bit-tech News: First Look: Boxee - the social media centre

[news 28]

Hi all,

 

We have just published a first look at *Boxee*, a social media centre

portal for Ubuntu and Mac OSX 10.5 - if you could post a link on your

site that would be very much appreciated.

 

*Link:*

http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2008/09/14/boxee-the-social-media-centre/1

 

 

*Picture:*

http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/09/boxee-the-social-media-centre/fp_img.jpg

 

 

*Quote:

*/On the other side, there are more open source projects out there than

you can shake a stick at with great ideas but are under resourced, so at

large part of me encourages the Boxee staff to get a proof of concept

out first, then concentrate on making the world happy after that proof

of concept has been successful.

 

The idea that you can tie in a revenue stream to Boxee is also a great

idea for developers at least, because it certainly creates an incentive

to get things done, and Apple's iTunes is a perfect example of having a

media centre/buying portal that works. However I'd strongly encourage

not overly Americanising it if it wants universal appeal - there's

nothing more frustrating than not being able to use a key feature

because I live on the wrong side of the Atlantic. Also, if it goes down

the route of digital distribution, that brings a whole bag of DRM issues

too - is that compatible with an open source lifestyle?

 

For what Boxee is though, it's a great foundation for something a little

different and don't feel we're criticising an Alpha, because we've seen

huge updates month on month - we're merely saying there's / /still a lot

to do. For home theatre enthusiasts it might be worth a splash to

download it and watch it evolve, but for the rest of us - I think we'll

take another look to see what features finally made the cut when it's in

beta./

*

*Cheers guys!

 

Tim Smalley

www.bit-tech.net