.:joost: TV over IP:.
from the site:
“Joost™ is a new way of watching TV on the internet, which uses new and established technologies to provide the best of both the internet and TV worlds. We’re in the process of making it as TV-like as we can, with programmes, channels and adverts. You can also see some things that we think will enhance the TV experience: searching for programmes and channels, for example, as well as social features like chat. There are many more new features to come!”
in a nutshell:
this is the hot new trend, friends…IPTV…or televison delivered hot and fresh to your door over the internet. netflix is going to roll out a similar on-demand service to it’s subscribers at no extra cost. microsoft will be launching their new service that will work with the xbox 360…further establishing that particular product as more than ‘just a video game system’. i’m sure you’ll see sony following suite here soon.
but joost…joost is a product of the same company that brings you skype, a hugely successful low-cost IP phone service.
it’s currently in beta, and you can sign up to be a tester. my feelings are a little mixed for this particular service right now. watching television on my computer does not really excite me. i do enough on my computer during the day…why would i want to further cement myself in front of the thing when i could watch my rather nice, large, easy-to-watch flatscreen from the comfort of my couch? is there really any argument? of course, don’t expect watching on your computer to last long. a way will be found where you can stream all of this stuff to your TV through a settop box or the use of another piece of equipment…like an xbox 360 for instance. that could potentially be done given that a windows media player conversion process is built into the Joost player…but we won’t get into that here.
for the time being, just believe me when i tell you that you shouldn’t be surprised to see your cable or satellite bills start to decrease over the next year or so. the market is starting to heat up quite a bit…and joost will be one of the pioneers.
