Boxee Opens Alpha to non-Windows Users, Adds Joost to Library

Boxee, the social media center that brings online video to the living room TV, has opened its alpha to all Mac, Ubuntu, and Apple TV users and added the BBC iPlayer and Joost to its library, the company announced from CES today. It has moved its Windows version into private alpha and will be releasing thousands of invites a week. Chris Albrecth at NewTeeVee has a story about the announcement here.

I interviewed Boxee CEO Avner Ronen over the summer, before Boxee had made much of a splash. We at Beet have been fans of the start-up from the beginning, and we're happy to see that things have been steadily moving forward. In October, Boxee released a patch to jailbreak Apple TV; in November, it raised $4 million in its first finance round; and in December, it added Netflix Watch Instantly and thewb.com to its offerings. In the video, Avner explains how Boxee works and shows me its snazzy design.

--Kelsey Blodget, Associate Producer