Yesterday, Boxee announced that it was taking its XBMC-based media player into the public Alpha phase, opening up the software to any and all that care to give it a run through. Boxee, for those that aren’t aware, is a one-stop media convergence powerhouse, bringing streaming internet video from a variety of popular sources into perfect harmony with your local and network-attached music, video, and photo collections. In addition to the public Alpha, Boxee revealed a new version of the software that places Joost and iPlayer support next to the current stable of streaming sources that include Hulu and Netflix. Sadly, the iPlayer support is U.K. only, so anyone residing outside of the Queen’s territory will have to search elsewhere for their BBC fix. TIn theory, these new additions make a good service even better, though there are a few caveats. First, the the public Alpha is only for Apple and Ubuntu users. Anyone looking to score big with a Windows machine will have to submit their name for a private code. Secondly, while we certainly think that Boxee is an excellent addition to the field, our tests have revealed a product that could still use a bit of work on the stability front, with frequent freezes and crashes hampering an otherwise pleasant and feature-rich user experience. If you decide to jump on the wagon and download the Alpha, let us know what you think!
[Via NYTimes]
