The Boxee team has revealed the first dedicated device for their open-source Internet-TV media center software. There's no date set yet, but the "Boxee Box" is expected to go on sale sometime after March 2010. (Congrats to the maker D-Link on grabbing the obvious and catchy name.)
If the picture looks a little strange it's because this set-top-box is designed to look like it's sinking into the surface it's sitting on. That would be weird for a big lumpy box in a universe of 19" wide TV accessory units. And maybe it's weird and inconvenient and maybe just a bit lumpy; but it isn't big.
If you look at the picture of the rear panel with its few connections you can see that the Boxee Box is going to be pretty tiny. The official site doesn't give dimensions yet, but using the ports on the back to make a questimate it looks like the cube's dimensions are
only about 4" or so on a side.
There are other boxes that run Boxee but without the clever name. One cool little box that is turning out to be pretty cool that way is Apple's "Mac Mini". Another nice, tiny package that runs Boxee very well and will play all of your other online and networked media as well, including your iTunes movie rentals. The Mac Mini has an added feature, in that it will actually sit flat in your media center. Maybe D-Link will rethink the cute approach before it hits the market.
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