"Besides doing a meetup in each one of these cities we'd like to meet and talk with users, students, and developers," founder and CEO Avner Ronen wrote on the company blog.

They're also looking for venues for the meetups, a point person in each city, suggestions for road trip stops and a "good bail agent." And then when they get to Austin, they're throwing a kegger. Spring break! Woooo!

ajeffries [at] observer.com | @adrjeffries

Hang-ups over security requirements hampered the Boxee-Netflix partnership earlier this month. Those were the latest in a series of headaches the firm suffered after a hype-building demonstration at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Even with the major Netflix issue taken off the table, there are still a few kinks to work out, says CrunchGear: 

Now with Netflix on board, what are the Boxee forums and fan sites going to complain about? Well, there's still the occasionally lag in the UI and the box likes to lock up once in a while. Subtitles randomly start with locally-stored movies and the browser could be a bit faster. So yeah, the lack of Netflix was the main bitching point before, but the system certainly still has enough bugs to keep the forums rocking.

Haters gonna hate, but in an environment where hype and disappointment can combine with disastrous results for a startup, Boxee is fortunate to have righted itself after a tough couple months.

mtaylor [at] observer.com | @mbrookstaylor

"We’re in a bit of an awkward spot at the moment," wrote Boxee's Andrew Kippen on the company blog. "The Netflix app is up and running on Boxee (we watched the intro to Full Metal Jacket earlier today), but we have not yet satisfied Netflix’s security requirements."

The company had a terrific showing at CES, but has not done itself any favors with users by continually promising and then delaying the release of its Netflix app. 

At the core of this conundrum is that Boxee is less of a closed, commercial platform than services like Roku or Apple TV. And that's what its customers appreciate.

"I choose Boxee because it was the most open platform with the biggest content ecosystem," wrote user Mark Davis on the Boxee blog. "Because they are so open it’s harder for for them to support Netflix’s content."

See, Boxee? Users understand. You and Netflix can come out when you're ready. We'll be waiting. 

bpopper [at] observer.com | @benpopper

In September 2009, he signed on as head of product at Boxee, the set-top box bringing Internet to the televisions of impassioned early adopters.

At the time, The Observer wrote:

[Klein] was ready to let go of his "ego," he said, which was holding him back from joining a company that already had a great, original idea. He could do just as well improving it, he said.

Now Klein plans to leave Boxee to found a new company, writes Nick Saint at Business Insider, probably sometime next month.

Klein also recently invested in his first restaurant, Fedora, which opened last week in the West Village.

The news does not come at a good time for Boxee, which had a good showing at the Consumer Electronics Show but then immediately botched a firmware update. Boxee also continues to disappoint on promises to bring content from Netflix and VUDU to its set-top box.

ajeffries [at] observer.com | @adrjeffries

But the New York-based company has run into some snags with its latest firmware update.

The update was supposed to fix bugs and add content from VUDU, the on-demand movie service.

Boxee released the update out last night but had to retract it hours later because developers noticed too many bugs, Engadget is reporting.

The firmware also shipped without VUDU. The Boxee team has been demoing the content at CES without problems but "there's still a few issues the technical team is trying to get to the bottom of," according to the company's blog. "We'll push the app out to you as soon as it's ready," Boxee told customers.

Boxee has a partnership with both VUDU and Netflix, but their company's content is available on the $199 set-top box yet.

Boxee has been promising its customers VUDU and Netflix content for a while now, and some users turned abusive upon hearing the latest disappointing news. "Still no VUDU. Freaking pathetic," wrote "Jeff Payne." "However, today's "update" it was late and wrong. Not a good combination..." wrote commenter "RR."

Boxee has some extremely loyal customers. But the inability to follow through on its promises has let some of them feeling burned. On December 31, founder Avner Ronen had to publicly apologize to customers in a blog post, explaining that Netflix and VUDU would not be available by the end of the year as promised.

"We expect VUDU to be up and running next week. We have a brand new version of Netflix we expect to arrive by the end of January," he wrote.

But of course, both services are still unavailable.

"We can all imagine your commitment though it's really no good idea to raise expectations and not meet them (like Netflix by the end of the year, Vudu with the next update, a german Version of the interface)," wrote commenter "Markus."

A Boxee customer on Twitter suggested the company hire a PR person.

It's more important to hire developers, Ronen replied, as he fielded support questions by email.

ajeffries [at] observer.com | @adrjeffries

But the startup is sending home good news.

First, it's making friends. Boxee announced yesterday that CBS would begin selling episodes through Boxee later in the year--the first content deal Boxee has scored with a major television network. CBS has been especially picky about selling its shows through new venues.

The company also announced that some of its software will be built into some Viewsonic televisions and Iomega will use its software for three set-top boxes.

Second, Boxee demo'ed its new iPad app, which will be free. The app lets Boxee customers stream video from your Facebook and Twitter feeds as well as content you've tagged to "watch later" from your Boxee box.

The set-top box space is tight, and Boxee has lagged behind other devices like Apple TV, which offers Netflix and iTunes on your TV and not much else, and Roku, which has content from Hulu, Netflix and Amazon but not iTunes. The new deals signal that Boxee is far from giving up the set-top box wars.

Into gadgets? Video of the Boxee-Iomega display is below.

[via PCWorld]

"More like a nerd rock show," chimed in NY Tech Meetup's Nate Westheimer, heading to the bar.

Digerati like Union Square's Fred Wilson and Foursquare's Naveen Selvadurai mingled in the VIP section above the crowd, while attractive 20 somethings cadged free drink tickets from Boxee staff. "A lotta guys in this room are going to be 10X exits someday," a startup founder said appreciatively.

The event was a launch party for the Boxee Box, one of the most stylish entrants in the fast-growing world of web TV.

"We expect the networks will try and block us, just as they did to Google," Boxee CEO Avner Ronen told The Observer. "But we're in this for the long run. This is a seven-year war."

A nervous cable executive confided that it would be a bloody battle. "The big networks and the basic cable folks, they don't want a web TV world where consumers pick and choose shows a la carte, because that means when it comes to programming, you can't have any filler."

Ronen showed off the Boxee box to the crowd, which greeted him with a cheer.  The software's social features, watch-later and integration with music and video were all impressive. The remote, easily the hardest part of designing web TV (see Sony/Google TV), seemed intuitive and sleek. 

For now, Boxee's major content partners are Netflix, Vudu, Pandora, MLB and NHL. It also has some cool smaller players, like VBS.TV. Netflix won't be available till the end of the year however, and talks with Hulu are still ongoing. Without those two, Boxee is a much tougher sell to the average consumer.

"We're reaching a tipping point now," Ronen said, "The smart players are going to ride the web TV wave early."

It was a confident statement from a CEO who was enjoying his raucous product launch. Whether Boxee will be able to capitalize on that change, with big players like Google and Apple pushing strongly into web TV, remains to be seen. The networks, which in particular fear Google's reach as a player in the advertising market, may prefer to back smaller players like Boxee.

Either way, Ronen isn't worried. "There is enough room in this market for all of us to grow substantially." The real issue is the barriers to content being put up by the entrenched players. "A giant like Google is just helping us to kick down that door."

"We're not shy about the fact that Boxee is used by mostly early adopters," Mr. Klein told the Observer in an interview. He said he'll be working to make Boxee easier for any consumer to use--from grandma to a perhaps less tech savvy suburban mom--while keeping their 600,000, mostly male users happy.

Currently, users still have to jigger devices and TV sets to make it work. And other companies, from TiVo to Vudu, are already integrating Web content onto TV screens on their own.

So Mr. Klein is charged with meeting with device manufacturers and game console designers to make sure that Boxee's software is serving their needs and getting on an actual device by the end of 2010.

"It's all about improving the user experience," Mr. Klein said. "There's a lot we can so to make it immediately appealing to a whole new segment of consumers." That's going to involve better marketing, superb design, and giving Boxee a personality to make using the software "a compelling and charming experience," he said.

After getting press from their battles with Hulu earlier in the year, the Boxee startup team has been focused on raising more venture capital, creating more content partnerships with major media companies, and preparing to release a new version of the free software that might make it easier for the technology-challenged folks to use.

Boxee's new beta version, which will include a cleaner interface, even more social sharing capabilties and a global search for video content anywhere on the Web, will be released some time in late October or early November, according to a Boxee representative. They are considering a tentative Nov. 5th release date.

Boxee founder and chief executive Avner Ronen made the announcement that Klein was joining the team earlier this week on Boxee's official blog. "We raised our latest round to enable us to take advantage of the momentum we see in the market, but growing the team (we are now 19 people at Boxee) is always risky for a startup," he wrote.

But adding Mr. Klein seemed like a good fit. "The development of the Boxee Beta is wrapping up and we need to start thinking of the future beyond the Beta," he wrote. "Zach could not have joined at a better time."

Mr. Klein, who co-founded and designed Vimeo's video sharing interface from the ground up, told the Observer that he has been familiar with Boxee for the past year and a half and has been in talks to join their team in "the past month or two."

Mr. Klein left IAC in early 2008 and took some time off to "enjoy the fruits of my labor from five or six years of workaholism," he said. For the past year and a half, he worked at a tech incubator on futuristic concepts. But he was ready to let go of his "ego," he said, which was holding him back from joining a company that already had a great, original idea. He could do just as well improving it, he said.

"Boxee represents a group as scrappy and entreprenurial as I am, and they're willing to give me a role that I can take as far as I want to," he said.

"I'm excited to design the ten-foot experience," Mr. Klein added, referring to his experience designing for the desktop experience at Vimeo and CollegeHumor. "Users worldwide are pretty experience agnostic. But the media that they want to see, they can't get on their big beautiful TVs yet, they're slouching upright in their bedrooms with their laptops."

Richard Glosser, executive director of emerging media for Condé Nast Digital, told the Observer that the Boxee team came to a Condé Nast Digital manager's meeting, attended by executives in editorial, sales and marketing, in the early spring. They gave a demo of the platform, which integrates video and other online content from sites including Hulu, the New York Times, NPR and other media companies. But Condé Nast is the first major magazine publisher to officially partner with the software start-up and get online editorial content beyond the computer screen. "Everyone was really like 'Oh, this is really an advancement in how this path will take place--how to move this content into a living room TV environment," Mr. Glosser said about the meeting.

(Perhaps this is what Observer sources were talking about when they said Anna Wintour was beginning to "get the Internet.")

"They are shining a light on a path that is a very important path," he said. "It's an area where I want to be in the room. I want to learn, I want to be able to participate."

He added that the Boxee partnership will "drive revenue" by adding more video views, attract advertisers and help Condé Nast find a new online audience with Boxee’s 600,000 users.

Mr. Glosser is one of them. He tried it out in his office and his home. "There's so much great content on the Internet and the way that I view it, and I believe many others view it, is I don't necessarily want to sit for a half hour or an hour" in front of a computer screen, he said. With software like Boxee, which he can connect to his TV, he "can just sort of snack on a shorter form content."

This is Condé Nast's second deal to bring online content into the living room. In 2007, Condé Nast Digital (then called CondéNet), partnered with Sony to will bring Internet video to their BRAVIA high-definition televisions via their Internet video link service.

Mr. Glosser said he continues to have meetings with other cable companies and TV set box makers to integrate more of the magazines' online content.

Wired.com and Style.com video and slideshows will be tested, then executives will consider adding content from their 23 other sites, which include Epicurious.com, Glamour.com and VanityFair.com, according to Mr. Glosser. "I keep getting calls from editorial departments saying, 'How do I get my stuff on there?' So I think the interest is there," he said.

Prepare to watch Vanity Fair stylists zhoosh Levi Johnston for a photo shoot--from your couch.

To help them make deals with big media companies, managing director of General Catalyst Neil Sequeira joined Boxee's board. According to his bio, Mr. Sequeira was the former managing director of technology for Time Warner Investments and worked with AOL, HBO, Time Inc., Time Warner Cable, Turner and Warner Bros. on possible investments.

"We wanted a partner to help us as we strengthen our relationships with big media and cable companies," Mr. Ronen explained. "As we learned (the hard way), it is a complicated world. Neil and General Catalyst as a firm have years of experience, deep understanding, and extensive network in these industries, and we are looking forward to working together with them."

Along with working on a new "beta" release by this fall and bringing in more "ad-based, subscription-based and a la carte type services" to the software, Mr. Ronen and his team is focusing on getting Boxee onto a hardware device by 2010.

"Boxee today is mostly serving a tech-savvy audience – those who feel comfortable connecting a computer to a TV," he wrote. "To make Boxee more accessible for a mainstream consumer it’s important for us to get Boxee embedded into connected TVs and Blu-Ray players, game consoles and set-top boxes. We’re already talking to device makers to ensure Boxee works on a variety of platforms for 2010."

Boxee needs to keep up with devices already bringing Web content to TV setboxes--including TiVO and Roku, which recently increased partnership deals for Web show distribution with Blip.tv.