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For now Boxee is Mac-only, but coming in just a few weeks is the Linux version, with a Windows version to follow in the fall. That’s not the end though, Ronen’s plan is to get it into set-top boxes, gaming consoles, and eventually televisions. In the meantime, if you want to get your hands on it you can sign up for the alpha here. I’m told people are being let in on a weekly basis, so you’ll have to exercise some patience.

Tuesday, I got a peek at Boxee, a personal media center that’s currently in private alpha. My colleague Greg Sandoval wrote about it shortly after it was unveiled last week, but it’s worth delving into what I think will be the next big thing in media center software.

While media servers like Windows Media Center, AppleTV, MythTV, SageTV, and others compete for attention and consumer dollars, Boxee founder and CEO Avner Ronen told me he thinks Boxee’s got the upper hand because it’s not requiring you to purchase new hardware, install it in place of an operating system you’re already using, or buy into a marketplace/device being pushed by its creators. It’s also completely free, although Ronen says a premium version later down the line is not out of the question.

Boxee in action from Josh Lowensohn on Vimeo.

What makes the platform particularly exciting is that it’s been built with developers in mind. That means anyone can work with the source code and create their own plug-ins, skins, and alternate interfaces. There’s already a plug-in created that integrates Muxtape (as you can see in the video above), along with music from Last.fm, both of which can be controlled with an Apple remote if you’re on a
Mac–as is the rest of the interface.

Created by a small team of just under a dozen developers, the framework for Boxee is actually a project that was already in use in hundreds of thousands of machines around the world: Xbox Media Center. This software was created by gaming enthusiasts who had modified first-generation Xboxes to run it once it was sent over to the machine through FTP. When installed it would transform the box into a media server, which is what Boxee will do with your laptop or desktop computer.

So what does Boxee do? If you’ve ever used Joost, it’s somewhat similar. You can plug in feeds of Web videos and browse through them, complete with video thumbnails and meta data. What makes it different is that it taps into your local media like videos, photos, and music you have saved on your hard drive. Both layers of media (online and offline) are wrapped up together with a social network of other Boxee users, so if you like something you’re watching you can recommend it to friends. Ronen said one of his influences for this was watching TiVo and its built-in recommendation feature, and wanting something that was tailored more toward people who are using services like Delicious and Facebook, and are sharing links with one another all the time.

A CNET Google search reveals sites still infected as of Tuesday noon.

On Tuesday Websense reported seeing distinct similarities between attacks staged earlier this month and over the weekend. Specifically, they cite the use of the same tool to execute the attack being resident on the malicious server. Last summer various groups used the MPACK toolkit to propagate a similar series of Javascript injections.

As of Tuesday, two other files named McAfee.htm and Yahoo,php were no longer active.

A user need only stumble upon a compromised site to become infected. In this case, when viewing a compromised site, the injected Javascript loads a file named 1,js. The file is located on a malicious server, which then attempts to execute eight different exploits targeting Microsoft applications.

Javascript injections are browser attacks and require no more effort than appending a script tag to the end of the URL. If a legitimate site is vulnerable to script injection, an attacker can add a script tag to the Web-facing page of the site so that subsequent views will automatically download whatever content is within the script tag. Often the script tag contains calls out to a malicious server.

A quick review by CNET News.com found that travel and academic sites continue to host the injected Javascript code.

Comparisons between two mass Javascript injection attacks suggest they may be related, according to a security company. The latest attack has compromised various sites including one United Nations and several UK government sites with links to malicious servers.

In response, she laughed, saying that “Google is not about politics. Google is about innovation and technology and about creativity of people and about what freedom permits in this great environment.” She also reminded the audience that she’s no stranger to the Valley, having begun her professorship at Stanford in 1981. At that point, Secretary Miliband chided me as the question asker by saying Rice’s Stanford stint was before I was born (for the record, I was alive in ‘81. I’m a child of the ’70s!).

Five reporters got to ask questions, and even though we were in the heart of tech country, most queries focused on foreign policy–Rice’s stance on freeing Guantanamo Bay prisoners, strife in Iran, etc., which she answered, not surprisingly, with canned political-speak.

Yours truly was the only reporter who squeezed in a tech question; I asked about Rice’s visit to Google and if she was surprised to be invited to such a well-known liberal outpost in the Valley.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice addresses the media in the sunny quad of Google's Mountain View, Calif., campus.

We knew it wasn’t going to be an ordinary visit to the Googleplex when we saw the Bomb Squad truck in the parking lot.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com)

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com)

Before we knew it, the pair said their goodbyes and were whisked away by Secret Service. We never even got to find out what they ate in the Google cafeteria.

I headed to the Mountain View, Calif., campus Thursday afternoon with CNET News.com’s multimedia team (consisting of me, cameraman Jared Kohler, and photographer James Martin). After a yellow lab sniffed our cameras and tripod, plus my purse, for drugs, bombs, and other no-nos, we joined other members of the media in a roped off “safe zone” in the middle of Google’s main quad. After an hour sunning ourselves in the media pen, Rice and Miliband emerged from their “fireside chat” with Googlers and addressed the media for a brief 10 minutes.

Rice visited Google with her British counterpart, David Miliband.

This time, the security precautions were for U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her British counterpart David Miliband, who were visiting Silicon Valley to tour various companies and meet with tech industry leaders.

If Tuesday’s news of new, more-powerful,
Mac laptops wasn’t enough to stoke the fires of the Apple faithful, I’ve got even more to offer.

(Credit:
MacHeads)

The film MacHeads, which is scheduled to be released this fall, takes a close look at the culture surrounding Apple and its products.

Featuring video from Macworld, New York’s Fifth Avenue Apple Store, the DigiBarn computer museum, and elsewhere, the film looks to be an in-depth examination of just what makes the Mac, the
iPod, the
iPhone, and Apple’s other products seem like cultural phenomena rather than just consumer electronics.

The new trailer doesn’t shed much more light on the contents of the film, but for real, ahem, MacHeads, the minute-plus of new footage will nevertheless be catnip.

The film, as noted here in January, will take a close look at what Wired writer Leander Kahney has termed the “cult of Mac.”

Tuesday afternoon, the producers of the forthcoming film, MacHeads, released a new trailer. The film is scheduled for a fall release. No word yet on how it will be distributed.

Despite the outages, shortages, and related hand-wringing associated with last Friday’s iPhone 3G launch and Thursday’s release of the
iPhone 2.0 firmware, Apple says there were nevertheless 10 million downloads from its new App Store in its first weekend of existence.

There are currently about 800 applications available for download in the App Store, over 200 of which are free; at launch, there were about 550.

And those long lines? A total of one million iPhone 3G units were sold. The millionth phone was sold on Sunday.

“The App Store is a grand slam, with a staggering 10 million applications downloaded in just three days,” Apple overlord Steve Jobs said in a release Monday. “Developers have created some extraordinary applications, and the App Store can wirelessly deliver them to every iPhone and
iPod touch user instantly.”

And on the phone sales, Jobs said, “It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world.”

Psystar is still under siege from the press. A gentleman answering the phone Thursday morning directed all inquires to a press e-mail alias, and if I receive a response from the company, I’ll let you know.

Louisa Deluca, vice president of loss prevention for Powerpay, said on Thursday that her company dropped Psystar because it violated the terms of its agreement with Powerpay. She declined to cite specific violations, but said “there are plenty of reasons why we shut the account off. We did not know that’s what he was selling, we learned that yesterday.”

Psystar posted a statement on its Web site Thursday explaining the downtime. “Midday yesterday our store was not receiving any orders. This was due to the fact that our merchant gateway, Powerpay, dropped the ball on us and refused to process any more transactions from our company.”

The company also attempted to explain the elusive nature of its home address in Southern Florida in a statement posted on their site Thursday. Psystar’s address has changed no less than three times in three days since the story exploded on Monday.

UPDATED 11:30am - I managed to obtain the cell phone number for Rudy Pedraza, who appears to be the owner of Psystar. A polite gentleman who answered the phone said that he was not Rudy, but confirmed the number belonged to Rudy. He took a message for Rudy, and promised to have him call back. Right. Holding breath.

(Credit:
Psystar)

Powerpay had been the payment processor for Psystar’s online store until Wednesday, when it yanked its services from Psystar’s Web site. That move sent the store offline for several hours midday Wednesday, halting sales of Psystar’s Open Computer, which comes preinstalled with Mac OS X Leopard in violation of Apple’s licensing agreement for its operating system.

Psystar has since switched merchant services providers to PayPal, who processed my transaction with the company on Wednesday. A PayPal representative did not immediately return a call seeking comment on that company’s policies regarding sales of goods such as the Open Computer.

Powerpay refused to process any more transactions for the Open Computer after learning what it was.

Meanwhile, a News.com reader passed along an e-mail from a colleague who had alerted him to Psystar’s existence on April 6, a week before the Psystar story blew up on Sunday night and Monday morning. That’s the first instance I’ve heard of somebody who was aware of the Open Computer prior to Sunday evening, but if other people were aware of its existence earlier this month or year, please send me an e-mail or leave a comment below.

The payment-processing merchant for
Mac clone maker Psystar abruptly ended its relationship with the company Wednesday after it discovered what was for sale on Psystar’s site.

“We’re in the process of moving to a new location which is now listed on our contact page,” the company said in the statement. “The first new address posted (10481) was in error and our correct address is 10475 NW 28th Street. Psystar was, prior to this past week, not ready to handle the enormous production capacity demanded by the online community. Due to the incredible response we have now expanded to a larger commercial unit to handle the supplies and assembly of Open Computers.”

Now perhaps the Facebook sales folks have identified another 10, 20, perhaps 100 immensely connected people in the same target. Before your lo can beget a behold, we’re talking millions. Yes, nice, big numbers.

But Ms. Sandberg made an even more important statement in her interview with TechCrunch: “We really believe in enabling people to be their authentic selves on the Web.”

After all, you know that pretty much everyone you come into contact with loves you with truth, madness, and untold depth. Even the lovers you mistreat want to hang on your every happening.

It’s that numbers thing again. There’s safety in them. And, you know, there’s some sense of bigness. You think that Facebookers wouldn’t do it? Oh, I suspect that when we start operating with a little scale, their venal tendencies might burst through like a conference attendee espying a free buffet.

The Facebook sales chappie or chapess says to the agency: “Now look, here we have 100,000 folks who all stem from your perfect target. And we mean perfect: 28 years old, male. With income more disposable than paper bags and an education more essential than cloth napkins at a dinner party.”

The people Facebook needs to convince–clients and their ad agencies–have always succumbed to the lure of numbers. The bigger the number, the more attractive it seems to be. So please hold my hand–don’t squeeze, now–and enter Facebook Futureworld just for an instant.

The agency was interested in finding new and creative ways to use the site on behalf of its very big clients. The sales chappie, according to the agency folks (who, in this instance, I trust, respect, know and, strangely, like), had his mind set on selling a specific space on a specific page. Almost as if he was selling magazine space to Prada. And he’d flown in specially for the meeting from another city, another temperature altogether, far, far away.

How many of you weep into your downy pillows because Facebook limits you to 5,000 friends?

Speaking of the 5,000-friend limit and the need to expand it, she said: “I’m not going to give you a specific date, but I will reinforce the message that this is coming, and more importantly tell you why we think this is important. Because you have these friend requests, because people genuinely want to hear from you and genuinely want to connect with you…We look forward to you having 80,000 friends…100,000 friends.”

Facebook finds a way for people to surround themselves with their most beloved 100,000. Then it wanders along to ad agencies and offers parcels of, oh, let’s call it psychographic engagement media. (It’s my job to make things up.)

So just imagine if she can persuade you to sell to 100,000 people while being your authentic self. Powerful, no? Genuinely.

You will feel giddy, then, that Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg wants to help you and your unparalleled loveliness. In an interview with Michael Arrington at TechCrunch, Ms. Sandberg promised an era of extended familiarity.

Facebook’s achievements are already immense. But it is extremely difficult for all concerned to get their crania around selling ads on a site where those who use it don’t actually want or need to see ads. A site where they go, in many ways, to actively get away from the commercial world in order to focus on their own vast personal wants and needs. (Disclosure: I often include ideas for using Facebook as part of my client presentations. It is not a simple thing.)

Perhaps I could unblur the lines a little? Ms. Sandberg genuinely needs the social network to make money and genuinely thinks that you could make it happen.

The impression left was that Facebook wants to sell a little like old-fashioned media has always tended to sell: mechanically, by numbers.

You’ll be thinking that there must be a twist. Well, I have one here. (Again, it’s my job to make things up.) Those who have amassed 100,000 human beings on their online fireside rug can, genuinely, be offered significant incentives to push products to their 100,000 nearest and dearest.

I only make all of this up because there hasn’t been too much synergy yet between Facebook and ad agencies. It isn’t just the absurd defriending of Burger King’s brilliant Whopper sacrifice promotion. Someone at a very important ad agency recently told me of a meeting with a Facebook sales chappie.