Boxee
Recently I got my hands on an alpha build of Boxee, thanks to Fred Wilson. Boxee is an open source application that allows you to access your home media as well as web media on your Mac with a ‘10 ft interface’. A ‘10 ft interface’ means that you are meant to access it using a remote on a tv. Since my iMac is hooked up to my 46 inch lcd and my stereo, I am the perfect target audience for Boxee. I have had some type of home theater pc (htpc) since 2002, so was eager to try this out. Here are my thought.
Installation was easy. I set up an account and started adding web services - flickr, last.fm and some podcasts. There were quite a few crashes throughout, but I was totally expecting that since it is labeled alpha. It worked perfectly with the Apple remote which was nice. It easily imported my iTunes library. Browsing my music library was fairly easy, although not as slick as Apple’s Front Row software. The graphics were also a lot less slick than Apple’s. I’ve grown very used to Apple’s graphics on iLife, Front Row and the iPhone. If it is not up to Apple’s standards, then I generally consider it ugly. That is the beauty of the iPhone SDK - every app looks as good as Apple’s. I would have liked Boxee to look nicer than it did.
Comparing it to Front Row was not my major concern though. Web services were. This is obviously where Boxee can compete and win against Apple’s software. Other than YouTube and Podcasts, Apple doesn’t really care for web services. It’s a shame because I think if they did, more people would use Front Row and buy Apple TVs. If Apple does decide to release an SDK for the Apple TV as they did for the iPhone, I could see the Apple TV becoming a lot more popular. I would definitely get one if they did that. Anyway, I watched a few Hulu videos on Boxee and liked it a lot. I can already go full screen on Hulu, so gaining that was not such a big deal. Gaining a remote was. Now I could pause Hulu from the couch. As a side not, Adobe did just add the ability to listen for key presses in full screen mode. That could pave the way for remote usage.
The other part of Boxee that is very interesting is the built in social hooks. You log into Boxee with an account which gives you a corresponding account online. Boxee keeps track of what you listen to and watch and allows you to add friends and see their activity. This has the potential to be huge. I’ve said it many times before, but Tivo should have built this in 5 years ago. Time Warner should build it into their cable boxes now. They are missing a huge opportunity which some start up like a Boxee or Last.fm or even Google will come to own. This part of Boxee was cool although none of my friends use it. The only person I know on Boxee is Fred Wilson. I checked out his activity but really I would like to see my family and close friends on it. That is not so much a Boxee problem as it is every startup’s problem.
I could certainly see myself using Boxee for online video but unfortunately I had to uninstall it. A few days after I installed it, I rented a movie on iTunes. When I went to use the remote to control iTunes, Boxee opened and took over. I tried to find settings to disable it but could not. I ended up uninstalling it so I could watch my rented movie. With my current setup, I don’t truly have a need for Boxee. If I had a TV in my bedroom, I would buy an Apple TV and consider putting Boxee on it. Not being able to watch iTunes protected content is a huge minus, but if I chose Boxee, I would probably get a Netflix account and just rent movies that way.
A few weeks before I downloaded Boxee, I made the comment to Isabel that HTPC’s have come a long way in the past 7 years thanks to Apple. I am going to write another post all about that. In the end, I am not sure if Boxee can become mainstream. Their play is most likely to get installed by large manufactures like Samsung and LG on Blu-ray players and TVs. It could work, but I am just not sure that anyne can compete with Apple. In the next 3 years I think Apple is going to position the Apple TV in a way that makes it as desirable as the iPhone. But that’s for another post. For now, I will keep an eye on Boxee and most likely install it again when it becomes a little more stable. I am excited to see what they come up with.
