I spent a few minutes catching up with Boxee CEO Avner Ronen this evening. First off, the upcoming Iomega Boxee Box looks much better in person than it does in their press shot – for a rectangular black plastic box, it’s pretty sharp. It’s also larger than I had envisioned. The QWERTY remote seems practical. I think I prefer the D-Link Boxee Box keyboard, but folks will have no problem determining top from bottom by touch using Iomega’s rendition. The box, as previously detailed here, is expected to ship mid-year.
Yeah, Vudu is coming soon, CBS content will be available on demand, and ViewSonic will start selling Boxee-enabled televisions. But the highlight of my visit was without a doubt the upcoming Boxee iPad app. It is a thing of beauty, technically and visually. The app functions as both a stand alone multimedia experience and as an interface into any full blown Boxee experience you may run. Whereas I had assumed it was merely a powerful remote, à la TiVo, one could conceivably run this, and only this, version of Boxee. Assuming you’re content with a 10″ screen. But you’ll probably want a PC handy to act as a Boxee server, that will transcode and stream your personal video library on the fly to an iPad. Additionally, any sort of web video the iPad can handle, the Boxee iPad app can handle as well. Of course, there’s also all sorts of social media interaction available within the app. Look for it within a few months.
Last, but not least, as I was admiring the funky little D-Link Boxee Box I mentioned to Avner that it’d be real nice to have a Boxee Box with a tuner… and he agreed. Hm!
A boxee box with a clearQAM tuner and cable card slot would be killer. They could really conjure up a nice DVR interface IMO. Hopefully someday this happens.
That iPad app looks slick. Maybe when the iPad 2 comes out I’ll have to get one.
Anyone in their right mind would steer clear of CableCARD technology. Way too costly and way too poorly understood by consumers (beyond us).
Yes, but isn’t the boxee geared toward folks like “us”. I think it would be great if they added a cable card slot (which would imply DVR functionality). This would be something pretty desirable having an integrated box like this.
I do agree that getting set up w/ cablecard is clumsy but it’s something ripe for improvement. And I know eventually we’ll get all of our content over IP but for now there’s still a need.
The time and expense of development and CableLabs certification in light of how many people would pull the trigger doesn’t make it a good bet in my mind. Also, I think a log of folks who endorse Boxee also roll a good deal of their own content and free, OTA would be better representative of that crowd.
I have been waiting and dying to buy the iomega box with boxee ever since I saw it @ CES. When can I actually get my hands on one? or when will they start to ship I know mid year had been mentioned but I would love a conformation that that is still the case cuz its about that time but Iv’e not hear or read anything new on this devise. Please Please reply & I will deff buy 2 of theses boxes and deff recommend them.
THANK YOU.