Photo Licensed under Creative Commons from Slideshow Bruce

Besides doing a meetup in each one of these cities we’d like to meet and talk with users, students, and developers. Keeping with the tradition of a relaxed backyard party for a few hundred people… we’ll be throwing a  kegger in Austin with great BBQ again – start getting your stupid human tricks ready : )

With this in mind, we need some help from Boxee fans out there. Please leave a comment if you can help with any of the items below:

• Venue for meetup in each city – if you live in Washington DC, Memphis or Dallas and have an idea for a venue (bar, big office, club, university) that can host ~ 100 people
• A fixer – in each of these cities would be great if we would have a local “fixer” that can help secure the venue, arrange for drinks, food, sound system and in general be able to hustle.
• Great stops along the way – any good ideas for must-stop spots along on our way. this is our current drive plan: http://b0x.ee/zzh3FE.
• Bail agent –  as a cab driver in vegas once told me “when in a new town, it’s always good to have a phone number for a good bail agent”

On the morning of March 5th we will pick up a GMC Yukon (or something similar Hertz tells us) and get going. We will drive it like a rental, play loud music, moon fellow travelers, eat greasy food, stay in cheap motels.  We’ll also be giving out T-shirts, Boxee Boxes by D-Link, Boxee Live TV along the way.

Currently our schedule looks like this (click on a Meetup to RSVP):

March 5th (Mon) – Washington, D.C. Meetup

March 7th (Wed) – Memphis Meetup

March 8th (Thu) – Dallas Meetup

March 9-12th (Fri-Sat) – Drink. Party. Meet with people. Dance.

March 11th (Sun) – The 2nd Annual Boxee SxSW Kegger (1p – 6pm)
If you were there last year you know it was a good time.  We’re going to try and keep the same easy going atmosphere this year so you can just come out and meet good people, have some food, and have a few drinks. We’ll send out more updates as the date gets closer.

March 12th (Mon) – Fly back to NYC. Start cleansing process.

We look forward to seeing you there!

- Team Boxee

With the addition of Live TV, the Boxee Box holds the distinction of being the only mainstream set top box that blends both over the air (OTA) broadcast TV with Internet content (over the top or OTT). We believe the OTT+OTA combo is the best way to get the most entertainment while paying only for the stuff you want to watch.

If you missed our earlier posts on Live TV / Cutting the Cord, and our Facebook integration – the gist goes something like this: the way we want to watch video has drastically changed over the last 10 years.  We want to devour seasons all at once.  We want to watch the same video on our TV, tablet, phone, and treadmill.  We want to be able to watch in our homes, on an airplane, in our offices, and wherever else we might end up.  We want to bookmark things for later.  We want mainstream shows along with stuff from the web like TED, WSJ, and FunnyOrDie.

The web has given us this freedom.  Cable TV has not.  The web has made it easy and affordable to find what you’re looking for and enjoy it wherever you’d like.  Meanwhile cable’s pushing the same boring interface and charging you even more for it ($75 / month on average) while you’re really only watching 14% of the channels you’re paying for.   There’s a percentage of the population that’s realized this and decided to cut the cord and get rid of cable.

Boxee Live TV is a perfect alternative to cable for them.

Live TV Features

Way better than just plugging the included antenna into the back of your TV, Boxee Live TV kicks it up a notch with:

• Social Channel Listings – We’ll show you what’s on, what your friends are watching, and how many people total are watching a show as you flip through channels.
• Sharing – Share the traditional Boxee way on Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr AND you can now passively share to Facebook using our Live TV Timeline App – turn sharing on and whatever you’re tuned into will post to your Facebook ticker automatically.  It’s easy to switch off too so your friends don’t need to know about your addiction to HSN.
• Edit Channels - Quickly hide channels from your lineup that don’t speak your language or have pissed you off with bad programming decisions like taking Arrested Development off the air.  Easily rename WNDHCTA 7.2 to NBC.
• All-In-One Interface – done watching a show on broadcast, easily jump into more episodes from the web. It’s the best of both worlds all on the same remote.

While Live TV does not currently have DVR functionality, we’ve heard your feedback and are examining if we could provide it.  We’ll make an announcement later this year about DVR support if we can make it happen.

Boxee v1.5 Features

Here’s what’s included in the latest version of Boxee (check out pictures here):

• New UI look and feel
• Improved search
• New library screens with simpler filtering
• Browser Pop-up management
• Rotten Tomatoes integration
• On-Device Social Account Pairing

We’ll stagger this release over the next 72 hours like we’ve done in the past so you might not get the update until later this week. Want it right away, check out these instructions in the forums on how to get it.
You can read the full release notes here.

Enjoy and let us know what you think of the new UI after you’ve played with it!

Cheers,

Team Boxee

Today at CES, we’re announcing a new Facebook app to extend Live TV beyond your living room and onto your Facebook Timeline.

Boxee was built from the ground up to allow you to share with friends and receive video recommendations from them.  With a Boxee Box & Live TV there’s nearly an infinite amount of video to watch.  To help you sift through it all, we’re taking social one step further.

Boxee is one of the first TV apps to let you share what you’re watching on your Timeline and to help you sort through what’s on.  The new TV app for Facebook Timeline will make it easy to discover new video with friends and share the experience with them. Let me show you what we’re talking about.

Home Screen
We’ve added links to the standard menu to launch the Browser and Live TV (once you’ve attached the dongle). We also gave the featured section a small facelift.

Menu
The Menu is now more accessible, popping up as an overlay that lets you quickly navigate between different sections or search. we also optimized search to minimize the number of clicks.

Movies & TV Shows
We updated the layout of Movies and TV Shows for easier navigation by Genre and Source as well as providing quick access to trailers.

There is also a new Movie details screen with extended synopsis and cast & crew information. For TV Shows it is now much easier to jump between seasons and see which episodes you already watched.

Watch Later & Friends
We expanded the thumbnails in Watch Later & Friends sections and now let you filter between clips, TV Shows and Movies.

PC Update
As many of you know we have been working on new versions for PC, Mac and Ubuntu. Today we are releasing a version of 1.5 for these platforms.

You can find this new version of Boxee for Mac, Windows, and Linux below:

• Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7
• Mac OS X 10.6+ (Intel only)
• Ubuntu 11.10 (32 bit)

As a platform, we have been able to bring Boxee for Computers to about 85% of the Boxee Box in terms of features and functionality. Due to extensive DRM and certification requirements premium apps will not be available on the downloadable version of Boxee, most notably Netflix, VUDU, and Pandora (click here for a full list).

However, if you are using Boxee for file playback you should be pleasantly surprised with better file support, a new on screen display, better networking support, and a host of other features you can read about here.

Growing Past the PC

This 1.5 release will be the last version of Boxee for PC/Mac/Ubuntu. It will be available on Boxee.tv through the end of January.

We believe the future of TV will be driven by devices such as the Boxee Box, Connected TVs / Blu-Rays and 2nd screen devices such as tablets and phones. While there are still many users who have computers connected to their TVs, we believe this use case is likely to decline as users find better alternatives. People will continue to watch a lot of video on their computer, but it is more likely to be a laptop than a home-theater PC and probably through a browser rather than downloaded software.

To our computer users… to those who have come out to our NYC and SF meetups, talked with us at Engadget, GDGT, and Giz Gallery events, or enjoyed Austin BBQ with us during SxSW, or simply messaged with us on Facebook, Twitter, and our forums… thank you for all your support – we would not be where we are today without you. But we can’t stay here.

We are excited about the upcoming release of Boxee Live TV and our new product roadmap for 2012. If you are a current Boxee user on a computer we hope that you will enjoy 1.5 and maybe when you are ready to retire that good ol’ HTPC/Mac Mini you will decide to get a Boxee Box.

Sincerely,
Team Boxee

Call it a facial hair marathon, with awkward stares at our gym in Chelsea, waning “understanding” from our significant others, and awkward looks from Boxee partners. Nevertheless we maintain our big happy family here at Boxee.

In order to justify this endeavor WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT. We are asking you to “sponsor” our Mustaches. By making a contribution of any size to DonorsChoose.org. This donation will go directly to students in high-need public school classrooms.

Consider donating now on our fundraising page.
Donate in the next 24 hours, and use the code M4KNYC to have your donation matched by the Board of Director’s at Donor’s Choose, so every dollar you give will mean $2 goes to a great and worthy cause.

Our mustaches thank you in advance for all of your support,

Andrew, Avner, Tom, Vulkan, Alon, Will, and Gervis, and the rest of Team Boxee

Today we have 3 huge Spanish language HTML 5 app releases coming from Prisa: AS.com, Los 40, and El Pais.

AS.com
Get all of your sports news from Football and Basketball to formula 1 in the AS.com app. It brings match results, video highlights, articles and analysis of games in an easy to navigate format for your TV.  The app’s also got team specific news for football fans, just click the team badge and AS.com will only show articles relevant to your team.

Create your own playlists or have Mog build a radio station for you based on artists and songs you love for a no-fuss way to keep the music going… and to help you discover bands you’ve never heard of.

So head over to http://www.mog.com/boxee now and sign up for a free 14 day trial now to check out one of the top music streaming services on the web today, now available on Boxee.

Fast forward to today, and AOL has become a bastion of high-quality video content that we’re very happy to open up today.   Here’s a quick snapshot of what you’ll get with the AOL app available worldwide:

Translogic [Auto] - Check out test-drives, concept cars, supercars, interviews, automotive history lessons and behind-the-scenes footage from the world’s best car-makers including up and comers like Tesla.

Huffington Post Celebrity [Entertainment] - Watch celeb interviews from Cee-Lo, Kim Kardashian, and Fred Armisen (we <3 Portlandia).  Think Entertainment Tonight, for the web.

Engadget [Tech] - A huge repository of reviews, and opinions on the latest gadgets, gizmos, software, and all things tech.  It’s Mecca for technologists – we recommend daily viewings to keep up to date with Tim, Darren, and the rest of the electronics-laiden crew at Engadget.

The Interface & Sessions [Music] - Check out intimate concert performances and behind-the-scenes footage from big name bands like Train, Adele, TV on the Radio, Iron & Wine, and Gorillaz as well as indie groups like  Manchester Orchestra, Battles, Foster the People, The Dodos, and Chk Chk Chk.  Seriously people – if you like music, you’ll spend hours in here. You’ll be blown away by what’s available here – seriously, we’ve been asking AOL for access to this content for almost a year now… it’s that good.

Full CD Listening Party [Music] - Turn Boxee into a music jukebox that plays full releases from all types of different artists from Vanessa Carlton (singer of  the jangly piano song you secretly love), Electronica veterans Underworld, rapper Black Rob (as opposed to your friend White Mike), and NY’s post-punk plus pianos and pipes band Aficionado.

Moviefone [Movies] - movie trailers for the latest films & celebrity interviews.  Watch Leo talk about Inception, Will Ferrell discuss the intense physical training he went through to get in shape for The Other Guys, and Jason Bateman explain what it means to be inside Ryan Reynolds body.  [we're hoping there's also a secret easter egg where you can have the moviefone guy read you bedtime stories]

AOL Home OR How I Became Master of My Domain [Home] - Thanks to this section alone, my home Feng Shui is off the charts, I’ve made healthy meals every night this week, and I installed a fountain in my dining room chandelier that can accommodate water, chocolate, or cheese.  For all of us who need a little help around the home there’s a near-infinite amount of videos to help teach you how to cook (with Curtis Stone), fix things around the house (with Eric Stromer), keep yourself and kids entertained with crafts (with Kendra), and elevate your home decor game to the next level.  And seriously if anyone makes a working fondue fountain inside of a chandelier, we’ll send you a Boxee Box.

Literally this is only the tip of the iceberg of what you’ll get in this app.  Check it out today in the App Library and let us know what you think!

LAUNCHING TONIGHT

BBC iPlayer
Following some recent technical changes, BBC iPlayer is back and is better than ever. With a fresh new look, this is the BBC your way, giving you on demand access to all that the BBC has to offer from the past seven days. There’s nothing else to do, other than sit back, relax and enjoy your favourite BBC programmes from the comfort of your sofa at a time that suits you.

COMING SOON

Blink Box
As the UK’s largest online movies and TV website, BlinkBox is a perfect match for our first major rental service dedicated to Great Britain. They’ve partnered with pretty much every major studio to offer a huge selection of movies and TV at competitive prices and a load of free stuff as well (see one of my favorites, Summer Heights High for free).  Tonight we’ve announced a partnership with them to bring their shows and movies to both the Boxee library as well as to a special Blink Box app so UK users can enjoy everything the service provides. Work starts in September with a release currently slated for the end of the year.

SNEAK PEEK – Boxee for iPad
Tonight we’re also giving people a sneak peek at the Boxee iPad App.  The goal was to create something that stood on its own to bring Boxee to the iPad – videos your friends have shared, featured items, your watch later queue, as well as video files from your local network (using the new Boxee Media Server).  Of course if you’ve got a Boxee Box as well, you’ll be able to use the iPad app as a way to send stuff to your TV.

We were very excited to see the event in London sell out and we think it speaks volumes about the demand for Boxee not only in the UK but across Europe in general so we hope this will be the first of many events and announcements for our European users.

Cheers,
Team Boxee