The media center software suite formerly known as Xbox Media Center is now available for the Xbox, OS X computers, or pretty much any PC that's capable of running Windows or LInux. But the XBMC name still makes it sound like an application for the Xbox only. So the folks working on the OS X version decided to rebrand their port. Meet Plex.

The team plans to roll out a rebranded version over the next few days, and will set up domains at plex2.com, plexsquared.com and plexsquare.com. Plex.com, like most four letter domain names, was already taken. The new software will also get a new skin soon. In the meantime, all I can really show you is the new logo.See it? That's it in the corner.

[via Automated Home]

Boxee is a media center suite that's a bit like MythTV, Windows Media Center, or Media Portal. It's a computer software suite designed for accessing your desktop and online media on a TV screen. But it's got something that none of those other applications do: a social side.

You can share media with other Boxee users and make recommendations. According to Crave, you'll eventually be able to connect your Boxee account with Facebook so you can access the social network on your TV set (and presumably vice versa to some degree).

The folks behind Boxee based the application on the open source XBMC project. Currently it runs on Linux and Mac, but a Windows version is due out later this year. Eventually, Boxee wants to make the software available for set top boxes so you don't have to go through the hassle of connecting a computer to your television set.

Boxee works with the Apple Remote, supports high definition video all the way up to 1080p, and has an attractive menu structure. On the down side, there's no support for DRM at the moment, which means you cannot use the software to watch videos purchased from online stores like iTunes or Amazon Unbox.

At first Boxee will only be available to a limited group of alpha testers. You can sign up for an invitation at Boxee.tv.

[via NewTeeVee]

The Unofficial Apple Weblog picked up on two interesting tidbits related to the Apple TV today. First up, the latest software update from Apple includes the ability to listen to internet radio streams. You'll need to connect your Apple TV to a computer with iTunes, and that computer will need to have some streams saved in a playlist.

But the much more exciting news (if you happen to be a big nerd) is that hackers have figured out how to load Linux on an Apple TV. That means if you're a fan of the Apple hardware, but not so much the Apple TV interface, you might be able to turn your box into a MythTV FrontEnd, or even load a port of XBMC, the media center suite originally developed to run on converted Xbox video game systems.

You can find out more about the Linux bootloader at the atv-bootloader page.

Once upon a time open source media center software Xbox Media Center (or XMBC) was designed to run on an Xbox. Makes sense, doesn't it? But the Xbox 360 is replacing the original Xbox, making the older gaming console a bit harder to find. And while the developers could focus all of their efforts on getting XMBC to run on the Xbox 360, it turns out the code can be ported to all sorts of other devices, including computers running Linux or Mac OS X.

Last year, a group of XBMC developers started working on a Linux port. And now one XBMC community member has begun creating a Mac port as a replacement for Apple's Front Row software. The software's not exactly stable just yet, and there's a good chance that if you try running it nothing will happen. But if you've got some programming chops, you could pitch in and help develop the Mac port. If not, you might just want to keep an eye on the project so you can try it out when a workable version is released.

[via tuaw]

Why use your Xbox as a piddly little media extender for Windows Media Center when you could turn your video game console into a full fledged media center PC in its own right? That's the raison d'etre of Team-XBMC, the makers of the Xbox Media Center.

The Xbox Media Center can play music, videos, and pictures from the original Xbox console's hard drive, DVD drive, a USB flash drive, your home network, or the internet. But when it comes right down to it, the media center's just too cool and useful to be confined to a single hardware platform, so a group of the developers are busy porting it to run on any Linux machine. And they're asking for help.

If you have experience programming with C/C++ and have time to volunteer, you can contact the developers directly.

[via eHomeUpgrade]