Boxee Box to Ship in November

Today's Best Technical school Deals

Picked by TechHive's Editors

Top Deals On Large Products

Picked by Techconnect's Editors

Boxee Box to Ship in November

What a difference a year makes. When Boxee and D-Join unveiled the Boxee Box in late 2009, things were pretty quiet happening the Internet-TV-in-the-living-way front. Now, after a trifle of a delay, the companies are getting ready to send on the Box in November. And it'll compete against the all-new Apple TV, set-top boxes and TVs based happening Google TV, the first devices that support Hulu Plus, and a bevy of other methods of getting video off the Internet and onto an HDTV. Diminutive Boxee, in other dustup, leave face daunting competition from around pretty impressive rivals.

I met with Boxee CEO Avner Rosen and D-Link Theatre director of Consumer Merchandising Brent Collins this weekend to get a sneak peek of a most-final Boxee Box. And you know what? Contempt the avalanche of competition IT'll nerve, it still looks pretty cool.

The ii companies are releasing some new tidbits roughly the Package today. They say the $200 gizmo bequeath ship on docket in November, and that they're taking pre-orders via Amazon.com starting today. (Virago buyers will get their Boxes a week earlier other folk.)

More surprising: The Box will live high-powered by an Intel Mote CE4100 processor. That's newsworthiness because the original version that Boxee showed off packed an Nvidia Tegra 2. The silicon switcheroo helps to excuse wherefore the Corner will reach Television fans later than Boxee and D-Link in the beginning expected. And Rosen told Pine Tree State that it will enable the Box to comfortably play 1080p video–stuff that's stored connected a home network at first, and streaming 1080p from online sources as it becomes available.

The Boxee Box will sport both 802.11n wireless and Ethernet networking, and will come with an RF remote hold with a QWERTY keyboard along its backside. The software program is similar to Boxee's clients for Windows, the Mac, and Linux, and includes a built-in WebKit web browser and Flash support which give it the subject field chops to toy noncurrent nearly all the telecasting the World Wide Web has to offer. As always, the interface looks fresh and fun, if a bit dense with options.

Boxee Box to Ship in November

Boxee recently announced that IT's partnering with quaternity online moving picture stores to bring films to the Box, and it has relationships in situ with Internet video powerhouses such A Revision3. But it's still not entirely clear what services will be baked into the Box when it ships in November. The Corner I proverb today appeared to livelihood Hulu, but it'll be a miracle (and at odds with history) if Hulu doesn't try to block it. And when I asked about Netflix Ascertain Instantly, Rosen told ME that Boxee and D-Connection "werent demoing" that service, and that the companies would have more news about built-in services earlier the Box hits stores. (Here's hoping it's fresh news.)

I'm still nerve-racking to cook up my bear in mind astir the Boxee Box seat's winning-but-idiosyncratic heavy-duty design. It's entertaining for sure–but when it comes to set-top boxes, amusement value is less critical than convenience. The Box is a astonishingly tall little guy cable aside current Internet-Tv set-box standards, and it won't fit into a stack of living-room components. (If there's a second-generation Box, I wouldn't glucinium surprised if it's a shade more orthodox in shape.)

The Box volition evidently get lumped in with the new Apple TV–hey, I did it earlier in this post–but the two gadgets' approaches to Internet TV are as different as they are similar. Apple's box offers Netflix, iTunes rentals, YouTube, and streaming from iOS devices for $99, at a level bes resolution of 720p with a typically minimal interface and inaccessible. The $199 Boxee Box, by direct contrast, does 1080p, plays an array of video formats for content stored on home networks, pulls in online video and audio from complete the Web, has apps for Web services such as Pandora, and has a wealthy array of options and a QWERTY remote. It's unquestionably a often geekier device than Apple Goggle bo, but the pricetag doesn't look irrational if you are so a oddbal.

It's Google TV that looks like a more target counterpart to Boxee: Both platforms aim to bring a profusion of Web video into the living elbow room via WebKit browsers and Flash support, for instance, and both promise enthusiast outback controls than Apple's minimalist good example. But it's tough to aver how Boxee compares to Google TV devices so much equally Logitech's Revue until all detail is known and they'Ra both available for testing.

ME, I'm near dependent on two Internet TV boxes: a Roku (which resembles Apple TV more than IT does Boxee) and a TiVo HD (which provides memory access to Amazon Video along Necessitate, Netflix, and other services). I'm looking at forward to hard whatever of the new contenders before the year is out. This is the first vacation season that I sack imagine multiple new Internet TV boxes organism hits…and even though the Boxee Box won't sell in Apple TV-like numbers, I could see it doing quite a fit.

This story, "Boxee Box to Ship in November" was in the beginning published by Technologizer .

Bank note: When you purchase something afterwards clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our assort link insurance for more details.