Boxee Beta arrives on the Apple TV

Finally completing the circle again after the beta launch last month, Boxee has made its latest version available for the Apple TV. Available via an updated Launcher for those already running the Alpha version or ATVUSB-Creator for everyone else it should bring the facelifted UI and features Windows, OS X and Ubuntu users have been enjoying. Getting some 1080p oomph out of your set-top box will be difficult however, with no support for the Broadcom Crystal HD add-on “yet” and while performance has improved h.264 playback may still be limited even in this new version. Mash the read link and follow instructions to get moving, but feel free to bounce any thanks or issues towards the forum posters, XBMC coders and the rest of the posse who made this update possible.

Boxee Beta arrives on the Apple TV originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Engadget Show returns this Saturday, Feb. 27th… now with live streaming!

We’ve heard your pleas, citizens of Engadget, and we are pleased as punch to announce that The Engadget Show taping this Saturday, February 27th at 5pm will be streaming live, direct to you via the internet! We’ll be sitting down with Avner Ronen, creator and CEO of Boxee and taking a look at the forthcoming (and very anticipated) Boxee Box. Not only that, but we’ll have a Windows Phone 7 Series device on hand for a demo and discussion, you’ll be meeting our new investigative correspondent Rick Karr, and we’ll have more of the classic Engadget Show shenanigans you’ve come to know and love. You can also expect good, clean music from Nullsleep, and stunning visuals from Outpt and Paris. We’ll be doing giveaways at the live show only, so make the trek and join us at The Times Center in person! If for some reason you live in not-New York, you can catch the show streaming live, right here on Engadget — and you’ll be able to tweet comments directly to the show stream! Like Josh said, if you miss this one, you’ll basically have zero good stories to tell your grandchildren.

The Engadget Show is sponsored by Sprint, and will take place at the Times Center, part of The New York Times Building in the heart of New York City at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues (see map after the break). Tickets are — as always — free to anyone who would like to attend, but seating is limited, and tickets will be first come, first served… so get there early! Here’s all the info you need:

  • There is no admission fee — tickets are completely free
  • The event is all ages
  • Ticketing will begin at the Times Center at 2:30PM on Saturday, doors will open for seating at 4:30PM, and the show begins at 5PM
  • You cannot collect tickets for friends or family — anyone who would like to come must be present to get a ticket
  • Seating capacity in the Times Center is about 340, and once we’re full, we’re full
  • The venue is located at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues in New York City (map after the break)
  • The show length is around an hour

If you’re a member of the media who wishes to attend, please contact us at: engadgetshowmedia [at] engadget [dot] com, and we’ll try to accommodate you. All other non-media questions can be sent to: engadgetshow [at] engadget [dot] com.

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Continue reading The Engadget Show returns this Saturday, Feb. 27th… now with live streaming!

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The Engadget Show returns this Saturday, Feb. 27th… now with live streaming! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Engadget Show returns February 27th with Boxee’s Avner Ronen, Windows Phone 7 Series, and more!

If you’re a fan of entertainment of the digital variety, you’d be a fool to miss the next live taping of The Engadget Show. We’ll be sitting down with Avner Ronen, creator and CEO of Boxee and taking a look at the forthcoming (and very anticipated) Boxee Box. We’ll also be discussing Avner’s strategy for taking on the networks and cable providers, and the best methods of defending oneself from Jeff Zucker. Not only that, but we’ll have a Windows Phone 7 Series device on hand for a demo and discussion, plus the regular kind of Engadget Show zaniness you’ve come to know and love. You can also expect good clean music from Nullsleep, and stunning visuals from Outpt and Paris. If you miss this one, you’ll basically have zero good stories to tell your grand children.

The Show is sponsored by Sprint, and will take place at the Times Center, part of The New York Times Building in the heart of New York City at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues (see map after the break). Tickets are — as always — free to anyone who would like to attend, but seating is limited, and tickets will be first come, first served… so get there early! Here’s all the info you need:

  • There is no admission fee — tickets are completely free
  • The event is all ages
  • Ticketing will begin at the Times Center at 2:30PM on Saturday, doors will open for seating at 4:30PM, and the show begins at 5PM
  • You cannot collect tickets for friends or family — anyone who would like to come must be present to get a ticket
  • Seating capacity in the Times Center is about 340, and once we’re full, we’re full
  • The venue is located at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues in New York City (map after the break)
  • The show length is around an hour

If you’re a member of the media who wishes to attend, please contact us at: engadgetshowmedia [at] engadget [dot] com, and we’ll try to accommodate you. All other non-media questions can be sent to: engadgetshow [at] engadget [dot] com.

Subscribe to the Show:

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V).
[Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (M4V).
[RSS M4V] Add the Engadget Show feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.

Continue reading The Engadget Show returns February 27th with Boxee’s Avner Ronen, Windows Phone 7 Series, and more!

The Engadget Show returns February 27th with Boxee’s Avner Ronen, Windows Phone 7 Series, and more! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NBC’s Jeff Zucker talks about Boxee with congress, Boxee talks about The Facts with Jeff Zucker

So, Jeff Zucker of NBC was hanging out his new best friend Brian Roberts from Comcast today, talking up the proposed acquisition in front of Congress. A certain Rep. Rick Boucher asked “what about Boxee?” and things got a little interesting. Jeff says that Boxee was “illegally taking the content that was on Hulu,” as opposed to the “many distributors of the Hulu content that we have legal distribution deals with.” We’re not exactly sure which deals Zucker is referring to, but Boxee’s Avner Ronen takes issue with the first point:

I’d like to set the record straight regarding Boxee’s access to Hulu. Boxee uses a web browser to access Hulu’s content – just like Firefox or Internet Explorer. Boxee users click on a link to Hulu’s website and the video within that page plays. We don’t “take” the video. We don’t copy it. We don’t put ads on top of it. The video and the ads play like they do on other browsers or on Hulu Desktop. And it certainly is legal to do so.

He also takes issue with some of Zucker’s other points, pointing out that Hulu dropped Boxee based on a request from NBC, while Zucker calls it a decision by “Hulu management,” and he also points out that Boxee hasn’t found NBC as open to negotiations as Zucker claims to be, but will be giving it another shot — perhaps with some of that subscription fee cash mixed in somewhere to sweeten the deal? It’s worth watching the short clip on C-Span and reading the entire Boxee rebuttal, even if it won’t make you any less angry.

NBC’s Jeff Zucker talks about Boxee with congress, Boxee talks about The Facts with Jeff Zucker originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Boxee Plans to Offer Paid Content

boxee

Fans of Boxee who are tired of re-runs of Lost and clips of Anderson Cooper on CNN could soon have some new paid content to watch.

Boxee plans to release a “payment platform” this summer that will allow users to purchase TV shows, movies or applications with their remote. The move will bring content that was previously not available to Boxee users, says the company.

“The content owners will be able to package and price as they wish, including pay-per-view and subscription,” Avner Ronen, Boxee CEO wrote on the company blog. “Content partners will have the flexibility to decide what they make available, whether it’s premium content, content from their existing library, or extras that will never make it on air.”

In turn, Boxee will take a cut–at less than 30 percent–of every transaction.

Boxee aggregates content from different sources such as TV channels, online video and even Netflix. The company has become popular with users who want to stream content from their PCs to their TV. Boxee’s software is available for free. The company plans to launch a set-top boxlater this year in in partnership with D-Link.

Free content aggregation has caused problems for Boxee. Last year, Hulu twice shut down Boxee’s access to it. Boxee responded by releasing a work-around. Hulu and Boxee have declared cease fire for now.

Hulu may have made the right move. Meanwhile, Boxee’s paid platform could reassure content companies and TV channels of the software’s ability to monetize its users. Ronen believes the internet will be the fourth method of distribution for content after cable, satellite and IPTV such as AT&T’s u-Verse.

“The connected living room represents a new medium, one in which great value could be generated,” he says.

But when it comes to content partnerships, can Boxee really beat iTunes to get the kind of shows or movies that users will pay for?

See Also:

Photo: Boxee (fatcontroller/Flickr)


Boxee unleashing one-click Payment Platform this summer

Free (legal) TV, minimal advertising and a slick, usable interface… too good to be true? Yes, of course. Boxee‘s solving for the future with its newly announced Boxee Payment Platform, which will arrive this summer. Users will be able to buy shows, movies and channels with “one click on the remote,” with content owners having control over package types (pay-per-view, subscription) and prices. Boxee will naturally be taking a cut, but says it’s lower than the now de facto 30% cut of app stores. Boxee sees this co-existing with free, ad-supported content, authenticated stuff like TV Everywhere, and of course regular Cable, Satellite and IPTV providers. We suppose the real testament to Boxee’s success in pulling this off will be the variety, quality and price of the content it obtains — we can already get a smattering of shows and movies on iTunes, Zune and PSN, but if Boxee can get us more, make it easier, or charge us less, it’s going to be hard to complain about that funky little Boxee Box taking up valuable shelf space in our living room.

Boxee unleashing one-click Payment Platform this summer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget Podcast 179: CES 2010 Final Goodbye – 01.10.2010

Goodnight CES! You were cool and had a lot of great technologies this year.

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Song: See You Again [Maximum FX Crushed + Screwed Mode]

Hear the podcast

04:12 – Inbrics M1 is the thinnest Android slider we’ve seen, probably everything we ever wanted
04:29 – LG GW990 hands-on video
06:50 – 3D @ CES
14:25 – RED Scarlet and Bomb EVF surprise hands-on!
20:05 – Lenovo Skylight hands-on and impressions (video)
20:20 – Intel
22:00 – E-ink
22:55 – Chances of Netflix on Nintendo ‘excellent,’ says Netflix CEO
23:05 – Andy Rubin on multitouch in Android: ‘I personally don’t like two-handed operations’
23:17 – Boxee
24:10 – Pixel Qi: The e-Reader story of CES 2010
33:35 – The Android Army is Rising
34:05 – Synaptics Fuse concept hands-on


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Download the podcast

LISTEN (MP3)
LISTEN (AAC)
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Contact the podcast

1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com.

Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @reckless @engadget

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Engadget Podcast 179: CES 2010 Final Goodbye – 01.10.2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget Podcast 178: CES 2010 Day 4 – 01.09.2010 [Chopped n’ Screwed Remix]

I hopped off the plane at LAS with a dream and my MacBook Pro
Welcome to the show of tech and glow, whoa will I make a big win?
Jumped in a cab, here I am for the third time
Look to the right, and I see the CES sign

This is all so crazy, everybody seems so nerdy
My tummy’s turnin’ from some cheese I ate at DigEx
Too much e-ink and I’m wired
That’s when the podcast man turned on the radio

And the Miley song was on
And the Miley song was on
And the Miley song was on

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Song: Party in the U.S.A. (Chopped and Screwed)

Hear the podcast

05:00 – Pixel Qi screens to be used by a major manufacturer in 2010
15:30 – Qualcomm Mirasol display video hands-on in glorious 1080p
19:35 – Live from Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo’s CES 2010 keynote
32:43 – Andy Rubin on multitouch in Android: ‘I personally don’t like two-handed operations’
33:20 – Live from All Things D at CES 2010
40:01 – Dell divulges Mini 3 details, tablet (Mini 5?) caught running Android 1.6 (update: video!)
46:20 – Windows Mobile 7 coming to MWC in February, not just ‘evolutionary’
59:15 – Boxee Box interface demo video

Subscribe to the podcast

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (enhanced AAC).
[RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically.
[RSS AAC] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in enhanced AAC) to your RSS aggregator.
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Download the podcast

LISTEN (MP3)
LISTEN (AAC)
LISTEN (OGG)

Contact the podcast

1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com.

Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @reckless @engadget

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Engadget Podcast 178: CES 2010 Day 4 – 01.09.2010 [Chopped n’ Screwed Remix] originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NUU Player runs Boxee on Atom

D-Link’s Boxee Box might be the Tegra 2-powered star of CES, but it’s not the only hardware running Boxee — NUU Media’s NUU player runs the grown-up version of XBMC on an Atom processor alongside some other custom apps. It’s also got a 160GB local hard drive and runs a WebKit browser, compared to no local storage and Mozilla on the Boxee Box. What’s more, there’s also a Skype app and Bluetooth support, so you’ll be able to make and take calls from the couch using a headset. Of course, all that means it’ll cost “around $300” instead of the Box’s “under $200” when it launches around March, but we know some of you might spend the extra coin for the more home theater-rack friendly form factor alone. Pics in the gallery, video after the break!

Continue reading NUU Player runs Boxee on Atom

NUU Player runs Boxee on Atom originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hands-On With the Boxee Set-Top Box and Remote

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LAS VEGAS — A host of video services on the web enable you to watch your favorite TV programs and movies anytime you wish, and Boxee is an open platform striving to weave them all into one neat interface. To get the Boxee experience onto a TV, D-Link has launched a set-top box dedicated to the open video platform, along with a special remote.


CES 2010
The Boxee box is pretty simple. Video outputs through an HDMI connector. For audio, you can plug in through an optical digital audio-out jack or regular composite audio. An SD card slot and two USB ports allow you to expand storage. For internet connectivity, the box supports 802.11n Wi-Fi and ethernet.

Boxee was previously a piece of open source software that you’d download to view media on your computer. Most users would download Boxee onto their notebook, which they’d then hook up to a TV. The box eliminates that need, and it’s also compatible with a new remote that just launched at the Consumer Electronics Show.

The remote sports a full QWERTY keyboard for typing in search queries. On the back of it there are three buttons for hitting Enter, accessing the main Boxee menu and playing or pausing video.

picture-12

We’ve been fans of Boxee for some time: The menu is beautiful and intuitive, and it’s really zippy with loading multimedia files with thumbnails. The remote does indeed make the experience more enjoyable. It’s sturdy, smooth and comfortable, and the keys feel high quality.

boxee-screenshot

Boxee’s primary purpose was to streamline video entertainment, but since it’s an open platform, it can do a lot more. There’s a Boxee app store for downloading third-party apps provided by developers. The main menu has buttons to access music and photos, too. Think of the Boxee as a restriction-free Apple TV.

The Boxee box and remote are shipping the second quarter of 2010. Pricing has not been announced, but Boxee estimates $200.

For a detailed look at the Boxee platform, see Epicenter’s coverage of the Boxee box launch.

Product page [Boxee]

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Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com; images courtesy of Boxee