Expand Your Media Center With Boxee

When it comes to Mac OS X's Front Row application, people love it or hate it.  It's a nice interface, however, it tends to be a little limited in what it can do.  If you are looking for your Mac to do a little more work as a media center and Front Row isn't quite cutting it, you might want to look into Boxee.

Boxee, now in open alpha, runs on Mac OS X, Linux, and Apple TV.  It provides a beautiful front end that allows you to access your media located on your computer.  Where it really stands out is the social networking aspects and the way it connects to various online services.

Boxee lets you see what your friend's are watching and allows you to make recommendations to your friends on content that you've watched.  It works great and could be quite useful for spreading the word about an episode of your favorite TV show or movie.  It's also a fun way to find new things you might not have considered checking out on your own.

Sure, it will play the movies, music, TV shows, and podcasts you have stored on your hard drive, but it doesn't stop there.  You also have access to the library of content from some of the biggest online providers.  Revision 3, Joost, The WB, CBS, and even Hulu are all represented here and you can access them all without leaving the comfort of the Boxee interface.  This alone makes it a killer app for anyone wanting to get online content in one convenient place.

With some hacks, you can run Boxee on your Apple TV, making it an even more powerful home theater component.  If you have a Mac Mini or an iMac in the bedroom, it can transform that computer into a television with a tremendous amount of on demand content.

If you have a Mac or Apple TV (or a Linux machine for that matter), you really owe it to yourself to check out Boxee.  Check it out at Boxee.tv.