The developers behind the XBMC project have released a major new version of the program. XBMC 11, which is codenamed Eden, brings better performance, broader platform support, theming enhancements, and a number of other improvements. The developers have also created a new XBMC live CD environment based on Ubuntu.

XBMC is a highly portable open source media center application with a sophisticated library management system. It indexes the user's video content and provides an intuitive remote-friendly user interface for browsing and playing media. XBMC and its derivatives, such as Boxee and Plex, are popular among home theater PC users.

XBMC's default theme, called Confluence, got several improvements in version 11. The layout of the main menu screen has been changed to a horizontal orientation. The designers also added the ability to pin specific add-ons to the home screen for easier access. According to the release notes, the skinning framework also got some improvements under the hood that make it more flexible.

In addition to supporting Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, the XBMC developers have extended the media player to several mobile and embedded systems. With the release of XBMC 11, the iOS and Apple TV ports are now officially supported alongside the desktop versions. The iOS port was previously available, but it's now more closely aligned with the desktop version.

XBMC is compatible with iOS 4.x devices and the second generation Apple TV, but it requires the user to first perform a jailbreak. The media center's user interface has been tweaked for improved touch interaction on Apple's mobile devices. It also has support for hardware-accelerated H.264 decoding during playback. The iOS versions are available through Cydia, the popular jailbreak app store.

On the backend, XBMC's JSON-RPC APIs have been greatly improved. This will make it easier for third-party developers to build external applications that allow users to control the media center over a network. In particular, the JSON-RPC API has gained support for batched requests.

XBMC has a completely new live CD environment called XBMCbuntu. It's built on top of Ubuntu, a popular Linux distribution. The live CD boots directly to a fully-functional XBMC environment. It also comes with the LXDE desktop environment and several applications, including the Chromium Web browser and a terminal. Users can access the underlying desktop environment by quitting XBMC and logging in with an XBMCbuntu session.

XBMC 11 is a nice improvement over its predecessor. I used XBMC as my main media center application for several years, but eventually came to favor Boxee and Plex as those derivatives gained traction. XBMC's completely open community-driven development model still offers some compelling advantages, however. The Boxee team's decision to discontinue development of its desktop application will likely lead to renewed interest in XBMC among end users this year. It illustrates the importance of XBMC's culture of open development.

For additional details about the XBMC 11 release, you can refer to the official release announcement and the release notes. The application can be downloaded from the project's website.