1 million is a lot of beta users. But that’s the number of users that IPTV startup Joost co-founder Niklas Zennström said are using the service at a press event in Estonia yesterday (get your invitation to Joost here). And he also said the service would launch publicly by year end.
The company, which raised $45 million in venture capital in May, is one of the trendy startups right now. And they’ve benefited from some of YouTube’s legal woes by becoming the partner of choice for the anti-Google crowd.
Some complain that online TV should come through the browser, not a new application like Joost (which, however, is built partially on the Mozilla application framework). But Joost is a solid application that is attracting some well known content owners. Having the Skype founders behind it certainly hasn’t hurt, of course. This could be the web application launch of the year.
thanks to techcrunch, i’ve been one in a million for a few weeks. the quality and convenience are very good.
it should be easier to submit feedback (’beta testing’ has lost its meaning)
it would be good to have config options re the location and size of cache, up and download allowance, etc.
the programming selection hasn’t changed at all since my testing began. i’m through the Strangers with Candy episodes they had, some Robot Chicken; wish there were more choices (but i’m likely out of their demo)
I know I was one of the million, but I’ve only opened it about two times. The quality is too low for me
“This could be the web application launch of the year.”
Lets not forget the new Tailrank, which is due any day now..
yes, any day now..
any day.. just you wait and see
I’m excited. I think it’s going to be very interesting to see how response is to this platform and what it offers. Very cool.
Your article seems to contradict itself, how can it be a web application if its a completely separate software download that runs independently of a web browser?
“This could be the web application launch of the year.”
When the previous sentence talks about it not being a web application.
Joost has been dubbed a “TV Browser”
http://www.joost.com/video/blog-dirk1.html
Joosts CTO Dirk van Gulik calls Joost a TV Browser
Web browsers are for the World Wide Web
not TV .
Joost is meant to be used on any device that has a internet connection and a screen (as suggeted in this video from Joosts Chief Creative Officer Henrik Werdelin)
http://www.joost.com/video/blog-hw1.html
The app is fine for me (albeit a bit unstable)…but not so many good shows are available…thus i don’t watch.
Joost? What’s all the hype about? At my school, I and my friends love Cavenger (www.cavenger.com)
Wow. 1 million beta users is a lot ,and they have not launched yet;they are really corssing their t s and dotting their i s.
I seems they are securing their partners before going out into the belly of the beast. SMART. REALLY SMART.
Slow and steady still wins the race.
Shadius, I think it’s apparent but maybe web-based application would be clearer. It’s an application entirely driven by internet content, so I think web application is a fair categorization even if it doesn’t actually live in your browser.
@Niraj
Would you call iTunes a web application then? Or would you call it an internet application?
Would you call Outlook a web application or an internet application?
Both of them use the internet, but not the web.
I am also one of the users and I’m greatly dissapointed.
1. No linux client.
2. Does not integrate with any media centers.
I want to watch this content on my 50″ tv not a computer monitor. Just doesn’t cut it for me. I can watch just about any video site through my wii browser, but cant use joost.
I also maybe used it twice.
Joost seems ok…but I care about content. And whenever I open Joost - there’s nothing I want to see…not to mention load times…
I’m still grappling with why I should care about where to get my content. To the chagrin of tv execs everywhere, I’m not watching NBC, for example, because they “understand my needs most” or because they are the cooooolest TV station. It’s because I can watch The Office on NBC.
Technology Shmechmology — I still go to YouTube for the music videos I can’t get anywhere and the TV snippets I can get before they are pulled, and I go to SNL for a skit or two. All the rest of my TV watching still happens on…wait for it…the TV.
Once TV and my web converge (yes Bill, I know, yes, we too believe it’ll happen), maybe I can have less screens around the house. But it still won’t change my need for good content.
@ceaseoleo if you 50″ isn’t a piece of shit you can in fact hook joost into tv. im running on my 61″ and its the bomb. get yourself a laptop remote.
I love all the documentaries Joost has. Unfortunately, the stupid thing always crashes on me. I hope that’s the “beta” part.
I guess I should also add that I’ve ran Joost on my tv as well, and simply operated it with a wireless mouse by my side. Looks great, works great…’til it crashes.
I’ve tried installing it multiple times on my mac and it crashes on launch everytime.
tested Joost, removed it, use Miro now.
For all those that have crashing Joost on startup (yes its a true beta) there is a workaround .
On windows delete the %APPDATA%\Joost directory
On the Mac hold the ALT key while loading Joost
this will create a new Profile when you restart Joost
Joost sometimes corrupts the Mozilla XUL Runner profile and its a known bug .
too bad it doesn’t work with Vista… or does it? Haven’t checked back for quite some time.
I was a beta member, but was duly unimpressed with the experience and haven’t been back. Crash central. All hype, no substance, I’m afraid.
Joost was cool when it worked. Now, after an update awhile back, it crashes every time I open it. Anyone else having problems?
Surely Joost can’t live up to the hype.
chris @ http://www.frostfirebuzz.com - Internet news
Ditto here! –> CRASH.
After the latest update, Joost crashes every time I start it… it used to work quite well form this side of the pond. Some serious debugging required before end of year then!
Joost is a browser
Hehe if Joost is a browser than maybe IE8 will only allow to browse http://www.Live.com and http://www.Microsoft.com (or maybe also http://www.ITPD.eu)
No one mentioned that they have been a pretty long time as a beta webpage. They had wonderful results, but don´t exagerate.
Well, I’m one of those 1 million beta testers. I’ve been a Joost beta user since it first launched as the Venice Project last year. But here’s the reality, I haven’t launched the application in about 8 months. I’ve got it installed on my laptop and I travel at least 2 weeks/month, but haven’t seen much value in it. I think it’s been a lot of hype for more than a year with little results showing how much better it is. I think comparing it to 2000 technology, it’s ahead of its time. But what about a slingbox? What about tivo downloads from Amazon? What blockbuster downloads? I think it’s a solution looking for a problem to solve. The industry already solved the problem.
Unless they can produce some revolutionary content that can be distributed on existing channels, I think they’ll be in the dead pool in less than 12 months.
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title o.us poetry. Thanks for informative article
That really a cool decision when smart man gave away Skype to focus on Joost. With Joost, they can earn more money with ads.