Boxee, the internet entertainment service, has unveiled its first hardware box at a New York event, and it’s not your usual container.
The Boxee Box is an irregular-sided object with minimum video connectivity. It will be made by D-Link, best known for its consumer network routers.Boxee’s software interface brings a big-screen TV look to users’ personal media files and streams video and music from the internet.
It can bring internet TV to the living room and is seen as threatening the established business models of cable and satellite providers.
Deals such as a partnership with Major League Baseball, announced in June, and now a set-top box mark major advances in content and hardware for the platform.
The New York event also included the official release of a beta version of Boxee’s software and a presentation by internet TV guide Clicker, which was added to to the service last week.
The Boxee Box will free the service from its dependence on installation on a PC or Mac. It has a single HDMI connector for video, two USB ports and an SD card slot for external storage plus an ethernet connection and 802.11n Wi-Fi.
D-Link said it would be available in the first half of next year at a price to be determined. It faces substantial competition from TVs and other set-top boxes offering internet connectivity.
