Hasta La Ideas

New software streams all your favorite videos to your iPad

Adding to their suite of streaming video utilities, Boxee recently released the Boxee for iPad application, introducing massive potential for streamlining online video experiences.

Designed for all iPad users, the app consolidates all sources for online video into one location with three separate pipelines—Friends, Watch Later and Featured (edited by Boxee). With the ability to link to Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, it automatically populates your feed with new videos from “friends” across social networking platforms.

For those who don’t spend workdays watching videos sent by coworkers, great aunts or your mom’s college roommate, “Watch Later” lets you queue up videos from TED, YouTube, Cool Hunting or any number of other video sites for viewing at your leisure.

The sister desktop software, Boxee Media Manager, works with the iPad app to turn your machine into a iPad-friendly media server. For either Macs or PCs, the media manager wirelessly stream all video content—in any format—from computers directly to iPads, eliminating the need for conversion or using third-party serving software. Those who already own the Boxee Box, the brand’s physical device, you can use Boxee for iPad to stream any of videos directly from iPads to your home TVs, perfect for watching scared kittens or baby badgers on the big screen.

As digital media providers fight it out, it’s rare to find a company offering streaming coverage in so many forms and for such a wide audience. The fact that Boxee designed their app for both Mac and PC users, that it easily works as a media server and is directed at their current customer base as well as non-Boxee users is quite an impressive and comprehensive approach for D-Link. The ability to aggregate online videos might not be for everyone, but the other features are worth the download alone—considering both Boxee for iPad and the Boxee Media Manager are free.

This increased transparency, allowing for greater access and user experience, is part of what has made us Boxee fans from the beginning. Hopefully, this new move sets the stage for more thoughtful, well rounded utilities like this, just the tip of the iceberg for the future of streaming media.