I’m more than just a few days late with this one, but I couldn’t let this pass without a mention! On Monday, Boxee unveiled their Boxee Box, a collaboration with D-Link to provide their own hardware solution. My initial reaction was that it looked like an award, and something that wouldn’t fit snugly into existing setups:
However, once I saw just how small it is…
…I changed my mind somewhat. In fact, the shape has very quickly grown on me, and in short, I really want one, despite already running Boxee via an Apple TV. (the restrictive supported formats, and size of, the PS3 are starting to get to me).
It’ll be interesting to see if it get’s a UK release and what the cost will be. I seem to recall the US price being $200, which should translate into roughly £120. That would be a price point that would beat the recently released WD TV Live into a cocked hat. A substantially better interface experience, and built in Wifi and SD card slot to boot.
I’m also rather interested in another new small solution that I recently discovered. Namely, the Acer Aspire Revo - a little nettop wonder that looks ideal as a Boxee Box:
If you go for the Linux version of these, they can be had for around £170, a complete bargain. It doesn’t have the industrial design finesse of a Jonathan Ive designed product, but I actually rather like it for that.
It’s funny, 3 years ago, I wouldn’t have considered a non-Apple solution for watching media on TV, but that’s changed a lot these days.