The first public beta of Boxee will be shown on December 7th, according to its developer. The app is primarily used to stream movies and TV shows to an HDTV, including remote content from sources such as Hulu and Netflix. Music and photos can also be streamed; versions of the app have been produced for the Mac, Windows and the Apple TV.
Myka has moved on from producing media hubs by releasing its Myka ION nettop as a full-fledged home theater PC. As the name implies, the PC packs a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor and 2GB of RAM, along with an NVIDIA Ion graphics platform to supply HD (non-Flash) video. It runs on Ubuntu Linux and includes Boxee and XBMC media center software as well as support for standard-definition Adobe Flash and Hulu's online streaming service.
Catering explicitly to home theater computers, GlideTV today produced an unusual controller known as the Navigator. The bowl-shaped peripheral has a trackpad for mouse pointing but is surrounded by AV controls and a directional pad that ease navigating through common apps. It can steer through Front Row and iTunes on Macs, Windows Media Center, and platform-independent apps like Boxee or SageTV.
Hulu, jointly operated by NBC, Fox and Disney, has launched a new desktop application meant to simplify streaming the site's video. Mac and Windows versions are available, supporting Front Row and Windows Media Center remotes, respectively; aside from controlling playback the software provides a special tracking display, and a distinct menu for browsing categories and subscriptions. Windows systems require XP, 2GB of RAM and a 1.8GHz Core Duo, while Macs differ by needing a 2GHz Core Duo and at least Mac OS X 10.4.
The international team of developers working on Boxee are gathered in New York and to celebrate, a new version of the Boxee alpha has been released with additional content. The move also brings another round in Boxee's battle with Hulu. Boxee's new XUL-based browser framework imitates Mozilla's Firefox and makes it harder for Hulu to block access to Boxee users by preventing a simple ban; any block of Boxee's video feed would block Hulu's as well.
TV streaming service Hulu is once again attempting to block access from the Boxee media browsing client, the latter company claims. After Boxee was initially forced to remove a dedicated Hulu component, the company developed a workaround in the form of an RSS reader that tapped into publicly-accessible feeds. Even this access is now being blocked, despite continued Hulu RSS compatibility with ordinary web browsers.
Boxee, the developer of its namesake media player front-end, has released a new alpha version of the app with a built-in RSS reader. The software is installed onto Mac and Ubuntu Linux systems as well as Apple TVs, and provides more elaborate support for downloaded media as well as direct web streaming of shows on ABC and CBS. The Boxee RSS reader is optimized for video, and can feed clips from YouTube, Yahoo and several other sources.
(Update with response from Boxee) Apple has quietly released a software update for the Apple TV, its media-streaming set-top box. A list of changes made in the v2.3.1 update is currently unavailable, but it is known that the code breaks Boxee, a popular third-party software client which provides functions such as better format support, access to online streaming services and various social networking options. Earlier updates have also broken Boxee, though this is not believed to be intentional.
The creators of the Boxee media streaming software have expanded network coverage to include ABC, according to an announcement. The addition is designed to coincide with the season premiere of Lost, and brings with it episodes from a number of other ABC shows such as Scrubs, Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. Other studios on Boxee include CBS, NBC and Fox, the latter two coming by way of Hulu.
Some form of dedicated hardware support may be coming for Boxee's self-titled media streaming software, a member of the company suggests. Avner Ronen observes that in order to run Boxee on a TV, users must currently connect a computer, or hack an Apple TV; the latter option prevents Netflix streaming from working. Dedicated hardware would simplify the use of Boxee, and possibly at a lower cost, says Ronen.
VUDU today staked out a potential edge in networked media hubs on Tuesday by launching a new platform specifically tailored to normally web-oriented services. The RIA (Rich Internet Application) standard lets developers write and users download add-ons that convert web games, photo and video services into a native program for the VUDU Box rather than have to use a special web browser or make special arrangements for app development. The implementation will make it relatively straightforward to integrate web content while still having a "lean-back" interface with remote control, the company explains.
Boxee has released an updated alpha version of its media player software adding support for the Watch Instantly video streaming feature from Netflix as well as MTV music videos, the WB network and photos from the Boston Globe. The move comes two weeks after the startup secured its first round of venture capital funding, hoping to license the XBMC-based software for use in set-top boxes and other devices.
