Color us shocked and elated. Boxee, the white-hot startup that has risen from nothing to everywhere thanks to its internet TV software portal, has just announced that a deal has been inked between it and an undisclosed "hardware partner." If you'll recall, we actually heard that the outfit was mulling the production of its own set-top-box back in January, and now it looks like Roku, Apple TV and a host of other mini PCs will have yet another formidable rival vying for space underneath the tele. The firm isn't spilling any details whatsoever on the so-called "Boxee Box," but we are told that mockups and the like will be presented at the Boxee Beta Unveiling on December 7th. Oh, and as if you aren't excited enough already, chew on this -- the company has informed us that they believe "this will be the first of several living room devices you'll see running Boxee in 2010," so don't be shocked if your favorite game console or Blu-ray player gains an embedded Boxee app in the near future.

It's been almost a full year since we heard a peep from the fine folks at Myka, but it looks like we could be talking about 'em a lot more often judging by the specs list on its latest contraption. The simply-titled ION is an Atom-based media PC that relies on NVIDIA's Ion graphics set and a customized interface that brings Hulu, Boxee and pretty much any other web content you can stumble upon to your television. Within, you'll find a 1.6GHz dual-core Atom 330 CPU, up to 4GB of RAM, ten USB 2.0 ports, VGA / DVI / HDMI outputs, an eSATA connector, Ethernet and plenty of audio outputs. The fanless design ensures that things remain quiet, and for those oozing cash, a Blu-ray drive, HDD and WiFi module can be implanted. It's up for order right now starting at $379, but you'll be stuck waiting four to six weeks for delivery.

We won't cancel our trips to Vegas just yet, but Boxee is planning on giving users an early peek at its new beta release -- with all new UI, queue, navigation and search features -- December 7 at the Music hall of Williamsburg. Beta Unveiling visitors will be the first to get their hands on the new version and see new applications being launched by partners, leading to early access beta testers giving it a four week shakedown run before the planned wide release January 7 at CES. Any ideas what form Boxee might take in this next step on its road to commercial viability?

We're not sure how this affects the zero-dollar revenue goal for 2009, but popular media player software Boxee announced it has closed a $6 million round of financing including a new partner, General Catalyst. We'll let the money men assess value, the key point for users is how this affects the company's plan to take the platform from underground darling to mainstream hit - embedding the software in connected TVs, Blu-ray player, game consoles and set-top boxes. With a Windows alpha release in the bag and latest support from MLB.tv Boxee seems well on the way towards reaching larger audiences, CEO Avner Ronen says to look forward to the beta release this fall, more content deals and extending the App Store and API support. Our advice is to avoid tearing an ACL itself dancing on stage like another recent independent performer turned-mainstream star, what would you like to see from Boxee now that the company has more resources to provide it?

Just as promised, the Windows alpha of Boxee media center software is now open to all, but that's far from the only big announcement made, so hang tight for a second. MLB.tv has been added as a partner, allowing subscribers to catch games live and even in HD within the Boxee interface, as well as other new and upcoming integration with Digg, Tumblr and Current. Speaking of the interface, there's a new look (pictured above) to separate internet and locally-hosted content more clearly, and among the more granular tweaks Jaunty Jackalope support is official and Ubuntu users can enjoy 1080p playback via NVIDIA hardware acceleration. Check the blog for all the details including one more that probably only we can appreciate, it's now officially "Boxee" with a capital B, so the grammar police can set their weapons back to stun.

Drooling over boxee on other platforms but haven't been able to nab an invite to the Windows alpha? De-stress, CEO Avner Ronen announced the plan is to open things up starting June 23. Other things touched upon at the Connections digital entertainment conference Wednesday included his belief that TV is going the way of the internet and that tech giants need to just let it happen, and the company's potential to make money from its media streaming platform, possibly from content providers for pushing their shows, collecting a fee from for-pay add-ons in an application store, or licensing boxee to hardware makers. Don't worry too much about a money grab on the way anytime soon, with a zero-dollar revenue goal for the year. In the meantime, chill and check out a preview of the Windows version and an example of how it can work as a simple Windows Media Center plugin.

[Via Download Squad]

Hulu has made it very clear that it doesn't want the likes of Boxee, or anyone else really, making Hulu work on your TV. Not only has Hulu been willing to play cat-and-mouse games with Boxee, but in the EULA of the new Hulu desktop application, it specifically states that "You may not download, install or use the Hulu Software on any device other than a Personal Computer including without limitation digital media receiver devices (such as Apple TV)." Competitors have previously stated that Hulu advertisements are generating "scant incremental revenue," so with the recent Xbox 360 and Roku rumors we wonder, how much would you pay for Hulu on your TV?

The media manager boxee just keeps on rolling, though there's no new news to announce in the Hulu arms race, the Ubuntu version has been updated for Jaunty Jackalope, and to match its OS X counterpart with Pandora and RadioTime support, plus the App Box. It should be available as package updates for anyone already running the software, while Mac and Apple TV users can find slight updates for their software that should improve Flash performance. Next up? The Windows version, on track for public release in June. That's all.

Not that there should be any shock surrounding the formal introduction of boxee's App Box and API -- after all, both were teased sufficiently during last month's bleeding edge alpha release -- but we're still thrilled to see things moving along nicely. This week, the open source media platform launched both an API and an application portal, both of which will act to bring all manners of third-party gems to the media browsing world. boxee doesn't plan on being any sort of gatekeeper (at least for now), which hopefully will spur innovation and get more developers interested. In related news, ArsTechnica has also found that boxee is currently in talks with a few big players in the hardware space, essentially hoping to get its 1s and 0s onto game consoles, Blu-ray players and other set-top-boxes. There's no clue as to the whens and wheres, but we suspect this means there will be no dedicated STB in the near future -- for better or worse.

[Via ArsTechnica]

There's been a lot of controversy over the years in regards to à la carte cable programming, and more recently, Hulu no longer playing nice with Boxee. The two are related to each other because in both cases, consumers think they'll lead to cheaper content. And let's be honest -- both seem appealing because we want to spend less money for the same content. The problem, of course, is that if we're spending less money, then someone is going to lose that revenue; and it goes without saying that any decent business model requires more revenue, not less. So those big corporations collecting all of those subscription fees are obviously going to have a problem with the idea. Now the conundrum comes in when you throw Netflix in the mix. Rather than nickel and diming you to death (much like your cable company), Netflix wants to give you an all-you-can-eat buffet for a monthly fee. The irony here is that while Hollywood loves subscriptions when it comes to cable TV, that's not so much the case when it comes to Netflix. The reason is simple -- we know you see this coming -- it's because the monthly fee is about three times that of a Netflix bill.

Now that ZeeVee's back in business with its much improved Zinc broadband video portal, boxee actually has some serious competition to keep an eye on. That said, the company is hosting a meetup in NYC tonight in order to launch a new "bleeding edge" alpha that will integrate Pandora radio / RadioTime and showcase a more robust API. Furthermore, you'll find a fresh XUL-based framework for the boxee browser to enable the app to more easily interact with any web-based video, and as if that wasn't enough, there will also be a PBS application baked in. We have to say, we're pretty impressed with the regularity of updates coming to boxee -- now, if only those big networks would allow hit shows to be broadcast online live alongside their TV airings, we'd be in television heaven. The full announcement is after the break.

The latest thing from our friends at Boxee most definitely makes perfect sense to us. Take two really cool gadgets like Boxee and an iPhone (or iPod Touch) and make them work together. We spent a few minutes playing with the free app and have to say it's the best 3rd party remote app we've tried. While most remote apps on Apple's app store are examples of how crappy a remote can be, the Boxee app pulls down cover art and adds controls that aren't possible with the Apple TV's remote. But more important than anything else, the Boxee app actually makes it easier to control Boxee then with the remote itself by thinking out of the box and adding gestures into the mix. To us this is very important as touch screen remotes are inherently crippled at navigating on-screen menus unless you actually like to continuously look up and down just to select something. The gestures are implemented well and are a pleasure to use, but just in case you don't like them, you can turn them off and switch to buttons. Overall we really like the app, but the one thing you can't do is actually launch Boxee on the iPhone. This doesn't surprise us, in fact we're not sure it would even be possible, but it would still be nice.

As a wise man once said: "Damn, that's just cold, son." Merely hours after boxee announced its latest alpha build along with RSS feed support for Hulu, said video portal has now blocked off boxee's browser entirely from accessing its content. If you'll recall, boxee saw a huge increase in interest when it first added easy access to Hulu, and once Hulu demanded that it be removed, boxee sadly complied. The latest move just seems "cold blooded," as now boxee users who attempt to surf over via a Hulu RSS feed link will be greeted with an infinite amount of nothing. boxee is quick to point out that its browser doesn't access Hulu content "any differently" than IE, Firefox, Opera or any other browser, which does a good job of explaining just how deliberate this move is. Needless to say, we get the feeling this bout is just getting started.

[Image courtesy of ZatzNotFunny]

Update: boxee now says things are working. For the moment, anyway. Feel free to join us as we throw our hands in the air and give up on understanding this mess.

Before we get you all excited, we'll quote boxee's ending of its announcement before anything else: "This is a bleeding edge release, not for the faint of heart since it didn't go through much testing." If you're the brave type, you're going to want to install the latest version of boxee this instance, as it not only brings back Hulu (in a sense), but it also throws in a boxee application market (App Box) and a much-needed Auto Update feature that will inform you automatically of future builds. So, you're hungry for more on that Hulu bit, right? This version of the application brings along a built-in RSS reader optimized for video, and obviously, it fully supports Hulu's public RSS feeds. Needless to say, we're loving the direction this little app is going, so make sure you give it a go and report back with any praises or complaints.

That was short lived -- it hasn't been six months since Boxee added one of its most popular features yet and now Hulu is putting a stop to it. A real reason wasn't given -- big surprise -- but Hulu is saying it was at the request of the content providers. While no one really knows what Fox and NBC's objections are to Boxee, we're sad to say it actually kinda makes sense to us. Both media giants make most of their money from traditional cable and broadcast TV, and offering this content on your TV in a convenient way threatens the current model (read money) -- you can't say you haven't thought about getting Hulu on your TV so you could cancel cable. The real bad news is that we'd bet that this is just the beginning, and that every STB out there with Hulu will follow. Of course some of them won't comply, but either way it puts them in a bad situation. Hopefully this won't another trend and that the likes of ABC, CBS and Netflix don't follow.

[Via Boxee Blog]