Our portfolio company Boxee is an open source, media center application that runs on Windows, Macs, Linux and even AppleTV. It’s browser that is optimized for a 10 foot experience and a remote control.
Think of it as Front Row or Windows Media Center but so much better. Not only does it support a wider range of services like Netflix, Last.fm, flickr, cnn, mtv, cbs, pandora, youtube (and many more coming) – but it’s also social. You can see what your friends are watching & recommending.
(I’ve written about Boxee a bunch in the past. You can search for Boxee in the search box on the right side of this blog if you want more info)
A few months back they introduced an open api & the Boxee app store so third party developers can create & easily distribute apps to Boxee users. I think it’s the first App store model for the television.
I’m really excited about the response so far from third party developers. Here’s a few of the apps so far:
–Facebook Photos. This is cool. You can watch facebook photos on your big screen. Photos look great on a HD monitor.
–DropBoxee – Jon Steinberg created an app that integrates drop.io and boxee. the result is a super slick way to get personal media onto Boxee.
–Weather Channel – i use the weather app on my iphone all the time. now i have one on my tv.
–Boxqueue – A new boxee bookmarklet. save videos you find on the web and send them to your boxee to watch later.
Some things I’d love to see in the Boxee App Store at some point:
-Games. Most web games require a keyboard. Boxee uses a remote control. It makes game play tricky but someone is going to build killer games for boxee. social games for the big screen. big idea
-Twitter. i’d love a twitter app for Boxee that filters by keywords as well as the folks I follow on twitter. would be a fun app for parties. or integrated with other web services like music or sports.
-Flickr+Tunes – I want to see a flow of artist pics on flickr when I play my music on boxee. also great for parties.
-Tumblr. There is so much great content on tumblr, from music in my dashboard to photos to video clips. I’d love to see it on the big screen.
I can’t wait to see what else third party developers will do with this open platform.