Popbox prepares for launch with preorders, SDK
By Richard Lawler 
posted April 20th 2010 8:23AM
posted April 20th 2010 8:23AM
[Thanks, Mike]
popbox Offers Developers and Internet Content Direct On Ramp to HDTVs
popbox SDK Released; Enables Developers to Work With Both Local and Cloud-Based Content to Create New Media Experiences for HDTVs
FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Starting today, popbox invites application developers to begin creating popapps for big-screen HDTVs to deliver internet and locally stored content direct to your TV. popbox is the connected entertainment device that elegantly plays all your stuff – movies, music, home video, etc. – and all your internet content on your big-screen HDTV.
Released today, the popbox SDK enables developers to take an existing Adobe® Flash® application and easily transform it into a new popapp for popbox. popapps will be available to consumers directly from their popboxes. The highly anticipated popbox is expected to ship in the 2nd quarter.
"This is a huge opportunity for the Flash development community to create popapps for the primary screen in the home," said Alex Limberis, COO, popbox. "Consumers are searching for easy ways to get content to their TV and these popapps can pull data from home computers, the web or even local storage drives. The possibilities are endless and we can't wait to see what the community comes up with."
The popbox SDK hooks into the popbox UI to handle remote commands, execute widgets, and load application-specific data. Developers will be able to create popapps that play videos, music, and photos, read and write content metadata, and access files on mounted drives and UPnP servers from the home network or media from the cloud. The SDK also includes a "Showfront" template to quickly publish video to popbox.
"Our viewers are constantly asking us for better ways to watch our 21 HD shows on their big-screen TVs," said Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3. "That's why we're such big fans, and promoters of popbox. It's easy to build a popapp, and the look and feel is first rate. That's why we're excited to be among the first popapps available on the platform, and I know our viewers will be extremely excited about the experience!"
popbox builds on the success of Syabas' Popcorn Hour lineup of Network Media Tanks with a more elegant and consumer-friendly user experience, a Flash application environment and the same rabid dedication to beautifully display virtually any multimedia file from the network on an HDTV. Applications developed with the popbox SDK will be available to popbox consumers at launch through the platform's popapp Center and can be made available to the existing installed base of over 50,000 Popcorn Hour A-200 and C-200 NMTs already in market.
To find out more, and apply to participate in the popbox developer program, visit www.popbox.com.
About popbox
popbox is the new and affordable "network-to-tv" settop box that makes it easy to play everything you want on your big-screen HDTV. With an open application platform, it enables virtually anyone to develop rich Internet applications for the biggest screen in the house: music and TV shows on-demand, games, and Tweets all come together elegantly with popbox.
About Syabas Technologies
Syabas, headquartered in Fremont, California and with facilities in China and Malaysia, is a leading software developer for inexpensive wired/wireless digital home entertainment products. Syabas products enable users to access content such as high- and standard-definition video, music, and photos over a local network and the Internet. For more information on Syabas and their products, please visit www.popcornhour.com.
popbox SDK Released; Enables Developers to Work With Both Local and Cloud-Based Content to Create New Media Experiences for HDTVs
FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Starting today, popbox invites application developers to begin creating popapps for big-screen HDTVs to deliver internet and locally stored content direct to your TV. popbox is the connected entertainment device that elegantly plays all your stuff – movies, music, home video, etc. – and all your internet content on your big-screen HDTV.
Released today, the popbox SDK enables developers to take an existing Adobe® Flash® application and easily transform it into a new popapp for popbox. popapps will be available to consumers directly from their popboxes. The highly anticipated popbox is expected to ship in the 2nd quarter.
"This is a huge opportunity for the Flash development community to create popapps for the primary screen in the home," said Alex Limberis, COO, popbox. "Consumers are searching for easy ways to get content to their TV and these popapps can pull data from home computers, the web or even local storage drives. The possibilities are endless and we can't wait to see what the community comes up with."
The popbox SDK hooks into the popbox UI to handle remote commands, execute widgets, and load application-specific data. Developers will be able to create popapps that play videos, music, and photos, read and write content metadata, and access files on mounted drives and UPnP servers from the home network or media from the cloud. The SDK also includes a "Showfront" template to quickly publish video to popbox.
"Our viewers are constantly asking us for better ways to watch our 21 HD shows on their big-screen TVs," said Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3. "That's why we're such big fans, and promoters of popbox. It's easy to build a popapp, and the look and feel is first rate. That's why we're excited to be among the first popapps available on the platform, and I know our viewers will be extremely excited about the experience!"
popbox builds on the success of Syabas' Popcorn Hour lineup of Network Media Tanks with a more elegant and consumer-friendly user experience, a Flash application environment and the same rabid dedication to beautifully display virtually any multimedia file from the network on an HDTV. Applications developed with the popbox SDK will be available to popbox consumers at launch through the platform's popapp Center and can be made available to the existing installed base of over 50,000 Popcorn Hour A-200 and C-200 NMTs already in market.
To find out more, and apply to participate in the popbox developer program, visit www.popbox.com.
About popbox
popbox is the new and affordable "network-to-tv" settop box that makes it easy to play everything you want on your big-screen HDTV. With an open application platform, it enables virtually anyone to develop rich Internet applications for the biggest screen in the house: music and TV shows on-demand, games, and Tweets all come together elegantly with popbox.
About Syabas Technologies
Syabas, headquartered in Fremont, California and with facilities in China and Malaysia, is a leading software developer for inexpensive wired/wireless digital home entertainment products. Syabas products enable users to access content such as high- and standard-definition video, music, and photos over a local network and the Internet. For more information on Syabas and their products, please visit www.popcornhour.com.
PopBox vs Boxee?
@shmootz
indeed, which one? And why is it so quiet on the Boxee Box front? I'd hate the ads in the popbox though (although the box itself is rather handsome)
@Stick Tegra2 delays most likely have affected Boxee Box as to which is better in the long run the Boxee Box is, the Popbox is only getting started plus still no GPU accelerated GUI.
@Stick
What ads?
@gerrrg The popbox has paid ads on most (if not all) of the menu screens. That sidebar that displays app info on the menu in that screenshot above shows ads on other pages. That banner at the top also contains paid ads.
@Chip
That's not what the folks at Syabas said...the ads - if there are any - are controlled by the apps themselves, in terms of self-advertising. Or at least that's my understanding:
http://www.popbox.com/blog/?p=26#comments
I pre-ordered a popbox. I am not really liking the shape of the boxee box.
"All Flash" now that the iPad has been released?? Why not HTML5 and Flash?
@darrellt because the internet doesn't revolve around the iPad & Apple's hate on flash, and because there are no real performance advantages to HTML5 vs Flash.
@tlogank I would never imagine the world to revolve around any provider or manufacturer, but to ensure the best success and maximum take up surely it would be wise to build in some flexibility as love it or loathe it Apple know how to sell products and there's a huge market out there for suitably smart and unbiased content providers.
@darrellt So you're saying Apple should have built Flash into their devices? You're right...but that's not the topic of this thread.
@KenEsq Ha! Nice. Totally snortled on that.
"darrellt makes a line for the goal, but what's this?! KenEsq steals the puck. He shoots, he scores!"
Im not a fan of the Boxee shape either, but the Boxee remote looks awesome!
My PS3 is filling the void for right now and doing a decent enough job but I am waiting for both devices to hit and make a decision.
This won't have Hulu. I'm decided. I cancelled cable and just use PlayOn now, and torrents. But I really might pick up a boxee, hopefully it actually has some more content by then. But at least it plays from rars, in addition to hulu
wth is this. boxee ftw.
Ads in the software and menus?
No thanks. What a huge let down.
Guess I'm going with Boxee.
@munchies
Boxee is soooooo very broken right now. It works OK for online stuff, but add local media to the mix and wait for the brown puddle to leak from your box as Boxee shits itself..
OK, the new version of Boxee just released yesterday...... much, much better.
@Supersnail haha, I was going to say..
Preordered mine yesterday. Love my popcorn hour.
No Hulu = no dice for me.
www.popcornhour.com has the best media tanks with the best followship and forums, support, customization, etc. It only makes since their newest creation will be even better, the popbox.
@senormatt
And the worst RMA service EVER.
I played with this at SXSW. Not bad, but I like Boxee better.
Glad I supported these guys when I bought my A110 :)
I've been looking for a media player to connect my hard drive to, so I can play my files on the TV.
The big question I have for this is can this thing play ISO files with DVD menus?
I would not buy from popcornhour. The stuff they sell are buggy and they wont work to improve it. They just release new hardware and let the old versions rott. I am waiting for the boxee where dlink does a much better job with their products in my use.
As long as it isn't from popcorn hour. Worst RMA experience ever! A week to get an RMA for a device that wouldn't turn on, then I had to E-mail them the confirmation that I got from UPS that they received it, and had it for 2 weeks before they would update the RMA to "received" even. Almost 2 months for an RMA with very little feedback.
Never getting anything from them again.
Many actual looks at the boxee box that have occurred so far indicate that the hardware will not be able to run videos with bitrates much over 10 megabits/sec - so essentially, worthless to any one who wants nice looking 1080p vids
It comes down to 2 things:
1. I like the Boxee UI, but I don't like the Boxee Box shape, which means that I'd rather have bought an Aspire Revo running the dual core Atom 330, to get streaming 1080 content to run smoothly.
2. Cost suggests that the Boxee will be closer to $200, and the Aspire Revo running Boxee would have cost $328, which is a lot more than the wireless Popbox at $149, or the wired Popbox at $129.
So, AFAIC, the Popbox is my likely choice.
I have a Popcorn Hour 100 and when it comes to playing content stored on my local server it has been great...Much like VLC it just plays pretty much everything. They did have some bugs, but did a pretty good job of releasing patches/upgrades at no charge. The interface was clunky at best and the internet stuff they connected too was pretty lacking. If they could couple their internal player stuff with a decent interface and the biggies on the net: NetFlix, Hulu, Youtube, etc. it would be a great buy. Without Hulu I'm just not sure it would be worth an upgrade for me...but for someone looking to buy I'd give it strong consideration
The market seems to really be heating up...Roku is doing a nice job, Boxee should be strong and Windows Media Center on W7 is very nice.
Not sure about Apple TV...haven't really heard much positive about it lately.
halle-fucking-lujah!