D-Link to introduce iPhone app for Boxee Box

D-Link and Boxee plan to introduce an iPhone application to enable remote control of the features of the two firm’s soon-to-be-announced Boxee-powered set-top box.

D-Link will showcase the free application for the iPhone and iPod touch at CES next month, the company has confirmed. It will make the application software available through the App Store, the company has said.

The Boxee Box takes on Apple TV because it will enable users with access to television shows, video and music via the internet and using Boxee software for Mac, Linux and Windows. The Boxee Box will also let users add their own favorite entertainment sources from RSS or XML feeds.

Initial details of the Boxee Box were first revealed in early December, when the Boxee team announced the partnership with D-Link.

The Boxee Box by D-Link makes it easy for consumers to connect the device via HDMI, SPDIF, RCA Audio. The box has 2 USB for expansion and can quickly connect to a home network using both Wi-Fi (802.11n) and wired ethernet.

The Boxee Box will be available in the first half of 2010, price hasn’t yet been finalised.

The new Boxee software beta offers a range of features, including a redesigned home screen that makes navigation much easier and includes Facebook and Twitter recommendations for socially-connected content discovery; staff recommendations and the ability to monitor for new episodes of your favourite shows and so on.

The global menu makes it easy to access helpful resources (TOP – Logout, Settings, Queue, Feed, History), the main menu (MIDDLE – Photos, Music, Movies, Home, TV Shows, Apps, Files) and shortcuts (BOTTOM) to your favorite Apps, TV Shows, Movies, or folders.

Movies and TV show offerings now include both Internet and local content; If you know what it is you want to watch, we’ll show you where you can find it and start playing it immediately – no need to go through an App. “Not sure what you’re in the mood for, we’ve made it easy to browse a ton of popular movies from the Internet by selecting the Movie library,” the team explains.

Boxee now organizes TV shows by season and episode, and let’s you filter by whether freely available or not, so once you’ve seen all the free episodes you can decide if that DVD is worth it.

Also new, the Boxee Queue ; You can put almost anything into your Queue, a movie, a TV show episode, an Internet stream, a local file. In addition, if you added your favorite TV shows into My Shows then new episodes will automatically be added to your Queue. Unwatched items will appear in bold, white font.