As the holidays approach, many customers turn to websites like Amazon for guidance on what to buy for that special someone who wants a gadget fix. But, as Business Insider points out, it looks like the Apple TV isn’t being featured by the online shopping giant, despite steady demand since its release. As the Insider notes, the Apple TV might in fact “actually be ranked somewhere in the top 20.” Efforts to contact Amazon for comment have so far not produced a response.

So, where’s the proof? Well, stop and take a look at what’s currently listed in just beyond the top 20 (as of this writing): Roku’s XD Streaming Player. Now, skip over to Amazon’s Bestsellers in Digital Media Devices list, a more focused category. Notice anything odd? The same Roku XDS Streaming Player is listed under both the Apple TV and the Boxee Box. Interesting that the number three device has broken the top 20 in the Bestsellers in Electronics list, while the two leaders in the smaller category aren’t even mentioned there.

Apple, at least for now, isn’t banned from Amazon’s Bestseller in Electronics list entirely, due to the presence of various iPhone and iPod models. Also, Boxee’s absence on the list indicates that they’re not the only company getting the rankings shaft right now. Finally, consider that many of the Kindle models (Amazon’s only electronic device) are sitting pretty in the list’s top 10.

When contacted for comment, a Boxee representative said they weren’t sure what was going on, but that D-Link was the partner that dealt primarily with Amazon. D-Link did not provide a comment in time for publication.

It’s difficult in these situations to decipher whether a company is advancing its own interests, subtly blocking another, or if there’s something less nefarious at play. But you have to wonder if Amazon isn’t altering rankings based on the Roku XD’s support for Amazon Video-On-Demand, which isn’t present in either the Apple TV or Boxee Box. Whereas Amazon.com has, in the past, functioned as more of a retailer than a strategist, perhaps this is an example of what happens when its interests as as service provider run up against its role as a distributor of third-party goods.

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It is, however, possible to customize your Apple TV with unauthorized third party software (much like a jailbreak for iPhones/iPod touches) to transform it into a fantastic cheap media player (with certain limitations).

Suitable For Your Needs?

Now I have a Mac mini downstairs connected to my HDTV with EyeTV USB tuners and I think this is the ideal setup. However, upstairs in my bedroom I have an old SD TV that was paired up with an old HP laptop running windows with XBMC. The HP’s lack of stability finally became too frustrating, so after researching my options, I spent AU$330 (~US$276) on an Apple TV box and put XBMC on it.

My SD TV has component plugs so Apple TV works fine with it, and I’ve not had one hiccup while streaming .avi files from my file server over my wireless network. Its important to note, however, that some 720p HD playback can be a bit jerky, due to XBMC not having hardware acceleration support — but if you’re like me and wouldn’t want to watch 720p downscaled this doesn’t matter. I’ve finally got a totally stable (and completely silent) wireless TV streamer upstairs that I can control with my iPhone.

Here’s a complete guide on how to load XBMC and Boxee on to your Apple TV to make it much more useful.

Required Tools

*A USB Memory stick with at least 512MB that can be formatted.
*A PowerPC or Intel Mac. The procedure can also be done from a windows box, but since this is TheAppleBlog, this guide is exclusive to Macs.
*An AppleTV device with firmware version 2.3 (the most current at the time of this writing).

Preparing

Head over to http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/ and download the OSX version of the atvusb-creator. This will let you boot your Apple TV from the USB stick and install the required patches to your device.

First, you should remove all USB drives from your computer as a safety precaution to prevent accidentally picking the wrong USB device to create your patchstick. Insert your empty USB stick and run atvusb-creator.app:

The default options as above are suitable for most, so you can go ahead and click the “Create Using ->” button (assuming your usb pathstick is the only usb drive connected as recommended). This will partition and format the patchstick and then copy all the required files to it. With this done, it’s time to go to your Apple TV.

Patching Apple TV

Unplug the power cable from your Apple TV and put the USB stick in the port at the back.

Plug your Apple TV back in and watch the custom Linux OS do its work. This will take a few minutes and you will see lots of lines of text:

When you see the text “Please unplug your Apple TV to reboot/reset the device” you can unplug your USB stick and reset. When it boots up again, you will now see a slightly altered menu:

You now have both XBMC and Boxee installed on your Apple TV — however its best to update your system to the latest releases. From the new XBMC/Boxee menu on the left, go into the “Updates” menu on the right. Then select the Launcher 3.1 download:

This will be a quick download and update process. You should then also turn off Apple TV’s ability to automatically update itself. This is to prevent any new updates from Apple breaking your ability to use XBMC or Boxee. This can be done in the “Settings” menu by toggling the “ATV OS Update Enabled” option to “No”:

You can then download the latest stable release of XBMC and/or Boxee in the newly renamed “Downloads” menu. The standard Apple TV Remote works fine in both XBMC and Boxee. There are also a number of iPhone/iPod touch apps that let you control these directly.

Running the Latest Bleeding Edge XBMC

If you’re brave (or some may say foolish), you can also run the latest nightly builds of XBMC. To do this you’ll need to telnet into your Apple TV and set a preference via the command line to make this option appear in Launcher’s Downloads menu. From a command line tool (such as Terminal that comes with OSX) type:

ssh frontrow@appletv.local

When prompted for a password, enter frontrow and then type:

defaults write com.teamxbmc.xbmclauncher XBMCAdditionalDownloadPlistURLs -array http://www.sshcs.com/xbmc/Info.asp

This will then enable the option in Launcher to download a latest nightly build of XBMC:

Restoring to Factory Settings

If you want to restore your Apple TV to its vanilla settings, simply follow these steps. From a command line tool type:

ssh frontrow@appletv.local

When prompted for a password, enter frontrow and then type:

sudo rm -rf /Applications/{Boxee,XBMC}.app/
sudo rm -rf /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/PlugIns/XBMCLauncher.frappliance/
rm -rf /Users/frontrow/Library/Application Support/{BOXEE,XBMC}/
sudo reboot

It’s a shame Apple doesn’t seem interested in unlocking the power of their home media device themselves, but at least doing it on your own isn’t as difficult as you might expect.

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Three years after the “DVD player for the 21st century” was first introduced by Steve Jobs, the Apple TV still doesn’t actually have a DVD player, and doesn’t actually have much of anything, at least compared to the competition. Apple’s media center device languishes as little more than a video kiosk for the iTunes Store in the living room. Meanwhile, competitors in the media center market stream the future to couch potatoes everywhere.

Boxee is just the latest example of that future. NewTeeVee reports the startup behind the media center software has just received $6 million in venture capital. This brings total investment to $10 million in less than a year.

According to CEO Avner Ronen, the company has recently seen “increased pace from the biz dev side.” Translated from marketing speak, that means consumer electronics devices want Boxee. The company plans to nearly double its staff off 11 to bring more content and more apps to Boxee. When a company with 20 people is handily beating Apple in the race to the living room, it begs the question: whither Apple TV?

After introducing the Apple TV in September 2006, then reintroducing it in January 2007, the device went on sale for $299. It was an awkward beginning. There was little content available for purchase, and the Apple TV needed to be tethered to a computer over a network to manage content. While Apple shortly added a model with a larger hard drive, it took a year before the company addressed the core feature.

“Apple TV was designed to be an accessory for iTunes and your computer. It was not what people wanted. We learned what people wanted was movies, movies, movies.”

So said Steve Jobs concerning Apple TV “Take Two,” the software update that allowed users to purchase and rent video content directly from their Apple TV. It was a badly needed update that put the Apple TV back in the game, but that was 18 months ago. Since then, the biggest news concerning the Apple TV was the company officially declaring it a “hobby.” Worse, at the conference call in October of last year, Steve Jobs remarked regarding the media center business that “I don’t think anybody has succeeded at it. And actually the experimentation has slowed down. A lot of the early companies that were trying things have faded away.”

This is just not true.

Besides the most recent news about Boxee, there have been other major developments related to media centers and content. At the same time the Apple TV was announced, Amazon’s Unbox service came out. Rather than fade away, it’s now HD. In May 2008, Roku brought out a $99 set-top box for streaming movies from Netflix. Shortly thereafter, Microsoft brought Netflix to the Xbox 360. Let’s not forget Hulu, the aggregate video content site that appeared in 2007. Hulu has seen a five-fold increase in viewership since last year.

Streaming is the future for video in the living room, but the question now is whether Apple wants anything to do with the living room at all. Remember, this is essentially a software platform that can be updated at will. If there was ever a time for Apple to get back in the business of the living room, the expected Apple Event in September would be it. Let’s hope Take Two isn’t a wrap for the Apple TV.

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The alpha will get Hulu working again, in case you haven’t already downloaded the test fixes. The reason for Boxee’s renewed ability to play Hulu video is the new XULRunner browser it uses to play video, which sidesteps Hulu’s recent limitation of playback to non-browser based devices and applications. It also enables Boxee to play pretty much any video you can find on the web by adding URLs with video RSS feeds as sources. In the new alpha release, all of these features — and the new support for Pandora, PBS and RadioTime — are present, minus the bugs and connection issues that were present in the test builds.

The big news for developers is that Boxee also released its official API late yesterday to the public, so that anyone can develop their own plug-ins for the software. Development is supposedly open to all, with Boxee claiming they won’t decide what is and what isn’t published. Users will be able to install new applications via the App Box. The API is Python-based, and comes with full documentation. You can learn more about the API at Boxee’s developer web site.

Now that Boxee is open for community development, it truly has become more or less exactly what Apple TV should’ve been. Apple should be taking notes, or at least thinking about not trying to bar access to its hardware every time it releases a firmware update.

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Pandora and RadioTime

The Pandora feature is absolutely brilliant. I had a chance to play with it for a while on Tuesday; it is the full Pandora experience on a 10-foot interface. You can log in to your account, select any of your channels, give a thumbs up or down, skip a song, and even create a new channel. I cannot begin to tell you how cool it is to listen to Pandora on my home theater sound system with the song information displayed on the big-screen TV, all thanks to boxee on the Apple TV. Driving this software with the free boxee remote iPhone app just makes it that much sweeter. Pandora on Apple TV is amazing.

The CTO of Pandora, Tom Conrad, got on stage at the meetup to talk about how excited his company was to be bringing their Internet radio service to the platform. You can get even more Internet radio by using the RadioTime application, finished just in time for the release, to listen to over 100,000 terrestrial radio stations. This app cleverly picks up your location by your IP address and presents you with a list of local stations. I found several popular FM stations (but not all of them) in the Denver area.

Developers, Start Your Engines!

The boxee API has big implications. The Pandora Radio service was built using it, and developers with Python and XML skills can build boxee apps with full control over the UI and the metadata for media playback. BoxeeHQ also released a PBS application in conjunction with the alpha release. This app updates every 30 minutes to pick up PBS shows as they’re added to the web site for viewing. If the excellent Pandora and PBS apps are any indication, we can look forward to really well-done add-ons for boxee.

Can We Get Hulu, Please?

The XUL-based framework for getting web content is built on the same technology as the Firefox browser. This should allow boxee to access just about any web-based video content, even Hulu’s RSS feeds. When asked about full Hulu support returning to boxee, Avner was noncommittal, but expressed hope that the pressures that prevented Hulu from working with boxee would fade over time. In contrast, ABC is working closely with boxee to bring their content to the media center software.

Will boxee Ever Reach Beta?

During the meetup, Avner also discussed some of what we can expect to see in the beta release. A lot of time was spent on the customizable home screen, which will allow you to arrange your favorite channels and content for quick access. There will also be more control over finding and adding friends, as well as over how you share what you’re watching with them.

I’m So Excited, and I Just Can’t Hide It

With apologies to the Pointer Sisters, I am about to lose control and I think I like it. Boxee just keeps getting better and better. The new radio features and the promise of the API and XUL-based framework have me really looking forward to the beta releases and an eventual 1.0 version. I am also fascinated by the evolution of the business plan. Avner was very sincere when he said that boxee is agnostic to the business model of their content partners — they just want to bring more people to content providers that are looking for more viewers. Netflix is one business model (access to content with a paid subscription) and ABC is another (free content with inline ads). I’m fascinated to see how this all works out.

If you watch the video loop of the presentation, be sure to hang around until they do the stupid human tricks contest at the end so you can watch the beatboxing performance that won the Mac mini giveaway.

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Not too long ago, Hulu came to Boxee, making it accessible via Apple TV, and all was right with the world. Then, a terrible thing happened, and NBC went to Hulu CEO Jason Kilar and said “No more!” and it was no more. Hulu support was removed from Boxee.

The only possible reason was NBC’s fear of losing control over its content. Heaven forbid a major network embraces and tries to work with the shifting paradigm in the delivery of televised content. Better to try to force people to stay married to their set-top boxes and cable subscriptions. Just conveniently forget that there are literally thousands of torrents out there if people get tired of depending on overpriced satellite and cable plans, NBC.

Okay, bottled up anger aside, Hulu is back on Boxee, at least in a work-around way that should get people their fix while the two companies hopefully work out the finer details of some kind of more official solution. Boxee’s latest update includes an App Store-type “App Box,” but more importantly, also the ability to read RSS feeds. The new RSS reader is perfectly set up to receive video RSS feeds, of which Hulu has many. Ipso facto, Hulu is back on Boxee.

While I appreciate what Boxee is doing, I really wish Apple and NBC would mark their success and work together to make it unnecessary. Apple should provide the functionality that Boxee does out of the box, and NBC and other networks should partner with them to make network content subscriptions a reality. Cut out the cable service providers altogether, offer iTunes’ Season Passes to all of your network content, and make more money by charging less. A lot of people I know either only have computers, or have computer-connected televisions these days, so it’d probably be more profitable than trying to force people to stick with obsolete methods of content distribution. In the meantime, thank goodness for Boxee.

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Sometime between last night and this morning, Apple released a minor update to the Apple TV. The new software version is 2.3.1 and includes a new network test function and other fixes that haven’t been listed by Apple as of this time. The update, just like all previous updates, disables Boxee and other hacks, but these are easily restored by running the patchstick again (more notes on that at the end).

When you run the network test, it will ask if you’ve been having trouble with slow downloads from the iTunes store. You can answer Yes or No to this question and it will still proceed to run the test. It then asks you what download speeds you expect to get from your Internet connection and begins a download test, probably similar to the various speed tests available on the web that simply download a file of a known size and then track how long it takes to complete the download. The test is a little dissatisfying because it doesn’t tell you anything — all the information from the test is sent to Apple and you never know what kind of download speeds you were seeing.

Restoring Boxee was as simple as running the patchstick update again. I had an additional problem on my own Apple TV in that my external USB drive wasn’t seen after the update. I was hoping that a quick reinstall of nitoTV would fix everything, but the USB drive was still not showing up when I ran “diskutil list” from the command line. I rather like having a 1TB Apple TV, so I’m off to restore the box from factory settings and make sure everything is working. I’ll let you know what happens in the comments below.

That said, I wouldn’t let my experience scare you away from the update. The new network test will be useful for anyone that is experiencing problems with downloading purchased or rented content from the iTunes store and there may be other fixes that Apple hasn’t announced yet. Some users on other forums are reporting improved responsiveness on the iPhone Remote app, which would be a welcome benefit.

Let me know how your upgrade goes in the comments.

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Boxee is telling their Mac users to get LOST — that is, they are telling them that they can watch the hit show on their Mac.

Boxee is releasing a new update for their Mac version today that allows users to stream content from ABC. The release is timed to coincide with the season premier of LOST, which will be available through ABC.com the day following the broadcast. The Apple TV, Windows, and Linux updates are in the works. I’m not-so-secretly pleased to see this update out on the Mac platform first.

I had a chance to ask the boxee team for a quick response on why support for ABC is coming to the Mac before all those other guys. If you are a regular visitor to TheAppleBlog, you will not be shocked to see that the team at boxee just likes the Mac. And I say, why shouldn’t they?
 Here are the four reasons that they said Mac people are getting the ABC love first…

1. Consistent hardware – The Mac is the easiest to program for because they know exactly what kind of hardware people are on.
2. Macs work well with (and often come with) remotes.
3. Half of boxee users are using boxee in conjunction with their big screen TV and an AppleTV. Since the majority of their users are on Mac, that was the platform they decided to launch ABC with (and the platform they initially launched boxee on back in June).
4. Last, but not least, they’re all on Mac and they like Apple products.

We have been encouraging people to try out boxee on their Mac or AppleTV, but I am pleasantly surprised to learn that half or more of their users are on an Apple product. Now if we could just get Apple to sit up and notice that boxee is the perfect reason to buy a Mac mini, maybe they would get around to updating the graphics chip after three whole pickin’ years with the GMA950.

Of course, adding more streaming media isn’t all that boxee has been up to lately. They received a lot of recognition at CES and have started receiving coverage at major news outlets like the New York Times.  There’s been some interest in getting boxee onto a specialized media player device that would be easier to set up than hacking your AppleTV. Even if the patchstick procedure is pretty straightforward for the technically literate, it’s certainly not something my parents would ever do.

You can sign up to join the public alpha test at boxee.tv.

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Today, boxee is releasing their latest alpha build for the flexible media player. The big news for this release is the tantalizing Netflix support and new custom interfaces for various channels like Hulu, CNN, Flickr, Picasa, and YouTube. There are a few new content sources as well.

Netflix takes center stage for this release at the request of users. The boxee team ran a survey just two weeks ago and the results put Netflix out in front as the most requested new addition to the media center app. The initial implementation for the desktop seems to be pretty complete even at this early stage. You can browse content available in Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” category, add items to your Instant Queue, and play the streaming content. Here’s a couple shots to tide you over until you can download and install for yourself.

Browse through your own Instant Queue

See details on selected items

Search Netflix content using an on-screen keyboard

Because Netflix uses a subscription model that makes instant content available to their DVD rental customers, there is an abundance of older “catalog” titles. New release movies are generally not available through Netflix Instant Play. TV shows are the exception to this rule as you can find several current season shows from CBS and NBC on Netflix. In some cases, the content on Netflix is actually better than what you can find elsewhere. For example, Hulu (in which NBC is a primary investor) only puts up the 5 most recent episodes of Heroes on their own streaming web site. Netflix has the full season available from the season premier to the latest episode.

The Netflix support is available for those that have an active Netflix subscription. Support for Apple TV is being worked on, but the limited hardware power of the Apple TV created some difficulty.

The other big change in this release is that boxee now has custom on-screen interfaces for certain content channels including Hulu, CNN, Flickr, Picasa, and YouTube. These custom looks go beyond simple skinning and provide a way to tap into the unique options of each underlying service. In this shot of the CNN interface, you can see the top stories on the site, what’s most popular, staff picks or browse by CNN’s sections.

The custom interfaces are intended to provide a proof of concept for the possibilities for developers to extend boxee. The CNN and Hulu screens show a lot of promise for what is possible.

The new content sources in this release are Netflix, The WB, The Boston Globe’s Big Picture Blog (an incredible source of photos from around the world), and MTVMusic. If you check the results of the boxee user survey, you wil see that there are a lot more sources planned that might appear in future releases. Personally, I really want to see Pandora radio next.

I’m a little disappointed that Netflix streaming isn’t available on the Apple TV just yet, but apparently the hardware requirements for Silverlight (what Netflix uses from streaming) are about double the specs of the Apple TV. I’ve noticed some minor glitches with Hulu streaming but the boxee team is working hard to improve streaming performance on the Apple TV and I’ve seen it improve with each release.

After getting past the envy my Apple TV feels for my MacBook at having Netflix content, I am really impressed with this release. I understand that features are still being added during this alpha phase, but I am surprised at how quickly new content is being added. Only two weeks after asking users for feedback, the top request is implemented along with other features, new content, and bug fixes. With a such a solid team of developers that care about their users and having just raised $4 million in new funding, I am really looking forward to seeing what will come next from the boxee team.

If you want you’d like an invite to boxee, just go sign up at boxee.tv/theappleblog and boxee will send you an invite in the next few days to use the boxee service!

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Some other things to be aware of…

New remote behavior:

• long “select” switches between now playing and ui
• long “menu” takes you home
• back on login screen takes you out

Known caveat: with the update to 2.3, Apple broke a few things, one being the ability of the app to consistently appear in the foreground. Until this is figured out, if you run boxee, and get a black screen, you need to back out of boxee by clicking menu on the remote, and try launching boxee again.

Apparently Scott and Stephan are working on this last bit to kill the black screen bug dead for good.

I like the new features in Apple TV 2.3, but I missed having access to boxee after I upgraded the other day. I’m was having minor issues with boxee and Hulu. Playback gets just a little bit jittery at times. I’m hoping the upcoming releases will help improve this situation.

Also, as a side note on boxee, the boxee team just released the results of a user survey they conducted to determine which media sources to add to boxee next. You can read all about the results on their blog. Personally, I’d be thrilled if they can deliver half of the sources on their list. Pandora on Apple TV would be amazing.

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Apple’s summary of the 2.3 update highlights four key features that have been updated..

• AirTunes Streaming from Apple TV
• Third-party Remote Controls
• Playlists
• Music Volume Control

The AirTunes update allows the Apple TV to become a source for other AirTunes speakers in the house. I haven’t been able to test this because I only have one Apple TV, and no Airport Express, but this sounds like a great feature for party music. You can now select the music or playlist on the Apple TV and have it play elsewhere in the house. No word yet on if this means simultaneous output to local speakers and remote speakers, or just output to remote speakers and no local audio. And sorry, I don’t have the setup to test it myself.

Third-party remotes are supported by selecting “Learn Remote” under Settings > General > Remotes and then following the on-screen instructions to send IR commands from the other remote. The idea is that you can select an unused device on your existing multi-device remote and have the Apple TV learn the default IR commands that the remote sends and map those to Apple TV commands. This will work well for people that have a multi-device remote for their cable box or something. For those of us that already have a learning remote, this isn’t such a big deal because you can reverse the process and just have the remote learn the commands for the Apple TV. What I’d really like to see next is an update to the Apple Remote app for the iPhone so that you can control all on-screen menus and navigation from the iPhone rather than having to use both the IR remote and the iPhone app.

The Apple TV now has an option to display all playlists in menus, including those with Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, and Music Videos. You can turn this on by selecting Show Playlists > All in the Settings > Audio & Video menu. The Apple TV is somewhat smart about how it decides which playlists to list in each section of the interface. When in Music, showing all playlists will display all lists with music in them. When you are in Movies, only playlists that actually have movies in them will appear. This works the same for TV Shows and Podcasts. Music Videos are still a subset of Music and don’t have their own playlist menu.

Control of music volume is one of those details that certain people have been asking to get for a long time, but unfortunately they only get a partial solution. You can control music volume with the Apple TV remote, but it does not appear to work with TV Shows or Movies. Still, for some, being able to control music volume is great. You can only really appreciate this if you use the white remote that came with your Apple TV. With that remote, you could not control the volume without picking up the remote for your receiver. Now, you have the option for using the Apple remote to control the volume. This works with the optical audio out (which is what I use in my setup) and I assume it will work with analog out as well. You can change this setting by going into the Settings > Audio & Video and selecting “Control Music Volume: On” by toggling that item. Again, if you have a learning remote and have already mapped the volume buttons to control your receiver, this new option is not really for you.

Now for the bad news…

For those of you that love boxee, be warned that this update will kill boxee on your Apple TV. @boxee posted a note on Twitter that this wasn’t working right after the update was released. It has always been true that Apple TV updates disable any extra items like boxee and you would have to reinstall. The difference is that boxee will not run at all on Apple TV 2.3. You can check for updates on the official boxee forums to see when the xbmc/boxee teams finds a fix. There is a sticky thread with the warning and a discussion thread where people are trying to figure things out. The most important tidbit from those threads is that you can disable auto-updates on the Apple TV if you wish to stay at 2.2 with all your boxee goodness still running. SSH into your Apple TV and issue the following command…

sudo bash -c 'echo "127.0.0.1 mesu.apple.com" >> /etc/hosts'

If you’re not sure about SSH and need some help, don’t fret — it’s actually pretty simple. kschroll wrote a nice summary in the boxee forums that is easy to follow. The bottom line is that the technique will prevent the Apple TV from contacting the update server by overriding DNS lookups for mesu.apple.com and instead point all those attempts to check for updates back to itself (which of course, fails).

The 2.3 update itself is pleasant enough, but no boxee will mean “no install” for those that are watching Hulu on their Apple TV. The new features are really more refinements than new functionality. Still, I find it encouraging that in these days of the iPhone and Snow Leopard that Apple still has resources devoted to improving Apple TV. I would love to see some new functionality at MacWorld in January, but this latest update will keep my hopes alive that Apple TV will grow into more than just a hobby business. We’ll see what 2009 brings!

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The latest alpha release of boxee, released today, has added support for streaming shows from Hulu and CBS. In fact, I’m watching the season opener of Heroes on my Apple TV right now. Very cool stuff.

If you haven’t seen it yet, boxee installs on your Apple TV (via the patchstick method) and adds a new item to the main menu to access the boxee software. Once you launch boxee, it takes over the interface and allows you to select from different sources. When you’re done, you can exit back to the regular AppleTV interface.

Internet video isn’t as smooth on the Apple TV as it is going to hulu.com on my MacBook, despite sharing the same internet connection. I assume that the alpha release still has some work to be done on it. Still, I’m pretty excited about the possibilities that this latest release hints at.

Besides Hulu, you can also bring in content from Flickr, Last.fm, Picasa, SHOUTcast, YouTube and other Internet sources. Besides Internet video, you can also pick up content from network sources. I have some DVD rips (home movies, of course) stored on my home-built Solaris file server that play perfectly with menus and everything. I’m using wi-fi and even 7GB .ISO files work great.

boxee 0.9.3935 adds the following features…

• streaming TV shows, movies and clips from Hulu, CBS, Comedy Central and MySpaceTV
• major changes to the UI
• web interface to adding RSS feeds
• improved performance

You need to have an alpha test account with boxee to get started, which you can sign up for at boxee.tv. The developers have promised to send out 10,000 more invites today in honor of the new release. If you don’t receive an email invite, try sending a tweet to @boxee and asking politely.

If you already have boxee installed on your Apple TV, just select “update” from the menu. You can download the new Mac client from the web site as well.

While the software is still a bit rough in some spots, the adventurous among you will enjoy checking this out.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• A 2011 Connected Consumer Forecast
• Report: The Connected TV Marketplace
• Connected Consumer Market Overview, Q2 2010