D-Link will launch its web TV set top, the Boxee Box, on 10th November in plenty of time for Christmas. Boxee and D-Link have a launch event in NYC planned for the rather tardy release of the Boxee Box on November 10. The device was initially scheduled to start shipping in the second quarter of this year, something that Avner Ronen labeled as a ‘too ambitious’ time-frame. The £199 device allows web content to be viewed on a TV, and will compete with Apple TV, as well as Google TV which has just launched in the US, but probably won’t be available in the UK for at least another year.
“We’ve seen amazing demand for the Boxee Box across all of our pre-order partners in the US and internationally,” said Rod St. Michel, vice president of consumer sales at D-Link. “Consumers are looking for the right product to get their favorite TV shows and movies onto their TV from the Internet and their home network, and the Boxee Box is the friendliest, and most consumer-ready product currently available.”
The actual Box supports a wide variety of formats, such as H.264, MKV, DivX, VC-1, and Flash 10.1. The Boxee desktop software features Twitter, Facebook, Pandora, Last.fm, Picasa, Flickr, and more. It also has HDMI, S/PDIF, RCA connectors, two USB ports, an SD card slot, gigabit Ethernet, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. Fully capable of broadcasting in 1080p, the price for the Boxee Box will be in the $200 range and available online through sites like Amazon.com or at local stores such as Best Buy.
Many of the apps you can access on the web or via your mobile phone will be available through the Boxee box. Included in the long list of apps are Funny or Die, College Humor, MTV, Digg, University courses, panel discussions, TED Talks, Current TV, Stanford Online, FORA.tv, and the list goes on. The TED Talks are actually an interesting feature to be able to access and proves that this is more than just a movie/tv show streaming device, but rather another way to increase knowledge. The web browser is similar to IE or Safari, but optimized to work with a QWERTY remote and your HDTV, seamlessly.
Boxee first debuted in 2007 as freeware media center software, and the company announced plans for a standalone Boxee Box in December 2009. Since then, a number of big-name competitors have entered the space, including Google TV and Apple TV. Last month, Roku also unveiled its Roku XDS.
The Boxee Box may also be pre-ordered by enthusiasts across Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and other nations in Europe. Amazon’s put up the unit for pre-ordering at $199.99. To Buy D-Link Boxee Box from Amazon, Click Here.
You might like: