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Boxee's Early Access program is looking for a few good testers, dangles Cloudee preview
While Boxee's oddly shaped set-top box is still its main claim to fame, it's been testing a cloud-based video hosting / sharing service for several months in closed beta. We got a peek at Cloudee, which could evolve into additional features for the Boxee Box some day, back then but you could get your own peek as Boxee is recruiting new (US-based only, for now) blood for its Early Access program. According to the Facebook posting you could get to test some new things for the Boxee and Cloudee projects, so if you're a fan in need of storage and like living on the cutting edge, hit the source link for a shot at joining in.
Boxee, Comcast agree to a workaround for encrypted basic cable channels on third party boxes
Boxee usually doesn't get along with the existing media / pay-TV conglomerates, but now it's telling the FCC it has come to an agreement with Comcast. The solution agreed to lets live TV-friendly Boxee access encrypted basic cable channels thanks to a DLNA-controlled high definition digital transport adapter that would connect to the box via Ethernet, with an eye towards no longer requiring an adapter at all down the road. Multichannel News quotes Boxee CEO Avner Ronen as saying it was "good to work with Comcast" on a deal that gives third parties like his company continued access to basic cable. The benefit for Comcast and other cable companies is that they could progress with encrypted all-digital solutions that would open up bandwidth for things like higher speed internet, something Boxee was arguing against previously. What this means for existing standards like CableCARD or the long awaited AllVid is unclear, but if it's one step closer to a legitimate option to ditching the cable box, we'll take it.
ConnecTV officially launches, gives you more ways to bug your buddies
We went hands-on with the ConnecTV app while it was in open beta earlier this year. Now the social TV app is officially, uh, official -- launching nationwide with backing from television's old guard. Although ConnecTV doesn't double as a remote a la Dijit or BuddyTV, it does play nice with Facebook and Twitter, allowing users to socially rave about Alton Brown's cherry couscous pudding or razz followers of a rival team while watching a game on TV. ConnecTV says the app also syncs with content from Apple TV, Boxee, Hulu, Netflix and Roku from the past seven days. Do note that "nationwide" currently means integrated content from 85 local stations across the US' top 40 TV markets. ConnecTV also plans to expand that number to 215 stations. The app is available for free for PC browsers and the Apple iPad, with iPhone and Android smartphone and tablet versions set for release within the next 45 days. For more details, feel free to dip your toes into the celebratory PR after the break.
Cloudee beta gets Boxee into the video sharing and cloud storage game
Media center software, a streaming set top box and a TV-tuning USB dongle -- Boxee already has a pretty decent amount on its plate. But don't think the company is done just yet. This isn't about products, this about an ecosystem, and the next step in building that out is Cloudee. At its heart Cloudee is a cloud-based video hosting and sharing service, not terribly dissimilar from YouTube at first glance. But, the vision here is more focused and more narrow than simply having a public space to post your viral clips and home movies. There is the ability to comment on and like videos, but sharing is focused on limited groups of contacts, borrowing some inspiration from Google+. After recording a clip it can be uploaded directly to Cloudee where you can organize your creations into collections, which can not only by shared but have multiple contributors. Boxee's Avner Ronen gave us an example of a recent company outing, where the whole staff contributed videos to a collection shared only internally. He explained that, "video is very specific, a special use case and it deserves its own treatment," something he thinks other services have fallen flat on. When asked about the future of the service he only said only that it will be a "big part of the boxee experience going forward, tightly integrated with Boxee Box." We can't help but hope this is the first step towards a cloud-based DVR service, which we felt was sorely missing from the launch of the Live TV dongle. %Gallery-156759% For now the service is in closed beta, with only an iPhone app available. During the testing period users will be provided with unlimited storage for free, but Ronen hopes to move Cloudee out of beta quickly and begin offering it on a freemium model. All users will get a limited amount of storage for free while more demanding uploaders can purchase unlimited hosting. Just how much free storage will be provided or how much the premium level will cost is still up in the air. Boxee plans to closely watch how testers use the app and decide how the best price and storage points before officially launching and expanding and opening up to other platforms like Android. Once our beta invite arrives we'll be back with a hands-on and you can sign up yourself by heading over to Cloudee.com.
GTVHacker teases Boxee for rooted Sony Google TVs
Since the Boxee Box and original Google TV v1 hardware share Intel Atom processors at their heart users have wondered about the opportunity for a port, and as seen above, that may have been achieved. GTVHacker tweeted out the picture tonight, promising "big things" in store for owners of rooted Sony Google TV devices while showing Boxee running on a Sony NSZ-GT1 Blu-ray player. There's no other details mentioned so far, but if you managed to open up the capabilities of your hardware before an update put the kibosh on rooting, you should have some extra capabilities coming your way shortly.
Boxee and the NCTA debate if ClearQAM is good for us
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association and Boxee don't see eye to eye on whether or not ClearQAM is good or bad for us. Boxee argues that encrypting even those channels free and clear via an antenna, as a few cable companies have requested permission from the FCC to do, will increase your bill and limit competition. The NCTA alternatively claims that eliminating ClearQAM will enable self installs, thus reducing costs and truck rolls, because the coax outside your house will no longer need to be disconnected when you cancel service, and that Boxee should just adopt CableCARD if it wants the Boxee Box to access live cable TV -- of course most anyone who has had a CableCARD setup knows that a simple truck roll to connect a cable outside is child's play. While this struggle has played out in public with FCC filings, social media and blog posts, we all just fondly remember a day when setting up a TV was as simple as connecting a single coax cable and running a channel scan. Of course, it would be nice if the FCC would actually force more QAM to be sent in the clear and require accurate PSIP data while it's at it, but we gave up on that dream years ago.
Boxee desktop app being removed from servers tonight, get it while you can
We knew that the Boxee desktop app's days were numbered, we just didn't realize how numbered. It was only the day after Christmas that we learned version 1.5 would be the last to ship for Linux, Windows and OS X. Now, with January coming to a close, its life is officially being snuffed out. Tonight, as you flip the calendar to February, Boxee will be busy purging its servers of the installable media center software. What that means, in case you hadn't figured it out, is that this is your last chance to download the official app for your desktop OS of choice as the company shifts focus to the Boxee Box and other streaming appliances. Of course, we're sure someone will pick up the torch and update the program, but as far as Boxee is concerned it has no desktop son.
Boxee Box Live TV starts shipping, Boxee 1.5 software update now rolling out
Both have been promised as coming soon in recent weeks, and now Boxee has confirmed that two fairly big new rollouts are underway. The first is the Boxee Box Live TV dongle, which is now shipping and will let you augment your Boxee Box with some OTA TV channels for $50. You can get a closer look at it in our hands-on from CES earlier this month. Alongside it, Boxee is also rolling out its Boxee 1.5 software update, which boasts a new UI and a number of other refinements including better search, new library screens and filtering options, browser pop-up management, and the addition of Rotten Tomatoes listings. Boxee says it's staggering the release over the next 72 hours, but those eager to check it out can find instructions for a manual update at the support link below.
Switched On: Connected Electronics Show
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Compared to CES 2011, which featured an explosion of tablets and high-powered smartphones poised to jump on emerging 4G networks, this year's edition of Gear and Gloating in Las Vegas was a more muted affair when it came to mobile devices. Sure, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile trotted out a few devices and there were even a few standouts, such as the Transformer Primesque Lenovo IdeaTab S2 with its its docking keyboard as well as the heavily promoted Galaxy Note, coming soon the U.S. after launching in Europe.
CES 2012: HDTV and connected devices round-up
The Consumer Electronics Show is always a big deal for HDTVs and the devices that plug into them, and the 2012 edition was no different. With the majority of households already owning an HDTV, manufacturers are pressed to convince you to upgrade, and are pulling out all the stops. We've got new display technologies like OLED, 4K and Super Hi-Vision, plus more 3D and internet connected features than ever. DVRs and media streamers haven't slowed down either, so while some services focused on eliminating the set-top box, those that remained either shrunk (Roku) or added features (Boxee, TiVo, Ceton -- pictured above). The pace of the announcements made it nearly impossible to keep up with everything going on last week, so we've wrapped everything up in one neat summary available after the break.
Apple's plans for your living room: On Apple TV, "iTV", Siri, and all the rest
The "iTV" rumourmill -- speculation that Apple will be releasing a full-size television, screen and all -- is back to full speed again. I've long been skeptical about this possibility, but even I have to concede that we reached the "no smoke without fire" level some time ago. The rumours are too numerous and too persistent to not have some sort of substance to them. Nevertheless, there's a few aspects of the most frequently repeated speculation that don't make sense to me; I'll explain which ones, and why, below. Want to add your own voice to the discussion? Jump into our comments section! The future of video distribution The big-picture issue that drives many of the rumours is the coming battle over how we, the viewers, will receive and pay for television content. On the one hand, we have the status quo: "conventional" broadcast and subscription TV (over the air, cable, digital terrestrial or satellite). Pay TV income today is about $300 billion world-wide, with about $100 billion of that in the USA alone; that's a roughly equal split between advertising and subscription fees. It's a highly incestuous market, in which content producers and content delivery firms are often owned by the same parent companies or bound to each other in complex webs of cross-licensing deals. However, cable TV firms acknowledge the tough times ahead as their business models are placed under threat by the wave of Internet based streaming. Still, though, no one's going to be keen to place the current huge incomes under any threat without some clear payoffs to a new business model. And then there's the other hand. There's a common view that existing services like iTunes, Netflix, Hulu and other "over-the-top content" streams are glimpses of the future. A future where people pay for the individual shows or episodes they want and watch it whenever they choose, rather than being restricted by channel packages and schedules. If that's to be the future, though, there's massive uncertainty over how the giant media companies can get from here to there without going broke in the process. Smoothing over the disruption of a $300 billion industry isn't easy. Making turkeys vote for Christmas is even harder. Will Apple be part of the efforts to push this change through, or will the Apple TV remain a "hobby"? Apple TV vs "iTV" Much of the recent speculation has focused on Apple's alleged plans to expand its existing Apple TV set-top box into a full blown screen-and-all television. I'm going to call this mythical device "iTV" here, for clarity, although I doubt it would ever ship with that name because that might cause confusion with UK broadcaster ITV. I must confess, the idea of the iTV doesn't make much sense to me. First, the big downside as I see it: Apple TV is, famously, barely more than a "hobby" for Apple because of low sales -- but a $1000+ premium HDTV is necessarily going to be a far harder sell than a $99 add-on. Plus, people simply don't change their living room TVs as often as they change most other gadgets in their life. What are the potential upsides, though? Firstly, remember that most of the (slightly breathless) benefits that are being attributed to the iTV -- cord-cutting, disrupting existing pay TV business models, iTunes streaming, and so forth -- are just as applicable to the Apple TV as the iTV. Hence these are not reasons for Apple to create an iTV. It could tick all those boxes with some new Apple TV software or a new hardware version. The list of unique-to-iTV features is non-zero but makes for a far less compelling product. Second, cabling. It's true that wiring in a TV isn't simple at all -- in fact it's one of those complicated areas of tech that Apple seems to delight in turning upside-down. However, I have reservations about Apple's ability to revolutionise here because people (I contend) expect to be able to plug all sorts of stuff into their TVs. Can you imagine a successful iTV that shipped without multiple inputs for component, HDMI, composite, and so forth? A TV which didn't allow the addition of a games console or a DVR or (shudder) a VHS player for the (double shudder) family's home movie collection? But if a TV has all those ports, how can it be any simpler to set up or use than existing ones? Second, UI. I've used a few brands of HDTV and it's probably fair to say the on-screen displays are often workmanlike at best. Apple could bring some slick polish to this area. But... how often do you use these screens? Personally, I tweak the brightness levels on my TV a few times a week to account for changes in the ambient light level. That's about it. I don't think most consumers use these interfaces often enough to muster any wallet-opening enthusiasm about what they look like. Third, AirPlay. Something that happens quite a lot in our household is for one of us to be viewing content, on a Mac or an iOS device, and want to share that with other people in the room. The ability to seamlessly shunt videos, pictures, and audio onto a television via AirPlay is extremely useful for this (although the lack of baked-in AirPlay support in OS X is a puzzle). However, it relies on the television already being on the right HDMI input. It would be more useful still if the AirPlay client was built into the TV itself so you could use it regardless of what was currently showing, or even if the TV was in standby. This is why we suggested that the Apple TV is a compelling accessory for the iPhone and iPad. Does all of this add up to a solid set of reasons to junk an existing HDTV and buy an Apple iTV? I'd say not -- not for most people, anyway. The benefits are just too slim. Apple might find it an easier sell to target people who don't yet have an HDTV, but that by definition will be the less affluent and least tech-focused consumers; that's not a great market segment to pitch a premium device at. Apple could negate some of the disadvantages if it launched a cut-price device, but with margins generally pretty thin in the mainstream HDTV market it'd be left not making any money -- in which case, why bother? Another minor point to finish off with: having watched someone wrestle a 27" iMac out of an Apple Store and across a 10 minute walk to his car recently, I'm not convinced Apple retail stores are really set up for such large-box purchases. Yet retail is such a significant part of Apple's success story that it's hard to imagine it being sidelined for iTV sales. However, I could be wrong; Apple's a lot smarter than I am, so maybe it's found a compelling angle I've overlooked. Or perhaps the rumours are half-right, and Apple is going to revolutionize the world of video distribution -- but via the Apple TV, rather than an iTV. What forms might that revolution take? The UI challenge If over-the-top is to be the future of TV, there is a significant challenge coming regarding how that content is organised and presented to the user. Existing "browse" type UIs, whether the genre-based structure of iTunes or Netflix or the channel-centric nature of a traditional pay TV set-top box, don't really scale well to having hundreds of thousands of titles for a user to choose from. I'm also dubious about any "search" type UIs that rely on the user hunting-and-pecking an on-screen QWERTY keyboard via a remote control with an up/down/left/right block. It simply feels ungainly and awkward to me. Steve Jobs famously said he "cracked it"; do we really think he could be talking about something so kludgy? One possible answer is to rely more heavily on personalised recommendations, rather like Amazon or TiVo. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised to see this become an area Apple looks to innovate in -- perhaps by acquiring a startup, as they did for Siri. But no amount of recommendation smarts can hope to ever fully replace the search box, which will always require the user to somehow enter free-form text. The Boxee Box solves this problem with a two-sided remote; the upper surface resembles the sparse Apple remote, with just seven buttons: up/down/left/right, select, play/pause, and menu. The flip side has a micro-sized QWERTY keyboard. It's alright, but the keyboard is tricky to type on and isn't backlit, presumably for battery life reasons. It's consequently very difficult to enter text in a dim home theatre room. So how can Apple drive this forward, then? The iPhone as a controller Many people believe that iOS devices will be the answer. As they are blank slates for software to project a flexible and changing UI upon, the reasoning goes that they are perfect for this. They can display a five-way pad for basic UI navigation, transport controls during playback, and switch to an on-screen keyboard when that's a better choice. The existing Remote app for the iPad/iPhone that works with the Apple TV is a good example of this context-sensitive control. This solution isn't without its charms, but I have some reservations. For one, there are households with more people than iOS devices -- particularly those with young children. If your son or daughter wants to watch cartoons, are you really going to hand over your iPhone so they can turn the TV on? Are you going to be happy to buy a $300 iPod touch to go with your $99 Apple TV? Secondly, there's a growing demand these days for so-called "two screen viewing"; the TV showing a movie or program, viewers each with a smartphone in hand or computer in lap -- perhaps checking Facebook during ad breaks, or doing quick IMDb lookups to answer "who's that guy?" queries (I must confess, I do this a lot). Some broadcasters are starting to pick up on this and launch companion apps, such as the deal between Sky TV and zeebox; sporting leagues like the NBA or MLB in the States already produce such 'sideview' apps, and third parties like Yahoo's intoNow have similar capabilities. iOS devices, of course, don't have deep multitasking. Are you going to be satisfied with having to switch away from your Twitter app halfway through writing a tweet so you can channel hop, mute an annoying advert, or -- even worse -- pause playback when the doorbell rings? Also, you can't use an iOS device as a remote control without looking at it, because it's a flat sheet of undifferentiated glass. If you don't think that's a problem, next time you watch TV for an hour, make a point of always looking directly at the remote before every single button press. It sounds minor but it's surprisingly annoying. Moreover, if you watch movies in a darkened room then your iPhone will default to eye-searing brightness levels. It's long annoyed me that the "adjust brightness automatically" setting doesn't go far enough in either direction. For this reasons, whilst I accept that an iOS device can be a useful ancillary controller for a home audio-visual setup, I don't think it can be a compelling primary controller. Siri Much fuss has been made about the possibilities of using Apple's Siri voice-recognition technology for TV control, both for and against. I see upsides and downsides. There's no doubt that voice recognition could be compelling for the "I want to watch the latest episode of Breaking Bad" use case -- in other words when you turn the television on knowing exactly what you want to do. It also appears that Siri's recognition engine is easily sophisticated enough to cope. Microsoft's Kinect for Xbox already supports this sort of thing, and is reasonably successful at it. As with the iOS-device-as-controller scenario, however, there are some ways in which Siri would be a step back from a traditional remote control. Again, next time you watch TV, try speaking each command aloud as you press the button. "HDMI one... Volume up... Volume up... Volume up... Channel down..." It feels ridiculous and clumsy. There is one use case I see where voice control is superior -- "pause playback so I can deal with this emergency." If the dog just knocked your New Yorker all over your cream carpet, not having to fumble for the remote whilst also running for a towel and shouting at the hound is useful. Apart from this, though, I simply don't think Siri for routine television UI navigation is compelling. There are physical downsides also. Kinect's voice control only works because it has a good quality directional microphone built in to the sensor bar, which is always placed near to the screen. Siri, of course, is on a device you naturally speak in to and hold at close range. Building a pickup into the body of an Apple TV might not work very well, as people often tuck them into AV racks where the sound would be muffled. Having a small microphone on a wire would be ugly, and requiring the user to talk into an iOS device would incur the disadvantages covered in the previous section. An iTV could solve this problem, of course, by integrating the microphone into the housing of the device. Overall, although I could see a place for Siri, and although it seems to attract a lot of attention from bloggers, I'm not sure it's the most interesting part of the puzzle. I think the really juicy stuff is: what would we watch on an iTV? Content sources Along with the user experience difficulties, Apple faces commercial ones if it is to push iTunes streaming as a mainstream alternative to (as opposed to supplement to) existing pay TV solutions like cable and satellite. Namely, content. So far, the Apple TV has been a slightly odd halfway house. The primary focus of the device is undoubtably iTunes content, but iTunes doesn't have everything. There's some limited concessions in the form of baked-into-the-OS apps for Netflix and NHL/NBA/NFL streaming, as well as some Internet services like Youtube, Vimeo, and Flickr. Compared to the wide variety of streaming services out there, though, this is just a drop in the ocean. The big question here is whether or not Apple will open Apple TV up with an App Store for streaming content. On the one hand, it seems to make perfect sense. It seems unlikely that, going forward, we are going to have one source to rule them all for over-the-top content. Most content producers and distributers are keener on controlling at least some of the customer relationship via their own apps. So we have current episodes on dedicated apps like HBO Go, the BBC's iPlayer, or Hulu whilst older archival content appears on Netflix or Amazon Video. If the content players won't simply put everything they have into iTunes (perhaps because they are afraid of giving Apple too much control), why not allow them to ship their own apps for the Apple TV? This approach seems to be working OK for other iOS devices. Apple could mandate in-app payments and take a cut from them, exactly as it does on the mainstream App Store, so it'd make some money too. If Apple wanted to do this, though, I think it already would have done. The Apple TV is five years old and it's been an iOS device for almost 18 months now. So why might it not want to open the platform up? One explanation I can think of is that it doesn't want the user experience to be fragmented. Consider the Boxee Box. Boxee does a reasonable job of aggregating content across many of its sources; so, for example, if I do a search for Memento I might see a single result that offers me multiple ways to watch the film: a premium streaming service like Vudu, perhaps a free ad-supported service, and the DVD ISO stored on my file server (I love that film). But, crucially, Netflix content is not aggregated outside the interface of Boxee's dedicated Netflix app, so it doesn't appear in search results. Similarly, even though Vudu content is reachable from the generic Boxee UI, the actual Vudu app has a nicer experience that does a better job of highlighting new releases and sale titles. I suspect, eventually, Apple will buckle and we'll get an App Store for the Apple TV. I certainly hope so, at least. It'd be a much more useful device. I don't think that shipping apps for iOS and using AirPlay to stream them to an Apple TV is a really convincing answer to this problem, either. Many of the disadvantages listed under "the iPhone as a controller" apply to this model, plus battery life becomes an issue from the constant Wifi streaming. Do you really want to have to routinely put your phone on charge before you can settle down to watch a movie? There's also little clarity about the fundamental business model. So far, we have iTunes, Vudu, and the link with the pay-per-episode model, bolstered with season passes, while Netflix, Hulu and others have a monthly-fee, watch-all-you-want model. The latter model might be more comfortable to consumers as its basically how pay TV works today. There are rumours going back to 2009 that Apple is seeking to adopt a subscription plan. However, Reuters reported recently that Microsoft scrapped its online TV subscription business before launch because it couldn't agree a price with content providers that matched the price it felt it could charge consumers for the service. There's certainly a large discrepancy between the costs most people will pay for a monthly cable subscription and the cost of a Netflix or Hulu Plus account, for example. Dan Frommer speculates that unless the large content companies agree to simply make a lot less money than they do at the moment -- and why would they? -- this is going to be a huge roadblock to subscription-based service offering fresh content. International iTunes As a native of Britain, I am painfully aware that iTunes video content outside the US is drastically truncated -- an issue that sometimes doesn't receive the attention it deserves from the often US-centric tech blogs. Even worse, Netflix only works in the US, Canada and UK. TV shows are only available in six countries, and even movie rentals are only available in 50. By comparison, the iPhone is available in more than 120 countries. The bottom line is, the Apple TV isn't anywhere near as attractive a device around the world as it is in the US. If Apple is going to fulfill the grandiose dreams many people have for it to revolutionise video distribution, it's going to have to get to the bottom of this somehow. I don't mean to gloss over the stupendously complex world of international distribution rights for TV shows and movies, but for it to still be so poor five years after the product launched suggests Apple isn't giving this matter top priority. That won't do at all. There's a lot of world outside America's borders. Wrapping up I think what the future holds is cloudy and far less obvious than many people are painting it. Yes, the sheer volume and persistence of the rumours surrounding Apple's ambitions in the TV market make it likely that something is coming... but from where I'm sitting, it doesn't look clear-cut that Apple are going to change the world again, either. To finish up, I'd like to return to the famous quote given to Walter Isaacson by Steve Jobs; that Apple had "cracked it" regarding the future of TV. Less attention has been paid to this followup statement by Isaccson in an interview with CNet (thanks to Yoni Heisler for pointing this out to me): Q: How far along were they on the TV? Did you get any indication of that when talking to Jobs? A: They weren't close at all. He told me it was very theoretical. These were theoretical things they were thinking about in the future.
Boxee explains dropping PC and Mac clients at CES
We found Boxee at CES' ShowStoppers event this year, and when we cornered them to complain about dropping official PC and Mac support late in 2011, they were appropriately apologetic. Boxee's Liz Dellheim said that yes, they're sorry that they've abandoned that part of the company, and says that with just 20 people in their employ, and customers not connecting their PCs up to televisions that much anyway, Boxee just couldn't justify that support any longer. Instead, the company will focus on providing software for televisions and set-top devices, which Dellheim said offer "a more complete Boxee experience" than having to run inside the OS of a PC or Mac. That, and Boxee really wants to bring live TV to the service. Licensing that content for a standard PC client would be much harder than a more limited TV service, so Boxee decided to focus in on making the best set-top service they could, rather than being forced to support individual users. So if you were a big fan of Boxee on your Mac, that's probably the end of that. The client is still available on the website, but the company isn't supporting the official release. Fortunately, as we described in the original post, there are quite a few alternatives to look out for. There is one piece of Boxee software that will be running on an official Apple product: Dellheim confirmed that the Boxee Remote app for iPhone hasn't been forgotten, and while no big updates are planned, the company will continue to include that bit of the Boxee ecosystem in future plans. It's good to know that Boxee hasn't completely abandoned us Apple fans, but yes, for now, the company prefers to build for its own hardware, not our computers.
Boxee's working on bringing Netflix to the UK
Just yesterday, Netflix announced that it was coming to the UK, and today the Queen's subjects who are fans of the movie service got some more good news from from the folks at Boxee. The company started streaming Iomega TV a couple of months ago, and now Boxee has announced on its Twitter feed it's working to bring the streaming movie service to its platform. Unfortunately, we don't know when all you Brits will be able to get the Netflix app for Boxee, but fingers crossed it's sometime soon.
Boxee Box Live TV dongle hands-on (video)
Boxee is here at Showstoppers, where they've put the Boxee Box Live TV dongle on full display. Initially announced back in November, this tool pipes coaxial signals through to a user's Boxee Box, allowing users to connect their antennas to a Box and stream select channels at no monthly fee. The system also features Facebook integration, allowing you to see what shows your friends are watching, with their profiles displayed under each show within the sidebar menu. It won't return search results for live TV programming, but Boxee is looking to incorporate this feature into future versions. The Boxee Box Live TV dongle is priced at $50, and should begin shipping by the third week of January. For more details, check out our full gallery below, followed by our hands-on video after the break.
Boxee Mac media player reaches end-of-life with new version
The Boxee project has come a long way from its humble origins as a fork of the Xbox Media Center, bringing easy video playback and a couch-to-screen UI to the Mac, then later to Windows and Ubuntu, and now to the company's own dedicated Boxee Box hardware (soon to support live broadcast TV). There's a solid ecosystem of app developers making themselves at home with Boxee. The company is releasing version 1.5 of its desktop app for Mac, Windows and Ubuntu this week, featuring many of the improvements that will be appearing in the Boxee Box firmware early next year, but there's a caveat. This will be the final release of Boxee's desktop build; future development efforts will be focused on the Boxee Box hardware and on tablets like the iPad. The 1.5 version will be available for download on Boxee's site through the end of January 2012, which gives the Boxee team a bit of time to take down the "roll your own" section on the Boxee site. For Mac HTPC devotees who will now be looking for a Boxee alternative, the Plex project is also partially built atop XBMC, along with a proprietary server component; there's even a Plex iOS app available so you can watch on iPad. Of course, the parent XBMC app is still going strong, and a beta build of version 11.0 Eden came out just last week. Both Plex and XBMC are also now supporting jailbroken Apple TVs for playback. Plex requires an Intel Mac running 10.6 or higher, while XBMC continues to support PowerPC Macs along with Intel models. [via GigaOm]
Boxee 1.5 nears release, will be final desktop version
We have some good news and bad news. The good news is: Boxee 1.5 will be entering public beta soon, with a proper release scheduled for January alongside Live TV. The update will finally bring the desktop software up-to-date and deliver the more streamlined UI found on the Boxee Box to your Windows, Mac or Linux computer. The bad news is: this will be the final version of the HTPCsoftware. Going forward Boxee plans to focus all of its efforts on streaming appliances, like its namesake Box and connected Blu-ray players and TVs. The software will also lack access to premium apps like Netflix, thanks to the tangled web of DRM woven by content providers. When CEO Avner Ronen said that the downloadable app would, "most likely lag behind the versions of Boxee for devices," we didn't realize just how far behind he meant. On the plus side, you will be getting that open source release.
SlingPlayer for Connected Devices is here, arrives first on Boxee Box (video)
Sling first expanded its SlingPlayer app to Facebook and Chrome a few days ago, and now the company is extending those streams to the TV (without a dedicated SlingCatcher or mobile device TV-out) with apps for connected devices. Today the company announced the Boxee Box app would be first out of the gate, arriving ahead of the promised Google TV version we're also expecting. Interestingly, there does not appear to be a charge for the app (which runs $30 on mobiles and tablets), so if you have a Slingbox Solo or Pro-HD and one of the green and black media streamers all you have to do is download and press play. We'll give it a shot and let you know how it works, until then just press play on the demo video embedded above for a quick look.
Boxee Box Live TV dongle shipping for $49 in January 2012, pre-orders open today
No point in hiding in plain view, eh? Boxee has just affirmed that the leaked Live TV dongle is legit, and it'll be splashing down on North American shores in January. The Boxee Box Live TV dongle will allow North American users to connect an antenna to their Box to watch channels like ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC in HD with no monthly fee -- assuming you're close enough to an OTA tower to receive said signals, of course. Once equipped, a Box will be able to fetch content from the major networks, Vudu, Netflix and Hulu, though you may want to spring for that bolstered internet connection. Boxee Live TV works with signals from HDTV antennas (using ATSC) or an unencrypted cable connection (using ClearQAM), and a portable antenna is included. Users who live out in the 'burbs may want to consider something a bit beefier, and if you're hoping to use this thing with something other than the Boxee Box... well, keep dreaming. In fact, Boxee has confirmed that even the forthcoming update of its Boxee software for Mac and PC won't support the device, so you'll be forced to pony up for D-Link's hardware if you're looking to party. There's also no DVR function in sight (sort of defeating the purpose, given just how many TVs have tuners already), but hey -- who knows what'll roll out at CES. Pre-orders are available down in the source link, with $49 claiming your spot in line. %Gallery-139570%
Boxee Box may integrate live TV via USB dongle, push the definition of 'awesome' to a new level
Google tried it. Countless others did, too. It's largely believed that the single reason Apple hasn't offered up a true television is the impossible nature of dealing with pay-TV providers, and in reality, trying to merge online programming and traditional cable / satellite is a chore that no one seems to be capable of completing. Based on a leaked software build (v1.5) obtained by GigaOM, Boxee is apparently toying with the idea of integrating live TV (as in, "broadcast TV stations") within the Boxee Box's interface; all you'll eventually need is a USB dongle. We're told that an EyeTV One USB TV tuner wasn't recognized -- even in the new software -- and while it was obviously nonfunctional as it stands, the verbiage is quite clear about what's in the pipeline. Unencrypted broadcast signals built neatly within Boxee's heralded, socially-adept interface? Bring it on.
Boxee updates iPad app to version 1.2, adds global Spotify support
It's only been a couple of months since Boxee unleashed its much anticipated iPad app, but the company has already come out with that much needed update to version 1.2. With the upgrade, users will be able to navigate across content sent to their Boxee Boxes using a remote control interface that's now located at the bottom right corner of the app. iPad owners can also pause video sent to their Box and pick up later where they left off, using the Boxee Media Manager. And, as expected, AirPlay sessions can now run in the background, giving you one less thing to worry about while lazing on the couch. On a related note, Spotify users can now use Boxee to access their accounts from anywhere in the world (previously, access was only granted in countries where Spotify is available). To get your app up to speed, check out the coverage link, below.