I would have preferred an IR receiver built-in, but it's likely the board used was a reference design that didn't include one initially. For setting this up in a shared home theater or custom environment, IR is pretty much mandatory.

I think I'm going to test my IR receivers with a Windows installation of Boxee and then I'm going to contact them to see if they'd like a couple of receivers for testing. Of course I'll also ask them if I might get a Boxee Box for testing...