The XBMC team is happy to announce the first, and with any luck only, beta release of XBMC Media Center 9.04. The release comes just over two weeks after the availability of the first alpha and includes over 350 "code fixes" as well as brings PPC processor support in XBMC for Mac. XBMC remains under a feature freeze and will continue to be until 9.04, also known as Babylon, is released. 

For those of you that may be asking "what the heck is XBMC?" XBMC is a multiple platform, open source media center and entertainment HUB. In addition to supporting a ton of audio, video, and image formats, XBMC can be further extended via custom plugins and scripts. XBMC is available on the following platforms:

• Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 Intel and Power PC
• Apple TV via USB "patchstick"
• Ubuntu Linux 8.04, 8.10, and 9.04
• Microsoft Windows XP and Vista
• XBMC Live - runs from a CD or USB drive
• XBMC for the Original Xbox - requires a mod chip