Have you heard of Boxee? If not you should check it out or read about it below cause we’ve got some news to share! It’s been a big week for the Boxee team. Yesterday they announced the new Boxee Beta and the Boxee Box. (pictured above)
Check our more about the new Beta and the Boxee Box after the break.
So first lets hit the new beta. That’s right, Boxee is almost a big kid! They’ve really overhaulded the UI and I think it looks awesome. For starters they’ve completely redesigned the front page to highlight the menu, your personal queue, featured contend and recommendations from Facebook and Twitter. You local files and online content are integrated into the same menu.
Alright now lets talk about the Boxee Box. I think the design of this thing is awesome. It kinda looks like a sinking cube. This is our first look at the company’s first hardware unit. D-Link takes the honors of being the inaugural hardware partner and Astro the designer. So this thing sports HDMI, SD card slot, two USB 2.0 ports, WiFi, and ethernet for old school internet connectivity. The target release is sometime in the second quarter of 2010 for about $200.
So what is Boxee? It’s a social media center that can play videos, music and pictures from your PC or from the Internet. You can also share what albums you’re listening to and what movies and TV shows you’re watching with your friends, send recommendations and more.
Boxee is designed to work with a remote control (it looks great on a big screen TV), but you can also control it using your keyboard.
Once installed, Boxee will start scanning your local Movies, Music and Pictures folders automatically. boxee will attempt to bring artwork, reviews, cast, etc. for your media, so browsing your library becomes more useful and fun than looking at a list of files.
[Livestream (Boxee) via Engadget]
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