Boxee closed a $16.5 million round of financing led by new investors Pitango and Softbank, as well as prior investors General Catalyst, Spark Capital, and Union Square Ventures. That's $10.5 million more than Boxee's last round of funding, at which point the Boxee team consisted of 12 employees banging out code to bring the media center's software out of alpha. And now? Boxee's team is 34 members strong, the software is in version 1.0, and the Boxee Box is shipping around the world. Where does Boxee go from here?

There's a new firmware revision available for Boxee Box owners that finally adds Vudu support, which Boxee has been promising since late 2010.

"Vudu on the Boxee Box means: access to the largest selection of HD movies on-demand, new releases (same day as DVD), thousands of movies available for rental at $2 for 2 nights (in standard definition). We are psyched," Boxee's Avner Ronen wrote in a blog post.

To celebrate the occasion, Vudu is offering every new user who signs up on the Boxee Box a $5.99 credit towards a first rental or purchase. If you own a Boxee Box, you should have received the update by now, but if not you can force the issue by heading to Settings > System > Update.

The latest firmware release also adds a boatload of enhancements and bug fixes, but still no Netflix. Not to worry, Boxee says it's "still on track for a release later this month."

For those of you who received a Boxee Box for the holidays and were disappointed to find out that both Vudu and Netflix aren't yet supported, don't despair, both are coming soon.

"We're sorry that Vudu and Netflix will not be available on the Boxee Box until January," Boxee's Avner Ronen wrote in a blog post. "I know many users will be upset. I am disappointed that we couldn't make it happen in time for the end of the year. However I'd ask that you put your faith in us. There are countless devices with access to these services available, but I'd like to think you chose Boxee because we offer something different, in our approach, in our commitment, in our passion, in the way we communicate (whether it's good stuff or bad), and in how quickly we move on the stuff that matters most to our users."

Ronen says that Vudu should be up and running by the end of next week, which the Boxee team hopes will be enough to pacify users until Netflix joins the fray at the end of the month. So why the delay?

"While both services are up and running in our offices on the Boxee Box, we need some more time to test each application to make sure they are ready for launch," Ronen explained.

Let's face it, Netflix and Hulu rule the streaming media world, both are awesome, and we all want our devices to support them. That hasn't really been a problem with Netflix, which has burst into our living rooms via set to boxes, consoles, Blu-ray players, and scores of other devices. Hulu? Now that's another story.

Well, we have some great news folks. D-Link's new Boxee Box just launched and it supports Netflix, VUDU, and Hulu Plus. Not right away, mind you, but both Netflix and Hulu Plus will be supported "before the end of the year."

On the hardware and connectivity side, the new media streamer comes powered by an Intel processor and includes HDMI out, an Ethernet port, Wireless-N, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, S/PDIF and composite audio connectors, and a SD card reader.

The new Box is available now for $200 street.