The IPv6 Internet addressing standard will get a more formal launch by its backers on June 6, which is being devoted World IPv6 Day. Seven global ISPs will back the new standard then, including AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner. Also onboard are heavily trafficked websites, including Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft's Bing, as well as hardware makers Cisco and D-Link.
Boxee marked a swansong for its desktop app with the launch of 1.5. The app has a newly refreshed interface with quicker access to the browser and the menu appearing as an overlay with quicker search. Movie and TV sections have been given their own updates, such as easier navigation by genres and sources, more details, and a better way to check for unwatched video episodes.
D-Link has expanded its Amplifi family of high-performance home networking options. The company has added the dual band HD Media Router 2000 (DIR-827) that prioritizes traffic and simultaneously enables streaming HD videos and surfing the web. The PowerLine AV 500 Gigabit Switch Kit (DHP-541) delivers a higher than usual amount of bandwidth through existing home electricity.
ViewSonic will no longer bring its planned smart TV running on Boxee's media center software, at least in the near term, the company told GigaOM. High costs and a lack of interest in the market were cited as the key factors. ViewSonic elaborated, stating consumers spent less on Smart TVs along with the slow-down in the economy.
D-Link touched on a frequent request of home theater PC owners Wednesday by formally releasing the Boxee Remote for PC & Mac. The controller is an exact match for the one included with the Boxee Box but comes with an RF wireless USB adapter that avoids the need for a line of sight. It's tailored to let users stay entirely in the Boxee software front end and has a keyboard on the flip side for text.
D-Link has expanded its range of home networking products with a new lineup, labeled the Amplifi series. The products include the HD Media Router 1000, the Whole Home Router 1000, the Wi-Fi Booster, and several PowerLine 500 products designed for communication via existing electrical wiring. The media router is claimed to automatically manage broadband connections, giving the highest priority to entertainment content such as streaming video or online video games.
Boxee swung its focus back to the desktop on Monday with a promise of a major update for the Mac, Ubuntu Linux, and Windows versions of its media front-end app. The new version will bring the reworked browser and content options that have been present on the Boxee Box in recent months. The code would also be more closely in step with the dedicated box in the future.
D-Link today announced the DAP-1513 Wireless N Dual Band MediaBridge. Supporting both 2.4 GHz and 5GHz, the DAP-1513 can use whichever band is the most free of interference to keep media streaming smooth. The bridge also connects up to four network-ready 100Mbps Ethernet devices.
Boxee has just outlined the latest software update for its Boxee Box. Version 1.1 supersedes the current 1.0.4 release and will be released over the next few days. Users can also manually update their devices.
D-Link in the morning brought out a wireless router with a relatively low-cost way to get both faster Wi-Fi and wired speeds. The Wireless N 300 Gigabit Router has a MIMO (multiple-in, multiple-out) antenna array that can hit up to 300Mbps over 802.11n Wi-Fi as well as gigabit Ethernet jacks both for the incoming Internet traffic and four wired users. Unusually, no mention has been made of whether it supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, but it does have quality of service prioritization.
D-Link this week shipped two new two-bay network-attached storage (NAS) products in the form of the DNS-320 and DNS-325. They replace the DNS-321 and DNS-323 and sport two 3.5-inch bays with SATA connections. Users can remotely access files stored on these devices thanks to an integrated, web-based file server app and an FTP server.
Boxee on Wednesday afternoon detailed the promised update coming in May for the Boxee Box. The upgrade will bring support for the hinted at Boxee for iPad app to stream the media hub's content to an Apple tablet. The browser should also be faster for loading and scrolling as well as bring favorites and a history.
D-Link has began shipping two new USB wireless N adapters on Wednesday in the the Wireless N 150 Pico Adapter DWA-121 and the Wireless N Nano USB Adapter DWA-131. Meant to sit semi-permanently in a notebook's USB port, the tiny adapters have higher speeds than the previous 802.11g adapters from before. The DWA-121 is the frugal version and offers speeds of up to 150Mbps.
Boxee on Monday announced that the Boxee Box by D-Link has now received support for accessing streaming content from Netflix. The absence of this feature was one of our gripes when we reviewed it, and was also requested by Boxee users. The support comes by way of a new software update, version 1.0.4.17443, and will let both US and Canadian Boxee Box owners to watch Netflix content.
Wi-LAN this evening said the delay in its Wi-Fi lawsuit had borne fruit as it had made some settlement deals and expected more before the February 2 trial. It struck deals with 2Wire, Belkin, Lenovo, Marvell, Netgear and Westell over the past few weeks. It also anticipated that Apple, Dell, D-Link, HP, Sony and Toshiba would cave before Wednesday.
Slightly later than planned, Boxee on Wednesday rolled out Vudu access on the Boxee Box. The firmware upgrade gives the media hub its first access to top-tier, commercial movies in the US, with many purchases and rentals coming the same day as they do on DVD. The Boxee's Atom chip is fast enough to decode Vudu's signature HDX format at its full 1080p and 5.1-channel Dolby Digital Plus surround.
Digital media hubs have almost invariably fallen into two camps: the polished, commercial but limited universe of a device like the Apple TV or else the free-wheeling and flexible, but often bootleg-focused, hubs such as the Popcorn Hour. Boxee in its big push into the living room is aiming for both: it wants to give access to legitimate content while still having the leeway to play every format someone might encounter. But how well does it bridge that gap? We'll discover that in our Boxee Box review.
Iomega today brought out a pair of media devices stepping outside of its usual space. The Iomega TV with Boxee is the first dedicated Boxee device outside of D-Link's Boxee Box and tries to improve on the formula with permanent storage options: versions with 1TB and 2TB of storage are available to hold a personal collection. The hub can accordingly serve as a DLNA media server, not just a receiver.
Boxee just before New Year's apologized for the delayed additions of Netflix and Vudu to its Mac and Windows desktop apps and the Boxee Box while giving new timetables. The Vudu update will be the first and should arrive next week to provide per-title movie purchases and rentals. Netflix is now due to reach Boxee before the end of January.
D-Link has achieved better than expected sales of its IPTV Boxee Box set-top-box (STB), according to a report. Since its November launch event, D-Link claims that its sales performance in the US and Europe have frequently exceeded stock volumes. In the US the device is sold through Amazon and is also expected to reach Best Buy soon increasing its retail footprint significantly.
Boxee during the holiday rolled out a large firmware upgrade for the recently arrived Boxee Box. The update addresses some of the major teething problems identified in launch and focuses on video first. It should fix video artifacts and missing video for 1080i content on the web, Blu-ray derived videos and the inability to handle certain specific subtitles.
Boxee at its Brooklyn launch event revealed that the Boxee Box and the software platform would be getting a handful of key launch partners. Hulu Plus is the highlight and will see Boxee offer the $10 monthly streaming service on its media hub. The company didn't say if the free web version will be blocked outright, but it said free wouldn't be an option and promised a "real" Hulu designed for TV rather than just the browser.
Boxee today locked down ship dates for the Boxee Box. The media hub will ship November 10 for those who've pre-ordered through either Amazon in the US (above) or Best Buy and Future Shop in Canada. A much wider range of online and retail shops should get the Boxee Box on November 17.
The upcoming Boxee Box has shown up at the FCC, undergoing approval testing. The appearance indicates that the media hub is indeed on course for an admittedly delayed November release. The device promises to act as either a companion device that will let users stream files stored on a Mac or PC or solely from online.
Boxee on Monday revealed that it's switching the Boxee Box away from the NVIDIA Tegra 2 platform to Intel's Atom CE4100 processor. The switch was described to Electronista as a form of future proofing; the company wants to guarantee 1080p HD streaming for the future as well as today, Boxee said. NVIDIA's hardware can handle 1080p, but only in VC-1 and not the more popular H.264 format.
Boxee tonight revealed that it's dropping the Firefox-based browser in the Boxee Box and desktop apps will switch to the Apple-made but open WebKit engine instead. Lead Apps Developer Rob Spectre told NewTeeVee that Boxee wanted to guarantee HTML5 support. Firefox's Gecko engine has rudimentary HTML5 support, but it doesn't work well within the Boxee client.
Boxee founder Avner Ronen today downplayed the risk from the new Apple TV to sales of its upcoming Boxee Box. He pointed out the simple advantage of 1080p versus Apple's 720p as well as the open nature of Boxee's platform. Since it has a web browser and can be extended with more formats and services, it's inherently more open than what the Apple TV offers, Ronen implied.
Boxee's Chief Product Officer Zach Klein today showed the finished version of the Boxee Box in a video demo (below), indicating that it's starting production. The completed version still has the distinctive sinking box design but has a more refined look and feel. Among other changes, the Box now has a much more fingerprint-resistant glossy black finish.
Boxee tonight told customers that it was delaying the Boxee Box to November. It had planned to ship the hub by the end of the spring but discovered that it was "overly ambitious." Company founder Avner Ronen stressed that the timeframe was a firm one set by D-Link and that it would lead to a greater amount of polish.
Electronics maker D-Link has unveiled its CES lineup, which should include several products. Foremost is the previously-announced Boxee Box, which merges Boxee's media browsing interface with network, HDMI and audio connections. Further details will only be announced at the expo, which begins Thursday, but the set-top is expected to ship in the spring for approximately $200.
(Update with pricing) Boxee tonight revealed both the beta version of its software as well as Boxee Box, its first hardware dedicated to its custom TV interface. Both the device and independent software have a newly updated version of the front-end with a much more visual layout that focuses on the menu, the active media queue and a social networking feed for friends, Facebook and Twitter. While it's still available for Macs and 32-bit Linux PCs, the beta is also freshly optimized for Windows and uses DirectX on that platform as well as Flash 10.1 that gives it hardware acceleration of Flash video using modern NVIDIA graphics.
D-Link has began shipping its Xtreme N DIR-685 all-in-one router that was first introduced back at CES in January. The device has a built-in draft N Wi-Fi module that allows it to communicate with network attached storage devices and a 3.2-inch LCD screen that lets it play streaming video or double as a digital photo frame. The screen can also display device status information via graphs and gauges. D-Link's SharePort feature lets networked computers share printers and other USB devices.
D-Link this morning started shipping its PowerLine HD Ethernet Adapter Starter Kit. The bundle creates the equivalent to an Ethernet connection between a router and a device and stands out for its bandwidth: at 200Mbps in peak conditions, the kit has twice as much room as basic Ethernet and should reliably stream HD video over a local network. D-Link sees the adapters as ideal for game console and Slingbox owners who might need a fast connection but for whom Wi-Fi either isn't reliable or quick.
D-Link on Wednesday announced it is shipping its DSN-1100 Network Attached Storage (NAS), meant for use by small- to medium-sized businesses. The device's five bays are capable of holding five 3.5-inch 1.5TB SATA hard drives for a total storage capacity of 7.5TB. The DSN-1100 manages the drives via a built-in IP-SAN Device Manager suite of utilities. An embedded secure server lets users remotely configure and monitor their storage devices.
D-Link's lineup at CES has been introduced today and focuses on a pair of 802.11n Wi-Fi routers. The Xtreme N 450 is one of few if any wireless routers to crack the 300Mbps theoretical peak and potentially transfers data as quickly as its namesake 450Mbps over the local network. While not providing real-world speeds, the 50 percent increase is expected to translate into practical performance gains. The device is also a true dual-band router and can run one 2.4GHz and one 5GHz network simultaneously regardless of the particular format used.
D-Link on Wednesday introduced its Xtreme N Dual Band Gigabit DIR-825 router which, for the first time, allows its USB port to turn into a virtual-network USB that will support external hard drives and other USB devices. Made possible by D-Link’s SharePort technology, the new feature lets users connect network attached storage devices and printers to their wireless networks. D-Link’s older USB Wireless-N routers can be updated with the same functionality thanks to a firmware update that will include the SharePort feature.
Networking device manufacturer D-Link and DivX have begun shipping the first DivX Connected media player in the U.S. (distribution in Canadian markets is expected to soon follow). The HDMI-connected D-Link MediaLounge DSM-330 offers streaming of music, photos, Internet services and high definition video from PCs to any connected television, ostensibly challenging Apple TV, Apple's device for the living room. The set-top box, however, uses the slower 802.11g networking (or optional wired Ethernet), while most newer devices, including Apple TV, use the new (and faster) 802.11n band. Unlike Apple TV, the device supports a larger range of format, including DivX (including DivX VOD files), Xvid and WMV9 (transcoded on PC) as well as a variety of image formats, including JPEG, JPEG 2000 and BMP (non-compressed).
D-Link on Monday unveiled a new dual-band RangeBooster N router that offers 802.11n WiFi on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. The DIR-628 features D-Link's Quality of Service management engine to improve performance, while being able to switch to either 2.4GHz signals for low-intensity network throughput, or 5.4GHz for intensive file sharing and media distribution. D-Link is currently selling the DIR-628 through select retailers for $120.
D-Link began establishing its presence at the upcoming CES expo with news of the Xtreme N Duo, its first mainstream wireless router to provide dual network bands. The device can operate on the 2.4GHz frequency used by most forms of Wi-Fi while simultaneously running a 5GHz network for 802.11a and 802.11n networks. Setting up the router this way allows a relatively interference- and lag-free connection for games, video streaming, and other features that demand 802.11n's higher speed while still providing a separate network for less speed-dependent hardware.
D-Link aims to be the first with a router using the faster 802.11n Wi-Fi standard at or below the $50 mark, say tips from industry sources at its Taiwan manufacturing base. The network equipment producer is said to be instituting price cuts that will drop the cost by as much as 35 percent in a bid to undercut rivals such as Belkin, Linksys, and SMC. D-Link has ypically had some of the lowest-cost wireless routers on the market and has offered wireless routers significantly below the $100 level in the past, but until today has not crossed the $50 barrier. The model is most likely the base DIR-615 (not pictured).
