Since this summer I’ve been using Boxee. It runs on our Apple Mac Mini which is connected to our plasma television at home. And we love it.
With Boxee I can stream popular shows from Hulu, Next New Networks, CNN, CBS and others. I can also check out our family and friends photos on Flickr and listen to my favorite artists on Last.fm. And I can watch our home videos that live on a server on our home network.
Boxee uses the same tiny remote control that comes with all Macs. And the UI is optimized for the televison. So you don’t need a clunky mouse & keyboard in your family room. I also find Boxee great on my laptop when I’m traveling or on vacation when my MacBook turns into the traveling media center.
But Boxee also has two other things behind it that are important. It’s social. You can see what your friends watch & recommend. Then, with a click, you can enjoy it on your big screen too.
The other thing is that Boxee is open. Developers can build on top of Boxee. It’s hardware agonstic – no lock in. Boxee runs on MacOS and Linux with a Windows release in the works. A smart developer has already ported Boxee to AppleTV.
Today, I’m thrilled to announce that our firm, Spark Capital, and Union Square Ventures have co-led an investment in Boxee. I’m really looking forward to working with the Boxee team and Fred Wilson who is also joining the Boxee board of directors. Fred has an excellent post about Boxee on the USV blog that you should check out.
I’ve had a hard time containing my excitement about this product. It was behind my post, Sentimental Streaming. I couldn’t do it with FrontRow but I can with Boxee :)
Boxee is still in closed alpha but send me your email address if you want to try it out. I have a few connections over there. And if you do join, you can follow me on Boxee if you want. My user name is ‘bijansabet’. Keep in mind the software is still alpha. Lots of stuff in the works.
quick intro to boxee from boxee on Vimeo.