I’m doing more fiddling with software lately as anyone who follow me on Twitter has noticed. It’s only a couple of months until Macworld so I better get ready to start testing things after all.

A month or so ago I played around with hacking my Apple TV and ran into Boxee. Though the program was in Alpha at the time, it was a strong media browser that gave me access to TV shows and movies from across the Internet legally. Oh and it was free too. Gotta love the F-word.

Now Boxee is making a strong push to be ready for the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January and is quickly leaping from alpha to finished product Here’s the e-mail that came from Boxee today announcing their plans to begin a Beta testing program before the show:

The date is set for the release of the Boxee Beta.

On December 7th at 7pm we are going to have an unveiling event at the
Music Hall of Williamsburg. If you’re in NYC it would be great if you
could attend (RSVP at http://bit.ly/boxeebetanyc).

In case you can’t make it to the event you’ll be able to tune in to a live stream (provided by LiveStream.com) at http://blog.boxee.tv
or directly on Boxee (we’ve worked with Cliqset to overlay messaging onto the stream so you’ll be able to chat about Boxee
while you’re watching Boxee on Boxee. woah.) We’ll make a recommendation for this App on the day of the event.

At the event we will demo the new Beta, launch new applications and start
a 4-week early-access for users to test the Beta before we release it
to the public at CES on Jan 7th.

Sign up for early Beta access here: http://bit.ly/boxeebetaea

The Boxee Beta will look, feel and behave differently
from the Alpha. It takes into account many of the requests and feedback
we received from users over the past year.

The Beta will feature:

– a completely re-designed look and feel
– improved navigation across the platform to quickly and easily access entertainment
– search for TV Shows and Movies on the Internet & on local hard drives / networks
– queuing functionality to let you save things for later from the web
– shortcuts for your favorite apps, movies, shows, etc.
– and the proverbial “more”

In the meantime, we hope you can join us for the Beta release event,
either in person or virtually on Dec. 7th.

Avner

As the Appeal-Democrat reported earlier this week, bookseller B. Dalton is leaving the Yuba Sutter Mall in January. This will leave the area without a bookstore to get the latest and greatest books. There’s still Amicus Books for all sorts of literary adventures though.

I’m bummed out about this because just as a new idea was about to come into the marketplace, it’s been squashed in the Yuba-Sutter area.

Barnes & Noble unveiled the Nook e-reader last month to compete with Amazon’s Kindle. As someone who enjoys recreational reading once in awhile, I’m still not sure how I feel about the concept of dropping $250 on a device just for reading. DRM and content issues weird me out. If you buy a book on the Kindle and decide you want to go with a Nook in the future, get ready to buy it again.

But the Nook almost had me thinking about buying it. Almost.

One of the features in the device is the ability to walk into a Barnes & Noble and read books inside the store for free. Yes it’s not the most revolutionary thing in the world since, in theory, you could just walk to these things called “bookshelves” and grab these mounds of paper called “books” and “read” them. But as far as a concept that actually rewards buyers for their purchase, the Nook has the Kindle beat. I can theoretically buy the Nook and no content and be content so long as I lived near a Barnes & Noble.

Alas, the closest one now is in Roseville. Not exactly where you’d go on a break from work to kick back for a moment. In fact, I’d make it there just in time to turn back on my break and still run late.

As a Barnes & Noble subsidiary, B. Dalton was a last piece of hope for something like this to work, but when the ax started coming down in October that hope was dashed.

Audible.com has a special offer I’m not getting paid a dime to promote, but I felt compelled to bring it to you. Go to audible.com/thanksgiving to pick one of a few selected audiobooks. It ends Nov. 26, so get on it if you want to take advantage.

Some of the titles available:

• A Hymn Before Battle – With Earth in the path of the rapacious Posleen, the Galactic Federation offers help to the backward humans – for a price. You can protect yourself from your enemies, but God save you from your allies!
• Animal Spirits – The global financial crisis has made it painfully clear that powerful psychological forces are imperiling the wealth of nations today. From blind faith in ever-rising housing prices to plummeting confidence in capital markets, ‘animal spirits’ are driving financial events worldwide.
• Badass – Throughout history – from the bone-crushing age of antiquity to the sack-tearing modern era – there have been larger-than-life ass-kickers with a natural talent for unleashing their epic bloodlust on anyone who crossed them. They built empires, smashed armies, and ravaged civilizations for wealth, glory, and ultimate supremacy. Sometimes villains, sometimes heroes, sometimes criminally insane, they had one thing in common: They were all Badass!
• BlackBerry Planet – BlackBerry Planet is a new tribe of people who simply cannot get along without their favorite device, Research in Motion’s innovative electronic organizer, the BlackBerry. This omnipresent device has gone beyond being the world’s foremost mobile business tool and entered the consumer mainstream as the Swiss Army Knife of smart phones.
• Confessions of an Economic Hitman – ‘Economic hit men,’ John Perkins writes, ‘are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder.’
• Escape to Witch Mountain – With renewed interest in Alexander Key’s extraordinary 1968 novel, fans can dive into Escape to Witch Mountain as it was meant to be listened to. The powerful, thrilling story of Tony and Tia – twins joined by their paranormal gifts, on the run from evil forces that seek to suppress their forgotten pasts – is more gripping and relevant than ever.
• METAtropolis – Armed camps of eco-survivalists battle purveyors of technology in this exclusive, original production featuring five sci-fi masters and five all-star narrators.
• On Basilisk Station – Honor Harrington has been exiled to Basilisk station and given an antique ship to police the system. The vindictive superior who sent her there wants her to fail. But he made one mistake: he’s made her mad
• Planet Google – With unprecedented access to Google’s top management, Randy Stross reveals for the first time the audacious scope of Google’s new plan, including such potentially disruptive initiatives as free downloadable software, which could put providers like Microsoft out of business, and GoogleEarth and GoogleMaps satellite technology, which is rapidly mapping the entire surface of the Earth in high-powered detail.

And the rest Continue Reading »

Ever have one of those weeks when you work your butt off on a project only to have it blow up a couple of days later? I finished hacking my Apple TV on Oct. 27. Two days later, Apple releases Apple TV update 3.0. It’s snappier it’s better, but I’m still kicking myself over the two weeks I spent trying to the hack to work.

Here’s a fun read on the music labels having some issues with European government bodies blaming them for their own ills with P2P file sharing. Very reasonable since the argument is about customers not getting what they want because of the fear labels have over piracy.

And the EU is slowly gaining a little more likability in my eyes, though they haven’t abolished the three strikes law being passed in some countries which would strip users of their Internet access with just three accusations by random copyright holders with no semblance of due process.

Are you into earthquakes? Do you like tracking aftershocks? A new theory says aftershocks could follow an earthquake 100 years ago.

No, The Beatles weren’t online this week. Although there’s an interesting copyright argument being put forward by BlueBeat, the company who put up the downloads.

And finally if you love solid state drives, here’s a history of the device from it’s beginnings in 1978.

I ran into a couple of interesting tidbits about market share in the computing world.