During my Dublin vacation, I caught wind of the new iPhone Joost client via Twitter. Putting the hotel’s complimentary Internet connectivity to good use, I immediately downloaded the WiFi-only app. Joost’s content selection, while in Europe, was pretty sparse… especially in regards to what I’d call premium video. (Axl Rose riding an airport luggage carousel isn’t very compelling.) Here in the states, I have a much larger library of “real” content to choose from. Although, the iPhone index suffer from the same problem as the web-based selections: Offerings are entirely random and there may not be anything worthwhile. At my desk, I see this as a shortcoming. However while blowing time at an airport, browsing Joost it could be a fun exercise in discovery and distraction. Of course, I still believe the best solution is a Slingbox with access to my TiVo… So it’s too bad they haven’t released an iPhone SlingPlayer yet.
The browse option could use some help – it’s pages of lists, and genres are not enough. How about network searching? Or some editorial categories? Also, the kill video button (that X in the lower right) should include a confirmation dialog – especially give the full length features and proximity to the aspect ratio control.
Yet another app not available in Canada. I signed up for the Joost beta when it first came out. It never worked in Canada – though nowhere did it say that. I tried to cancel and there is no way. Ever since I keep getting emails from Joost begging me to come back and try again. I sent emails to their support folks trying to get me off the list. Getting emails just added salt into the Canadian wound. The only way I could stop it was to add them into my spam filter. Grrrr!!!!!
It takes a few tries on mine to get videos to play. But after that all videos play fine. With alittle work I think it has potential.
Mine play, but it seems to take about a minute to buffer up or something. Can’t complain about the price, I suppose. :)
Hi Dale,
I work for Joost.
The Joost iPhone app should be available in Canada, via the iTunes store and certainly our web version works there too.
Please can you send me (andy@joost.com) the output from http://www.joost.com/support/specs and I’ll investigate for you.
thanks
Andrew
Thanks Andrew:
I just tested on my iPhone and I did get it to work. Whether I get the content American’s do I don’t know. It seemed it was all string bikini shows and movies and TV shows from the 50s. There absolutely nothing mainstream and modern on it, if that’s what its supposed to be. I did a search for Karate Kid (pictured above) and it wasn’t there.
As for the PC. I tried twice over several months and don’t particularly want to go back if that’s all I can expect. All that kind of content is available through any number of sources on the net.
If we could get modern, non-obscure TV channels or the kind of stuff that’s on Hulu or Netflix, I’d be more interested. But fringe content that seems to be not much different from what is available on YouTube, I’m not really interested.
…Dale