Boxee Unveils Beta Software, and the Boxee Box to Boot
Members of Boxee's dedicated fan base may have just thought they were meeting at the Music Box in New York City's Williamsburg neighborhood Monday night to get a first look at Boxee's long-awaited beta software, but they got an extra surprise during the event: a first look at the Boxee Box, the service's first hardware device.
Boxee is a free service that allows people to browse online or locally stored media on their televisions, providing they have a connected device. Many, for example, have it running on a Mac Mini or an AppleTV. In an effort to make the connection process easier, Boxee has partnered with D-Link to create the Boxee Box. While the exact release date wasn't given at the meet-up, the Box should be available in the second quarter of 2010 for a price around $200.
The Boxee Box features an unusual design that makes it look like it's dissolving through whatever surface it's sitting on. The rear holds one HDMI, one Ethernet, one optical, and two USB 2.0 ports, as well as left and right audio out jacks and an SD slot. It also offers Wi-Fi for connecting to wireless home networks.
"We want to be the platform that runs the connected living room, so anytime there's a device that's connected to the Internet, we think Boxee is going to be the best way to access content," says Andrew Kippen, vice president of marketing at Boxee. "The Boxee Box is the first step toward that. It's the first device we made for the living room and we hope it's the first of many."
As for the novel shape of the Boxee Box, Kippen says, "We call it a sunken cube. The idea was to create something that looked really great and stood out in a living room."
Boxee's main competition in the connected TV market may be Roku, which is making a name with affordably priced devices.
"What do you want to use the box for? If someone just cares about Netflix or movies from Amazon or a few other sources, Roku is a good choice at 99 bucks," dismisses Kippen. "But if you want all that the Internet has to offer, Boxee's totally open source. We have a browser built in, so you can surf to any Web page. There are hundreds of apps and the content catalog on Boxee will continue to expand."
Boxee's software is finally going out of alpha and into beta, but for a short while it will be a private beta. Boxee is restricting access to the new software for a few weeks while it uncovers any problems. The company is hoping to make the new software public by CES on January 7.
"Right now, we have a pretty robust version but there are still some bugs to work out. We're hoping to release to several thousand users a week to try to get people banging on the software, helping us identify bugs so we can fix them before public release," says Kippen.
At first glace, the beta software looks like a successful and needed improvement. Accessing the various areas—such as photos, music, and movies—is now easier. While the main menu used to run along the left side, it now stretches across the top. Below that are three columns that show content recommended by friends (Boxee has always had social networking features), content recommended by the Boxee staff, and your own saved or favorite shows.
"The beta is the next evolution of Boxee. We've listened to user feedback; we've polled our forum users; we brought in some experts to help us redesign, optimize, and streamline the platform," says Kippen.
For his part, Kippen is most excited about the movie and TV show interface. "We've redesigned movies and TV shows to bring together both Internet and local content. When a user sits down at his couch, he either knows exactly what he wants to watch or he wants to browse for something. We brought all the content, no matter where it's from, into one interface."
The beta's four-week early access period is now on. To request a private beta invitation, click the sign-up link here.