Joost is kinda cool

About a month and a half ago my Professor/Advisor introduced the class to a program simply called Joost. It is a media program created by the same persons that created Skype and Kazaa. The core of the program is to watch Television programs on your computer via P2P (peer to peer) sharing. It is completly free as well.

I checked out more info on Joost and signed up for the beta. Today I was able to download and give it a shot. Upon openning the program, it takes you into a full screen UI. This actually suprised and impressed me. The fact that it went into full screen gives it more of a TV feel and the interface is really slick and well made. Upon opening the program you sign in using a user account that you set up once you download the program. Of course you can switch between full screen and windowed mode.

On the left side of the screen you see a button called My Channels. Upon clicking on it you see a list of channels that you can choose from to view programs. These include well known names like MTV and Warner Brothers, to lesser known names in the media like Bite TV and Gamestar.

One thing that struck me was how many programs were available to watch on the beta. over 12 channels each having a good amount of content. The navigation is easy with its simple point-click interface and the quality of the videos is really really nice. Much better then Youtube as a comparison. Another nice feature is that if you shut off the program in the middle of a show and open it up again, you'll start right back where you left off.

Since it's a beta it does have it's fair share of issues. The biggest issue is lag time in the UI. The program is also pretty processor intensive, and it drains your bandwith. You really can't be downloading anything with Joost running otherwise you'll experience lag. I'm hopeful these issues will be fixed in the final version.

Over all it's a promising program. It's got the brains of the Kazaa and Skype empire along with a concept that everyone can enjoy AND a really nice interface to top it all off. Can't wait to try a release.

For more information visit:
http://www.joost.com