Joost.
In the past month, “Joost” has become a very popular application and subject to talk about. Beta testing just began for the Mac version and now everyone wants to try it out. I was lucky enough to get one of those invites and I was able to try out Joost.
At first I was skeptical about Joost, I was expecting slow buffering times and really buggy software, but I was for the most part wrong. It took about three minutes to download and once it’s running (and you have entered your password and username) you are set. The interface is simple yet elegant and reminds me of iPhoto (black theme with mouse-over toolbars).
When watching video it takes about fifteen to thirty seconds to begin and from there it goes, rarely ever stopping. The video quality, is better than Youtube, and is watchable for long periods of time.
Joost could be the best video player out there, but the only thing holding it back is the content, which we should expect to grow throughout the year (Viacom deal). At the moment there are only few interesting channels like Fifth Gear, National Geographics, and MTV (Canada) to watch. There are also some channels that I would prefer to never see again. What I would like to see is small media companies (like Revision3) to create their own channel and new publish content as it comes out. I also wouldn’t allow just any old joe to add a channel because Joost would turn into a Youtube application and do we really want that? I think not.
Widgets have also been added to Joost, so if you get tired of just watching a show you can instant message your friends through Google Talk and more!
Joost is a great new video application for the Mac and PC that allows for quick buffering time, slick interface, and it has a lot going for it. If you weren’t lucky enough to get Joost invitation I happen to have one extra token for whoever sends me the first email (voonumail@gmail.com).
