: if you're running Boxee on your Apple TV, you'll want to turn off automatic updates. You can be content that (with this update, anyway) you don't appear to be missing much.
(Credit:
Boxee)
Boxee is expanding its content and potential audience.
The free software that streams Web content directly to the TV has added ABC to its arsenal of content providers. Boxee already offers access to Hulu, Joost, YouTube, Netflix, and CBS (parent company of CNET publisher CBS Interactive).
The software is publicly available to Mac, Linux, and Apple TV users. Windows users can join too, but they have to ask for an invite, as that version is now a private alpha release.
Boxee says 200,000 Mac, Linux, and Apple TV users signed up as of early January.
A mockup of what a Boxee box could look like.
(Credit: Boxee)Boxee was approached by several hardware makers at CES earlier this month about embedding the Web content streaming software directly into a dedicated set-top box, the company said Thursday on its official blog. And it's actually considering it.
The blog post was written by CEO Avner Ronen to solicit feedback from users as to whether this is an attractive option and how much they'd be willing to pay for it. (If you want to chime in, head over to blogg.boxee.tv.)
Boxee is software that works on any Mac/Linux/Windows computer and can stream content online (videos, music, pictures, whatever) right onto a television screen. There's also a way to install the service on Apple TV. But it can be an expensive proposition for some who don't have the right equipment, as Ronen explains:
If there is a Boxee Box, it won't be for a while. Ronen notes that the company is in the very early stages of talking to potential partners.The issue with connecting a computer to the TV is that if you don't have an extra one lying around, then you're looking at a $500 investment (Mac Mini or Dell Studio). Getting Boxee on Apple TV is not simple enough for many users (plus Boxee is not optimized for the Apple TV hardware, Netflix doesn't work on it, etc.).
Boxee is releasing on Thursday a new version of its media center software that adds support for Netflix Watch Instantly streaming movies.
Unlike streaming solutions from Roku and Microsoft's Xbox 360, Boxee's effort includes the option to both browse and search through Netflix's library. Roku's box and the Xbox are currently limited to showing users the videos from their saved queues. The two also require special hardware (and in the Xbox's case a paid Xbox Live Gold membership), whereas Boxee works on any Intel-Mac or Linux PC. Boxee's service is not yet available for Windows.
Another caveat: Netflix streaming is not yet available for the AppleTV version of Boxee. I'm told the main reason is that Microsoft Silverlight, which is what Netflix uses as a delivery method for its streaming content, has hardware requirements roughly double that of the processor inside the AppleTV. Silverlight requires a 1.83GHz dual-core Intel processor, while the AppleTV only sports a 1GHz "Crofton" processor--a derivative of the Pentium M.
Along with Netflix support, Boxee now links up with MTV to pop up music videos for any songs in your library that it can match. There's also support for YouTube videos that have been encoded in h.264, and new player interfaces for Hulu, CNN, Picasa, YouTube, and Flickr. The updated UI offers slightly more streamlined playback controls, solving one of my big quibbles with the last release, which actually kept you from being to skip around a video's timeline in Hulu and CBS videos.
Existing Boxee users should get an update notice when firing up the app later Thursday. The service remains in private alpha. You can sign up for it here.
Netflix on Boxee includes both your instant queue and the option to browse and search through Netflix content.
(Credit: Boxee)
AppleTV has a rich history of getting hacked for the sake of adding extra utility. Contained within its small confines is a reasonably powerful computer that's capable of running Mac OS X (albeit slowly). The problem is that despite this power, the system software is tied to iTunes and its sister store for movies, music, and TV shows. This hinders it from competing with devices like mini-PCs and game machines that offer a huge variety of media playback, including DVDs and Blu-ray movies.
To help solve this, Boxee founder and CEO Avner Ronen has published instructions on how to get his company's media center software to run on the AppleTV. This system requires the use of developer Scott Davilla's ATVUSB-Creator, a Mac-only application that lets you create special programs that boot off a USB thumbdrive. The application comes with simple tools for putting SSH, Xbox Media Center for Mac, and its Boxee derivative on a drive with just a few clicks.
Once installed on the AppleTV, you can enjoy the same Boxee experience that's currently available on Macs and PCs running Linux. This includes being able to play Web video from multiple sources, and DivX- and Xvid-encoded content through your network--all without having to use any special transcoding software. You're also able to switch back to the Apple TV interface without having to make any massive changes to the way the system runs.
Within the next two months the software will be updated to play videos off of Hulu, meaning AppleTV owners who run the hack will be able to watch full-length TV shows (with ads) without having to purchase them from Apple's proprietary storefront. The company is also trying to get Netflix's freshly improved Watch Now streaming service running too.
Boxee is currently in private beta and limited to Mac and Linux users. We've been told that it's coming for PC users within the next month, with plans to open it up to everyone come next year's Consumer Electronics Show.
Once installed, you can run Boxee right off the AppleTV's source list.
(Credit: Boxee)Related: Hands-on with Boxee: A gorgeous social-media viewer
