We will be changing registrars and nameservers for xbmc.org tonight (US time), which could lead to a brief unreachable period (via DNS) while the records propagate around the net. The move will affect this site, the forum, the wiki, trac, our email, and addons in XBMC itself. No action should be required by users or readers. This move away from our current registrar and to a non-US entity is intended as a small provision should the worst come to pass.

We are hoping for a seamless transition and we don’t foresee any difficulties, but don’t be alarmed by any unexpected results for the next day or so. We’ll update this space when the move is complete.

Update: Somehow, these things never go smoothly. The move is complete, but we did see some unreachable time. Most everyone should be back up by now, depending on your DNS servers. Our apologies for any inconvenience.

You may have noticed that for the past few weeks the Weather section of XBMC has become unable to provide updated information due to our default weather provider moving to a fully fee-based API. A brief scramble ensued, and the change provided the kick-in-the-pants we needed to move weather providers into our add-ons framework so that we can send out updates between releases, and allow users to choose between different sources much more easily.

We have now added the final piece of the puzzle: A default provider who has agreed to sponsor XBMC and its users with all the data we need. A special thanks to Weather Underground for working quickly with us to fill the void. It’s great to work with companies who see the value in donating their services to open-source communities like ours. We hope that they see some extra commercial interest as a result.

Thanks also to ronie for having the add-on ready before the ink was dry.

Users of recent nightly builds have already seen the change, and it will be fully baked in to the upcoming Beta1 release.

Today marks the first step in the long-awaited release cycle for Eden: soft-freeze. Other than what is already slated for entry, no new features may be added unless they’re deemed critical for release. After that comes a hard freeze, when all APIs are frozen and we prepare to release the first Beta.

As always, the schedule will be dictated by our ability to get things polished up for release. So file those bug reports, clone our repo and send a pull request for fixes or translations… every little bit helps.

So much has changed since Dharma, we’ll use this space over the coming weeks to discuss in more detail what you can expect in 11.0. For now, Here are a few things you’re sure to notice:

• A new “Files” view in the video library in order to remove the notion of Library Mode vs. Files Mode that confused so many new users.
• The default skin changed to a horizontal layout allowing for more useful information to be displayed on the home screen (vertical version is still available in Add-ons)
• Efficiency improvements to reduce high cpu/gpu usage
• Much improved touchscreen support to go along with the first major versioned XBMC release for the iOS (iPad, iPhone, AppleTv2)
• Ability to customize the home screen by adding your favorite Add-ons
• The usual smattering of visual improvements, playback improvements, new ways to stream and discover media.. the list goes on.

The last few days have been hectic as the developers have been working hard to get their last changes in, but we’ll be slowing things down now to begin cleaning up for release!

Some of you may remember that back in 2010, Tobias (topfs2) began working on a GSOC project to improve XBMC performance on the BeagleBoard. Many optimizations came out of this project, but the most ambitious feature was dirty region rendering.

The short of it is that a major chunk of dirty-region rendering has finally been merged into XBMC’s bleeding-edge code, though it is disabled by default while we continue polishing the rough edges. The change produces impressive performance gains on low-powered hardware, and is the groundwork for many changes to come that will further reduce CPU and GPU consumption for all XBMC users.

For those interested in a more detailed explanation, read on. Read more…

For those of you using unstable or nightly builds, you will soon notice a change in available add-ons at the xbmc.org repository. Dharma users shouldn’t fret as nothing changes for stable add-ons.

With each new version of XBMC, there are sure to be changes that require add-on authors to make changes in order to remain compatible. We have made improvements to python, JSON, the skinning engine, etc. So much like Firefox, we will be asking all add-on authors to test their creations against each version of XBMC and mark them as compatible in each before they’re available in that version. For more detailed information on API changes for Eden, check out the wiki.

Browsing the repository list with the new Xeebo skin

So what does this mean for you?

If you are a stable user happily using Dharma, it means nothing. Only that bleeding-edge add-ons are getting good testing before you’ll see them in the next stable version

If you are an unstable/nightly user, it means that from now on you will only see add-ons that have been accepted into the Eden repository. Much like Firefox, they will likely be few in the beginning and really begin to pile in when we enter the beta stage for Eden.

So remember: if you open your add-ons list and your favorite one is not listed, poke the author in the forum and ask him/her to make the necessary changes and submit to the Eden repository, or better yet, help with it!

And before anyone asks, the new Feature Friday has been a big hit. Nate is out of town this week, but he’ll be back next Friday with another installment.

Today we are proud to announce an exciting new partnership.

In early May 2010, a representative at Sony Japan’s Home Theater and Console division expressed interest in using XBMC as a delivery platform for its newest content. After nearly a year of development, we have delivered a product that is suitable for deployment into millions of living-rooms, backed by Sony’s reputation for delivering high-quality standards-compliant hardware and software. We believe that within 3 months, we will have a new appliance on store shelves that will revolutionize the industry. The XBMC team is also excited to be a part of Sony’s Home Theater and Consoles division, where free-thinking developers are regarded highly.

What does this mean for XBMC? The sky is the limit. Combined with Sony’s impeccable reputation in tech crowds, we anticipate that the platform will be a quick success in the retail market. Sadly, the XBMC source will be closed in the future (all developers unanimously agreed to assigning a proprietary license), but we believe this is the right move going forward. As Jonathan Marshall, XBMC Foundation President put it, “While the free and open-source model worked well when we were all still in our parents’ basements, now that we’ve been showered with gifts from our new friends at Sony, we understand that it is not sustainable in the long-term; DRM is the way of the future.”

We realize that some may see this as abandoning our principles, so we have used our new partner’s influence to secure a special treat for XBMC’s existing users. For the next year, we are able to bring you the latest box-office top-10 movies in 1080p quality, some before the Blu-Rays even hit the store shelves. The best part is, they are free of charge! Just check out the ‘Blu-Ray Movie Streamer’ plugin, available now in the XBMC add-on browser.

We understand that not everyone will agree with our decision here, but we assure you, it’s for the best. Stay tuned for more as the details unfold!

As you may remember, XBMC 10.1 was recently released in order to address a bug that would cause a crash for Windows users when receiving an automatic update for the current skin.

Now that a few weeks have gone by we are comfortable sending out skin updates. For those of you who still have not updated to 10.1 (especially Windows users who don’t use the default skin!), please be sure to update now.

Enjoy the newly updated skins. In addition, be sure to check out some of the new ones that have gone in recently like Simplicity and Neon, plus two more from our very own Jezz_X that are slated for inclusion in the next few days.