Boxee's TV app venturing out of the living room and onto iPhone and iPad

In the next few months, you'll be able to take coach bags, the software designed to marry television with online video, to the bathroom, the bedroom and the park. Boxee is working on versions of its application for the iPhone and iPad, with one for Google's Android also on the schedule.

Development has already begun on the iPad app. The New York company recently posted a job opening for a lead developer on software for Apple's mobile operating systems, as the coach outlet blog pointed out on Thursday.

Boxee currently has an iPhone app, which interfaces with the computer software as a remote control. The upcoming program would allow the more than a million users of the free service to stream video on-the-go.

Several iPads are lying around the start-up's fifth-floor office near Union Square in Manhattan. Boxee Chief Executive Avner Ronen excitedly discussed the potential for the iPad -- rather, large-screen tablet computers in general, as he's also excited about some prototype Android touch-screen computers he's seen this year.

"It's perfect for video," Ronen said before loading a TV show on ABC's iPad app. "You can start watching in bed. And then just take it with you."

The company had other priorities in mind before expanding its list of supported operating systems beyond Mac, Windows, Linux and Apple TV. Ronen hopes to find more content partners, add better social features and roll out a centralized cheap coach bags to be leveraged by developers. Mobile apps were further down on that list, he said.

"Having the iPad in our hands bumped up that priority," Ronen said. Evaluating his own usage habits in the last week or so with the iPad, Ronen says he uses it most in the living room, second-most in bed and, yes, in the bathroom.

By design, Boxee is meant for the living room -- to be installed on a computer or laptop, and connected to a TV. The shift to mobile apps is a philosophy change for the company. And one that requires a major transformation in how the Boxee software will present content.