Along with showing off some screenshots of the forthcoming 1.5 software update for the Boxee Box, Boxee also released version 1.5 for the Mac, PC and Ubuntu, along with saying this version will be the last version!
This is what Boxee said:
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.
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 be honest this move to stop producing computer based versions of their software does not surprise me. There are so many set-top boxes, streaming boxes, smart TV’s, etc. out there that people are using actual PC’s less and less to watch content on their TV’s.
