Twilio + Boxee Developer Contest and Hackathon March 30 - April 11

http://blog.twilio.com/2010/03/announcing-the-twilio-boxee-developer-contest-hackathon.html

by danielle17 • 16 years ago

21 9 16 years ago

blog.twilio.com

werk• 16 years ago

I still don't get this Web TV thing. I see Boxee just got some more funding a few months ago. But I don't know who uses their service or why. Would appreciate any enlightenment on this issue. I must be old fashioned because I like my internet on my computer and my tv on my tv.

ubercore• 16 years ago

I'm waiting for a Boxee Box to cancel my cable subscription. Most things I watch these days are either from Netflix, or iTunes, with a lot of the remainder appearing on Hulu. I realize I'll be losing local news (never watch that anyway) and live events (the Olympics), but I'm willing to do that at this point. And honestly, even more than saving money, it's about convenience. I have a nice stereo hooked up to my computer that I want to listen to music (last.fm, mp3, rhapsody) through. I have tv shows downloaded from itunes or ripped from DVD. It's much more convenient to access that stuff from a centralized place. This is vastly different from Web TV; I don't want to browse the web on my TV. I have a laptop.

detst• 16 years ago

I'm with you. I know Comcast had their very basic TV service for something less than $15 at some point. I don't know if they still do. Basic cable for live things (sports mostly) and Boxee for everything else is perfect for me.

I talked to someone at Comcast and somehow basic cable and 8mbps internet ended up at nearly $110 before taxes. I have to believe they have something cheaper but that would require an hour conversation to begin to understand their pricing schemes.

pxlpshr• 16 years ago

I haven't had cable in over 3 years, and I don't miss it for a moment. Between Boxee and Netflix Streaming via PS3, it's a complete waste of money.

Per the live events issue, that's largely a non-issue for me because it almost never fails that a friend is throwing a party or we're meeting at a bar. Olympics are the exception. For football games, fight night, et al, the atmosphere with a bunch of cheering fans is just so much more enjoyable.

danielle172• 16 years ago

I was a long time Windows Media Center user while my husband was at Microsoft, and it was great - we used our Xbox to run it. That was even before things like Netflix on demand (and before I discovered Apple products). I think the idea is that you stil want to get the viewing experience of a big beautiful TV screen with surround sound for watching movies - and since more and more of the good content I want to watch is on the web, I need to find a way to get it to my TV.

I think people are still discovering how much good "TV" isn't actually on TV anymore.

RobSpectre• 16 years ago

Valid question that should be asked of any product and one for which I think Boxee has an interesting answer both from the perspective of the user and the developer.

The userbase for Boxee (which just eclipsed 1M unique users a few months ago) currently seems to be divided into two constituencies: high-end home theater enthusiasts and early adopters sick of cable. I believe if you asked either why they chose Boxee, they would respond that it is a superior living room experience to any that are available that works with the platform and media of their choosing. Win/Mac/Linux/ATV compatibility, a huge list of supported codecs and containers, and a singular social experience can't be found elsewhere. Like all people who use their television, they want to watch whatever they want and share that experience with their friends. Whether you want the slickest, smoothest interface for your home theatre rig or want to stop subsidizing Comcast's imminent monopoly, I think Boxee fulfills those demands uniquely.

The far more interesting question I think is who are the developers and why they would choose to hack on Boxee. As a freelance developer working on an Internet with a limitless amount of interesting problems to solve, getting that Internet on the television is a deeply interesting and still very nascent space. Television has lagged behind nearly every other medium by a decade in going online - the developers working on this now have the ability to shape how television will look for years to come.

Boxee is situated singularly among the different platforms a hacker could work on in three key ways: audience, ease and power. Few IPTV platforms have Boxee's popularity with a real critical mass to which a developer can connect his/her idea. Further, the API is very simple to get started with many developers getting something working in an afternoon's time. Finally, you have the power of a full Python interpreter on your hands. Unlike a lot of IPTV platforms that offer developers the ability to create widgets in a tightly confined API, Boxee is a very liberal platform that can produce real apps that can do zOMG awesome stuff.

As a developer, the question that got me hooked on Boxee was "What if the people deciding what television looked like looked a lot more like me?"

I suspect you'd agree it would look a shite sight better than it does now. I'm not sure that is a "Web TV thing." I think it's more a free-as-in-speech TV thing.

jeffiel• 16 years ago

I haven't had cable for the past 4 years. When I had cable, I watched all sorts of crap. Now, I only watch things that I do work to watch. Usually on Amazon on demand, sometimes on Netflix, sometimes on Hulu. It's a pull vs. push thing.

I have a Roku box, but Boxee is pushing the ball forward in getting developers to build for the set-top... which is the right direction.

danielle172• 16 years ago

Yeah I agree, case in point is that I never find myself watching stupid reality TV shows anymore.

adrianwaj• 16 years ago

It's free to send SMS within Gmail. I'd like to see Twilio go free as well, or more likely, Gmail put an API over its free SMS.

Twilio + Boxee Developer Contest and Hackathon March 30 - April 11

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