Right now in alpha Boxee runs on Mac, Linux and Windows systems -- but a dedicated device likely means a far cheaper hardware option and will obviate the need to devote an entire machine to running Boxee in your living room setup. Boxee will be showing off mockups and divulging more details about the forthcoming box at their Beta Unveiling event December 7 in New York.
For now the company isn't saying who the partner in the consumer electrics space is, so it will be interesting to find out who is helping them develop the box. CEO Avner Ronen mentioned in the announcement post that during the Boxee alpha unveiling at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year they were approached, perhaps unsurprisingly, by a number of manufacturers interested in getting Boxee embedded into some sort of hardware device, whether their own existing set-top boxes or a new dedicated device for Boxee.
Eventually the vision is to be able to bake in Boxee support to any connected device in the living room, which now includes a wide array of devices from set-top boxes to Blu-Ray players to game consoles to internet-enabled televisions. It's a smart, platform-agnostic strategy that hopes to ensure Boxee's place as a major player in the living room as we continue along the trajectory towards internet TV (and with it, social TV).