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Ala Carte Modules and 'Boxee - The Setup Robot'
After much thinking about how to make Boxee better, I thought I would muck around and see what improvements other people are looking for. Because right now Boxee is already doing much of what I want, and some things I didn't even know that I wanted, but am enjoying...like getting access to Hulu in a way that's better than their web based interface, or downloading nice posters and descriptions of my movies. And frankly, some thing I doubt I'll ever use.
But what I found when I went reading that feedback is that I saw a lot of suggestions that I actually would NOT like added, and might clutter up the interface for me. For instance, I don't think I will ever want video chat integrated into the interface. I don't want access to email, or RSS news feeds...for me, TV is entertainment time...time to ignore the computer. Boxee is the 10 foot interface. I'm a photographer, and even I don't want to look at my photos on my TV... I see them enough. So you see how specific people's needs can be.
Once again, this is for me PERSONALLY...the guy across the street might be a video chat nut and that feature would make his day. So I understand that some people might really like and could use some of those features...just not myself.
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What I got out of all of that is that it's really more about configuration than anything...grabbing the features I DO want, and hiding the ones I don't want getting in my way. How does Boxee provide the proper framework to be 'everything' someone wants and still be functional and attractive? That I don't know. I guess it would have something to do with the research you guys are grabbing here...finding the main features that almost everyone is going to be using and making sure it's front and center, and maybe making other things 'snap in' modules, or at least something that can be hidden.
I could see a scenario where Boxee has a very well thought out default feature set/look that is going to work out just great for the say 70-80% of people who just want to install it and use it. But underneath have the ability to make it more to your liking. In the way that Firefox is very feature rich and complete with a default install, but when you start playing with it, you can do so much more.
But that default setup has to be elegant and complete. To me, that seems like a huge challenge, but as Firefox has shown, it can be done.
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Another scenario I was thinking about was a setup wizard ( I hate that word, someone needs to reinvent that) interface to point Boxee users into one of several default interface setups...TV and Movie Freak, Media and Internet, Family Room Media, Music Machine, Office News Feeder, etc. A very modular format would allow this, and might be handy and help Boxee be more things to more people right out of the...er Box...especially those who are novices and don't have the time or ability to really dig in there.
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Once again, I'd just like to say Boxee is wonderful and I'm absolutely sure that when it's out there it will be a 'best in breed' application. If it's this good already, it's going to be stellar when it hits.
A
But what I found when I went reading that feedback is that I saw a lot of suggestions that I actually would NOT like added, and might clutter up the interface for me. For instance, I don't think I will ever want video chat integrated into the interface. I don't want access to email, or RSS news feeds...for me, TV is entertainment time...time to ignore the computer. Boxee is the 10 foot interface. I'm a photographer, and even I don't want to look at my photos on my TV... I see them enough. So you see how specific people's needs can be.
Once again, this is for me PERSONALLY...the guy across the street might be a video chat nut and that feature would make his day. So I understand that some people might really like and could use some of those features...just not myself.
------------
What I got out of all of that is that it's really more about configuration than anything...grabbing the features I DO want, and hiding the ones I don't want getting in my way. How does Boxee provide the proper framework to be 'everything' someone wants and still be functional and attractive? That I don't know. I guess it would have something to do with the research you guys are grabbing here...finding the main features that almost everyone is going to be using and making sure it's front and center, and maybe making other things 'snap in' modules, or at least something that can be hidden.
I could see a scenario where Boxee has a very well thought out default feature set/look that is going to work out just great for the say 70-80% of people who just want to install it and use it. But underneath have the ability to make it more to your liking. In the way that Firefox is very feature rich and complete with a default install, but when you start playing with it, you can do so much more.
But that default setup has to be elegant and complete. To me, that seems like a huge challenge, but as Firefox has shown, it can be done.
----------
Another scenario I was thinking about was a setup wizard ( I hate that word, someone needs to reinvent that) interface to point Boxee users into one of several default interface setups...TV and Movie Freak, Media and Internet, Family Room Media, Music Machine, Office News Feeder, etc. A very modular format would allow this, and might be handy and help Boxee be more things to more people right out of the...er Box...especially those who are novices and don't have the time or ability to really dig in there.
_____
Once again, I'd just like to say Boxee is wonderful and I'm absolutely sure that when it's out there it will be a 'best in breed' application. If it's this good already, it's going to be stellar when it hits.
A
I’m looking at the BIG picture
8
people like this idea
I like this idea!
Tell me when this idea gets some attention.
The more people who like this idea, the more it gets noticed.
The more people who like this idea, the more it gets noticed.
The company has this under consideration.
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Inappropriate?Well, I gotta say I really really liked both of your scenarios.
Not likely those will be in there in the short term, but hopefully we'll be able to offer such features in future versions.
I’m happy people give so much thought to boxee
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Inappropriate?Yeah, maybe I went a little pie in the sky, but what the heck...once again, there's not a whole lot I'm looking to add that hasn't been addressed in forums...like jumping back into a video where you left off. I know that's coming, so it's not something I worry about.
EMPLOYEE
