We have a few exciting announcements today (which makes for our longest blog post ever).
#1 – Boxee for Windows
We are finally releasing a public alpha of boxee for Windows. We are looking forward to getting feedback from PC users, so we will be ready for beta later this year.
Boxee is now available for Windows, Mac and Ubuntu users, and our goal is to keep the 3 platforms in sync as we release updates and upgrades.
#2 – Major League Baseball
We are excited to announce a partnership with Major League Baseball (MLB.com) to offer MLB.TV Premium to boxee users.
MLB.TV Premium on boxee means you can now watch thousands of baseball games, live and on-demand in HD (where available). on top of that, MLB.TV Premium offers DVR functionality to pause and rewind a live game. MLB.com represents a big step for boxee as we hope this is the first of many different live sports offerings we can bring to you. We hope other sports follow MLB.com’s lead of giving fans a choice of how they enjoy watching their favorite teams….
#3 – New navigation layout
We have changed the navigation in boxee to be more streamlined. There is a clear separation between Internet and Local media, so it is clear where you can find your local media and where you can access apps like Netflix, MLB, Pandora, etc.
In the new version you will see:
Applications, which has all the Internet content.
Local Media, which lists all the media on the computer and the local network
#4 – Digg
Digg constantly drives traffic and conversations around the web. They are doing the same for video, and it seems like a perfect fit for a boxee experience.
Over the past few weeks we have been working with Digg to create a ‘Digg for TV’ experience, where you can see the most popular videos, as well as what is up and coming.
A future release will also enable users to Digg stuff directly from boxee.
#5 – Tumblr
We love Tumblr at boxee. We thought enabling users to stream music and view slideshows from the people they are following on Tumblr would be a cool experience on boxee, so we worked with them to build it.
We will continue to work with the Tumblr team and you should expect more Tumblr features on boxee soon.
#6 – current_
Current works with a young adult audience to create and distribute great content that is relevant, informative and inspiring. They use a two-way approach to media, and combine Citizen Journalism and viewer participation with professional, rich content to create a unique viewing experience.
We think it’s a great fit for Boxee. The Current app includes the participatory movie review show (The Rotten Tomatoes Show), the weekly media-focused variety show (infoMania), the original documentary series (Vanguard), and the half-hour animated series (SuperNews).
#7 – 1080p for Ubuntu running Nvidia
Great news for users of boxee on Ubuntu. If you have Nvidia that supports VDPAU you will now be able to play HD videos (up to 1080p) utilizing Nvidia’s hardware acceleration for H264, MPEG2 and VC1.
#8 – bug fixes
Like with every new version we are trying to make progress on stability and performance. In this release we have made changes to almost every piece of code we have. Hopefully fixing more bug than creating new ones..
Major Changes with this Version Since Public Release
- Improved playback of Internet streams.
- Introduced VDPAU hardware acceleration on nVIDIA GPUs under Linux (major kudos to Team XBMC for this one).
- Fixed M4A and M4V playback support.
- Fixed low volume during video playback under Mac OSX and AppleTV.
- Performance improvement and lower CPU usage under Mac OSX.
- Enhanced codec support, improving overall playback of all media.
- Improved DVD playback.
- Official Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jacklope support.
- PulseAudio support under Linux (shaky, but works).
- MP3 files indexed based on id3 tags.
- Sorting ignores “The” at the beginning of a movie title.
- Fixed uploading avatar at http://app.boxee.tv.
- Improved slideshow controls in pictures.
- Fixed avatars, first name, last name not updating in login screen.
- CNN application displays runtime and date/time published for each item.
- Selecting a Screensaver Slideshow Folder no longer causes a hang.
- Empty Settings Pictures Library tab.
- No longer show password when adding SMB source.
- Fixed crash when setting Interlaced Handling to Deinterlace.
- Fixed default download path under Download > Settings (Linux).
- Fixed some Internet videos failure due to “Error creating demuxer”.
- Fixed fast forward and rewind not working from MCE remote.
- Fixed click on Read More or Settings from OSD causes Boxee to freeze.
- Fixed case of Flickr contact getting deleted unexpectedly.
- Fixed changing the weather location not converting the number.
- Fixed pasting a long URL into new feed dialog exceeding the dialog boundaries.
- Fixed Screensaver Preview crashes.
- Fixed Windows clipboard for other applications stops to responding after a paste in keyboard dialog.
- Fixed ability to change the visualization preset when playing a song.
- Fixed Jamendo application showing release date as 1970-01-01
- Fixed missing mouse cursor on Boxee startup.
- Fixed missing OSD buttons when playing a video from Browse menu
- Fixed case of multiple instance of Boxee running
- Fixed first attempt to Add Contact under Flickr and Picasa failing with script error
- Fixed skip or stop playing an Apple Trailer causing a crash
- and several more…
- 64bit platforms are not officially supported.
- Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 is no longer officially supported.
- Microsoft default OpenGL driver is not supported, download proper driver from your respective hardware vendor, e.g. http://www.intel.com, http://www.nvidia.com, http://ati.amd.com.
- Power PC (PPC) not supported.
P.S.
A note about the use of proper Upper/Lower case in this blog post: As part of our effort to make Boxee more friendly for the mainstream consumer (and frankly to stop the angry emails i keep receiving from the grammar police) we are abandoning the only corporate policy we ever had: lowercase only.
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