JoostTeam

I got this email earlier today:

Many thanks for your interest in Livestation and for your continued patience.

We have had an extraordinary level of interest in Livestation and we have
been working hard to develop the product further. We are now in the process
of rolling out the next phase of the trial with a number of leading
broadcasters to a selected group of users.

As one of those who expressed an early interest in Livestation, we hope that
you will be among of the first to see the new service. We will be extending
this trial over the coming weeks so look out for an invitation soon.

In the mean time we would like to thank you for your continued patience and
interest in Livestation.

We will be in touch again soon, but expect to see more information on our
website at livestation.com

So if you have been testing LiveStation in the past expect an invitation in the next few eeks!

TechCrunch say that their source is claiming that Hulu will go in private beta next Monday, so that it can still meet CEO Jason Kilar’s self-imposed October deadline.

I am curious to see if I will get an invitation… but I don’t have too much hope since I am in Canada and apparently Hulu will be a US only offering…

Joost just released version 1.0.2 of it’s client for Mac (intel only… sorry PPC) and Windows. There has not been any forum post about it yet so I don’t know for sure what new is in this release… but I suspect it revolves around bug fixes and UI improvements.

You can download the new client over there:

Joost for Windows
Joost for Macosx

Cheers

Just found out that Joost released a new version of it’s client. Based on the Joost forum post this appear to be mainly a bug fix release:

We’ve just posted a bug fix release. You’ll find that 1.0.1 has lots of UI fixes and touchups. It should also behave better during startup on Vista.

Joost for Windows
Joost for Macosx

As always, we want to hear from you, so please report any problems you have right away!

So download and enjoy!

Softwarebattle.com wrote an interesting review of Joost. Here is an extract. Read the rest on http://www.softwarebattle.com/2007/10/04/joost-beta-review/:

Joost has been one of my favorite programs to play around with since I first got my hands on an early beta copy. A lot has changed since then. Modified user interface, advertisements, new logo, and a hell of a lot of new channels, but the core of the program remains the same. The program instantly sucks you in. From the instant full screen mode to the fancy moving “loading” light swirls to a GUI that reminds me of several Mac programs, the 1.0 Beta version of Joost hooks you from the minute you fire it up.

One of the things that I’m happy to report on with the new version is that the channel selection seems to have grown by a large margin. It is still missing my favorite show, Top Gear, but I suppose I can settle with Fifth Gear, Audi TV, and the various other car shows and music video stations that Joost currently offers. As more networks start to get involved, hopefully Joost will continue to grow, but there’s a little something for everyone even now.

…

Joost just revamped it’s website. Gone is the feeling of emptiness that was plaguing the previous version. Joost now sport a look that feel fuller and richer. Much more web 2.0 and more in line with what you would expect from on online video company.

Joost also opened it’s beta to everyone at the same time. You no longer need to get an invitation to try the amazing software. Simply head over here and download freely!

Nice work Joost!

Guess what just quietly showed up! Yes, the shiny new Joost beta client 1.0 for Mac and Windows:

As you can see below the UI has been updated to a new dark gray transparent theme. This new UI was previously reported here as the “spoon” UI. I am pleased to see that it is now present throughout the most part of the client interface.

Joost now offer a completely re-designed Channel Guide called “Explore”.

By clicking on the categories listed on the left you will be presented a nicely animated list of channels corresponding to your selection. The interface is visually much better than the previous one… but I have yet to figure out how to do basic tasks I had no problem doing before.

For example, I can’t seem to be able to delete channels from “My Channels”… and I have not found how to add new channels to “My Channels” yet. It is almost as if the interface is 75% done and is lacking 25% of it’s functionality.

I also noticed some UI left overs from the previous release… like the “Coming Up” notice shown below. Compare the old black UI look alongside the new gray one:

Or the help screen shown when clicking the “?” in the bottom panel:

But I will take the new UI over the old one any day… even with the current issues.

Go download Joost Beta 1.0 here!

Nice work Joost!

P.S.: Get your beta invitation at: <no more needed> if you need one! Direct from Joost!

Update Oct 1 2007:

Took the invitation link down. Joost is now available to all and no longer requires invitation!

Since the announcement of OnTheToob acquisition by Joost a cold wind has been blowing on the “not so secret” Joost IRC channel (do some Googling to track it down). Many Joost developers are hanging in it and are chatting about various subjects.

Recently things got really quiet. Some would say that development get this quiet before major releases. If the level of “quietness” is proportional to the level of “change” in the next client release then one might say that it will be huge.

At the same time you might have noticed the large quantity of new content showing in the Joost database. There has also been more activity going on it the Joost blog with multiple posts per week… Joost also did some minor adjustments to it’s content search result page. So work is going on behind the scene… it is just not echoing as it use to in IRC.

I do not have much to report as far as Joost news today… but keep an ear on possible chatter between the team at IOSpirit (Remote Buddy) and Joost. As you might have noticed I found this nice gem of AJAX based remote control interface in the Remote Buddy beta software. This does some of what I had described in previous post regarding using an iPhone/iPod Touch as a super remote control (search my previous post).

I sincerely hope that something nice come out of this. If Remote Buddy was Windows compatible I would say that Joost should acquire them to kickstart the development of the Joost iPhone/iPod Touch remote control interface.

So that is it. I have no idea when the next major release of Joost client will be… but I am sure looking for it.

There is a patch release out for the single channel trial – version 1.0.63.3. This release fixes a few nasty timing and start up related bugs that were causing some people problems. It’s probably the last single channel release.

LiveStation are testing the multi-channel player now, and looking to bring it out of testing soon. It apparently looks and works great but we will have to wait a little while longer to see for ourselves.

LiveStation are at IBC hanging around the Microsoft stand giving demo’s of the new work, so if you’re in Amsterdam this weekend go and look!

[Source LiveStation blog]

Update:

I was reminded that the Sept 10th 2007 deadline does not mean that Joost will actually implement changes to Joost community, security and UI. It mean that after this date everyone will need to run at a minimum Joost beta 0.12.0 and above.

The changes will come at a later, not yet announced, date.

Original post:

Apparently Joost will make some major changes on September 10 2007. If you are not running the most recent client (0.12.0) then go and upgrade as soon as possible. After September 10 2007 all old version of Joost beta clients will stop functioning.

This is what Joost has to say about the upgrade:

Are you using the latest version of Joost – version 0.12.0? If not, it’s time to upgrade! We’re about to make a lot of changes to our community, security and UI features and we need to get everyone onto the newest version of Joost.

If you’re on a PC and reading this before September 10, start up Joost and let it run for a couple of hours. Joost will upgrade automatically.

If you’re on a Mac or reading this after September 10, go to www.joost.com/download to upgrade to the latest version.

I will try to get more details on what is in store for Joost users after the September 10 2007 deadline.

[Source: joost]