Some days ago, the free media center software Boxee launched its new beta version, which is a big improvement compared to the Alpha. Boxee offers a single desktop interface for web based and locally stored media such as videos, music and photos.
While the new Boxee app looks definitely neat and got some necessary improvements from a usability standpoint, it still feels kind of limited to users outside the US, since most of the streaming content such as TV shows from the big US TV stations is not available in other countries. Sure, you could use proxies or connect to a free VPN service, but apart from low speed that just feels to much of a hassle when you just want to relax on the sofa, switch on the computer-connected TV and enjoy some good series.
But thanks to another new feature, I still find myself using Boxee more often: It's the Boxee Bookmarklet that caught my attention. After adding it to your Browser bookmarks, you click on it every time you stumble upon a video on one of many supported sites (among others YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion and Blip.tv). By doing so, the video is sent to your Boxee queue. And next time when you are in the mood for some spontaneous entertainment (which in my case usually happens on weekends), fire up Boxee and watch the clips you have collected during the last days.
Of course you could just bookmark the links to the videos in your browser or star them in Google Reader if you found them through RSS. But accessing them from your Boxee queue when actually having the time for some visual entertainment feels more like TV and like actually having spare time. Somehow, it's more convenient. And it gives me a reason to open Boxee, which simply looks awesome.
