Hulu Launches Desktop App

Hulu, a service that allows you to watch movies and TV shows on your computer completely for free, has been gaining popularity since it was launched in 2007. However, it remained pretty much the same and some users wanted to view the content while sitting on their couch as well, not just in front of the computer. And although there are a number of third-party apps that allow you to do that, today Hulu has launched its own desktop application, called, somewhat unimaginatively, Hulu Desktop.

The program, available for the PC and Mac and working with Windows Media Center or Apple remotes, is pretty slick and has an interface similar to other media center software. It tries to offer much of the functionality of the web interface while using just six buttons on the remote. Users without remotes shouldn't be worried though, as they will be able to control it with their keyboard and mouse as well.

The launch of the desktop application may come as a surprise to some, as Hulu has been against apps allowing you to watch content in other ways than in a browser. Boxee is one of those and the two have been trying to outwit each other for a while now. At first Boxee enabled you to watch Hulu, and content from other web services like YouTube, but Hulu soon denied access to the application. This led Boxee to finding new ways to work around the limitations and it went on like that.

The reason Hulu was so forceful in not allowing other applications to access its content was thought to be because the TV networks behind Hulu didn't want capabilities that would allow the service to compete too much with actual TV watching. But now that they launched their own application, that pretty much does what Boxee does, and Boxee developers are seeing this as a change of heart and are reaching out to Hulu to allow them access.