If you guys have noticed lately, I haven’t updated my Twitter or blog in a while. I have been busy with my offline life and I have seem to have neglected my prescence online. So as a sign to show you how sorry I am, I will be giving away free Joost invites! So What are you waiting for? Go make a comment and get your Joost! Now for some random ramblings on Joost.

What is Joost?

First of all if you never heard of Joost before, let me enlight you. Joost is an “internet T.V” for Intel Mac and Windows. It is created by the same people that is behind Skype. Unlike YouTube, Joost has legal video from major corporation such as Warner Bros, Adult Swim, SI, and such. The bad thing is that it doesn’t show that many popular shows from these corporation. This is why I don’t think Joost might be the new T.V. Never the less it is a great idea.

Usability

I believe that Joost has one of the easiest interface around. The interface immediately shows up if you move your mouse at any given point. The best thing about it is that it has an opacity low enough so that you can still watch your video but not so low that you can’t read the text. It also conveniently include a search bar right there in front of you in case you want to search for a video quickly. Like any good video service, Joost also has parental control. Although the parental control can easily be bypass by any one that is savvy enough to clik a few buttons.

You could also use your keyboard as a remote control that can access anything. So if you are going to use Joost in your living room, you don’t need to use a mouse and annoyingly search for the cursor to click things. Your number pad acts like a normal number pad on a remote and your arrow keys are your volume and channel control for quick access.

The text on the interface is also optimized for viewing Joost on your tv. The text are clear, contrasted and big enough for you to be able to read from accross the living room.

Joost can also be viewed at both fullscreen and window mode. So if you are watching a great video but you need to do some work, you can conveniently resize it into a window so you can do both. The bad thing is that it does lag your computer when it is running. That’s where the stand by button comes in.

Joost can be put into stand by mode if you need to do something that requires some cpu power. The great thing is that when you put it into stand by mode, it doesn’t take up that much resource and when you want Joost back, its start up is nearly instantly.

Widgets

There is a section on Joost called “My Joost”. This is a personalized section that shows your widgets. Sadly you can’t make your own widget. You can only used the supplied widget like I.M for Jabber and G-mail, Channel Chat, and an RSS reader. Another bad thing is that you can only access it if you are in full screen mode. But that doesn’t really matter right? Joost is suppose to be a media center and not so much a social center (apparently). So Lets take this as a plus.

Conclusion

I think Joost has a great potential, but right now, I don’t think it will take any market, if not create one. It falls short of YouTube or T.V. Like YouTube, its video quality ain’t the best. The good thing is that it has a short load time because it buffers as you play (and the video quality isn’t the best). I think its only competition right now is Democracy T.V, which also is in BETA.

Overall I had an intereseting experience with Joost, but I don’t think it will replace T.V for me. Don’t take my word for it, write a comment and get your Joost!

Thanks to GoSammy for my Joost. This was not a paid review.

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