Joost now open and free for everyone
If you haven't managed to snag one of the free beta tokens from another Joost user, today is your lucky day, because the service has launched version 1.0, and is free and open to anyone who wants to use it. The once invite-only video content program is one of the few services we've seen since Google's Gmail to successfully use beta access to both intentionally control the scale of its user base and build up hype. It also doesn't hurt when it's created by the same duo that made Skype and Kazaa.
If you've been a loyal Joost user since the company rolled out its private beta last year, version 1.0 isn't a whole lot different from the latest build, however the newer "plastic" menus are much better looking than the contrastacular ones of yore. There's also a ton of content, which Joost pits somewhere above 150,000 shows, spanned across 250 or so "channels," including one with entire episodes of the original Transformers series.
There are, however, a few caveats that might slow your step towards downloading Joost. The first is for Mac users, who need a newer Intel machine to enjoy any programming--so that dual core G5 you have for Photoshop won't be able handle this. You also need a broadband connection, since all content is streamed, meaning you won't have access to any content while offline.
On a side note, for those of you looking to ditch your cable provider's on demand service and enjoy Joost programming in your living room, help is on the way. In an interview with NewTeeVee, Joost's CEO Mike Volpi noted that the the service and technology could be ported over to a set top box within the next 18 months, the company is just looking for partners and wants to get things working a little better first. Stay tuned.
Looking for some TV shows and don't feel like downloading them? Check out Joost.
(Credit: Joost N.V.)
Josh Lowensohn writes for Webware.com, CNET's blog about Web applications and services. E-mail Josh, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Josh. 
Great work...keep it coming.
4 1/2 STARS.
---Lauren
Cons: The program downloaded and installed ok, but before it even got completely installed it started making my RAMBooster and Rubber Ducky go crazy. Every 5 seconds I hear that loud siren and the poor ducky is drowning, so I know this program is using quite a lot of resources. I had no problem signing up, as others seem to have had, but when I clicked on the verify link in the email, an alert kept popping up that said that site needed authorization, or something to that effect. I just kept clicking ok until the page finally loaded and said I was successfully registered.
Over the last few days I cannot sign in at all, no matter what time of day it is, I have no idea if this is because Joost is now open to a wider audience, or if that's a coincidence.
Regarding the comments above about sign up problems: Joost was like that for me when I signed up at first, it took multiple attempts to do so successfully, there are suggestions in the help pages, one of which eventually worked for me. Try http://www.joost.com/forums/f/problems-installing-or-registering/
Interestingly, I just tried logging into Joost as I type this, still not working, but the volume on Winamp dropped almost right down to nothing during the log in to Joost process, returned to normal levels after I shut Joost down and reset the sound settings via Control Panel on XP Pro.
There are still many problems with Joost, obviously, but it is still a beta version as I understand it!
- Not good enough
- by JonP07 October 4, 2007 12:48 PM PDT
- Will not install on XP64. 32 bit is so old.
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