I don’t know how this site slipped past my Boxee radar, but it should be a must have bookmarked site for any Boxee fan. The group at BoxeeHQ are creators of plugins for the Boxee media center software. These plugins currently include the TWiT Video plugin, a GameTrailers plugin, and they are taking suggestions for future plugins. The installation of these plugins is not for the novice user, but if you were able to install Boxee on your Apple TV you should have no problems getting these plugins installed. I haven’t taken the plunge myself, but I will be trying the TWiT Video plugin as soon as I am able, with a review to follow. You can download all of the Boxee plugin goodness by heading over BoxeeHQ now.

The following are recent news items regarding developments in the world of hacking the Apple TV.

[Boxee] Now with ABC – Boxee this week released an update to its media center software which includes support for ABC. This update is available only for Mac users with an Apple TV update coming soon. Windows and Linux users will have to wait a little longer.

[Apple TV Hacks] AppleTV as a DigitalFrame – This comes by way of Apple TV Hacks, but apparently someone has developed a plugin to turn your Apple TV into a Digital Picture Frame. The “digiframe” plugin is incorporated in the “Photos” settings of the AppleTV. All settings are controllable via the Apple TV remote control or via iPhone / iPod touch (ATV firmware version 2.1 or higher required). For more information head on over to http://atvdigiframe.blogspot.com/.

[aTVFlash] aTV Flash for Windows beta – The developers of aTV Flash, the software upgrade that will greatly enhance the functionality of the Apple TV, are looking for beta testers for final testing of a new aTV Flash release for Windows. So if your a Windows user looking to get in on the aTVFlash fun, click here to sign up. Space is apparently very limited.

[Apple TV Hacks] nitoTV Take 2 – This is also by way of Apple TV Hacks, nitoTV take 2 version 0.6.4 was released on Jan 12th. nitoTV is a front end for the popular mplayer media player (http://www.mplayerhq.hu/) perian and (Apple’s DVDPlayback.framework (if installed)- WORKING IN TAKE 2 NOW) You can create/edit playlists and add files or folders of your choice. It supports just about any media format. Create afp, nfs and samba mounts (with bonjour support) Install the kextloader, a variety of kexts/frameworks/binaries, perian, mplayer codecs, play nes, snes, genesis, game gear and gameboy advanced roms, view RSS feeds and 3-day Weather forecast, Launch Applications, and much much more!

This weekend I happened to be recording the latest version of the ATVJ Podcast and I had the need to reference more information about Boxee, which I didn’t have in front of me of course, so I thought once I had the chance I would share a couple of Boxee resources I use with everyone here at ATVJ.

The first resource would be the Boxee Blog. The tag line at the top of the site says it all, the most reliable source for all things Boxee. Here you can find regular updates on the happenings with the developement of Boxee whether they be changes to the latest build or find out when the newest version will be hitting the street.

The second resource I would recommend would be Twitter. You can find Boxee on twitter at, well, twitter.com/boxee. If you feel the need to ask the founder of Boxee a question or request a new feature, this might be the place to do it. So if you haven’t joined Twitter and you want the latest on Boxee this might be the reason to start, aside from following ATVJ of course.

With the popularity of Boxee growing every day and the want and need to squeeze more functionality our of the Apple TV, we here at ATVJ will be keeping a close eye on everything Boxee and we look forward to the next great version on December 4th.