Boxeed In

More column inches seem to be devoted to Boxee than any other internet TV company or technology. After the company's much hyped box launch and presence at CES I decided it was time to go and see what all the fuss was about.

Now, Boxee the product is still in solderware, so there's no chance of buying it in the shop. So, the alternative is to download it, which I did to my Dell Studio Hybrid PC which does little apart from play online content to my Samsung LCD.

The install is reasonably painless and the app then takes over your desktop, which is also not a problem. I then did the modern equivalent of RTFM (WTFIV - I'll let you figure it out).

Now, you have to get to grips with a paradigm shift here. Channels aren't called channels, they're called Apps.

The interface is fussy and confusing, despite telling it not to show content that I couldn't play it didn't. Indeed, its main use seems to be as a media centre interface, but I already have versions of that from Microsoft and Dell on the same PC.

Oh, and it also froze and crashed. I'm totally and absolutely failing to see what the fuss is about.

One out of five and back to my Vidibox....