Boxee launches App Box addons, plus Hulu workaround

A few weeks ago media center Boxee was forced to remove content from Hulu, and the request of some of the TV and film studios that produce the bulk of the content available on Hulu. Now Boxee is offering a new build that has a workaround that seems to be within Hulu's terms of service, and which may therefore be salvageable. Maybe.

Here's how it works. Boxee has launched a new build of its media center suite that includes an App Box, which is basically an App Store allowing users to find and install new applications and plugins. There's also a built in RSS reader optimized for feeds with video. It works with YouTube, Yahoo! Video, and Hulu.

In other words, as long as Hulu provides RSS feeds for its videos, you'll be able to find and watch them using Boxee. It's not as elegant a solution as the old built in Hulu support. But it will let you navigate Hulu using a full screen interface and a remote control instead of your keyboard. Unless Hulu eliminates its RSS feeds.

The new version also adds a much-needed auto-update feature.

The latest build is considered a "bleeding edge release," which means there may still be some (or a lot of) bugs to work out. The new version is currently available for Mac. No word on the Linux or Windows versions.

Update: The Linux version of Boxee should get the new features in a release scheduled for March 24th.

Update 2: Well, that didn't last long. While it's certainly nice to have a built in RSS reader, you can no longer use it to watch videos from Hulu. The site has blocked Boxee's browser.

Tags: boxee, hulu, media-center