A few weeks back, the Venice Project aka Joost team had opened up an early alpha version of their peer to peer TV client for some of GigaOM/NewTeeVee users, and seeking their feedback on how to improve the software. Well, you all seem to have done a good job. The company has just announced the beta version of their Mac client. Update: the Mac beta has been temporarily pulled, with a re-release coming soon.

…. we were able to leverage both the tremendous work done by the Client team for the Windows version as well as the cross-platform power of Mozilla. As a result, we have a Mac version that looks very much like Joost for Windows, while behaving very much like a Mac application.

In an interview earlier this year the CEO Fredrik de Wahl had explained how easy it was for the company to port their client to other operating environments. He had promised a Mac client in less than two months.

A couple of things to note: I have not tested this beta as yet, because I am currently traveling and won’t be back in my home office up until next week. So please share your impressions with rest of us. It works only on Intel Macs, so Power PC-based system owners are out of luck for now.

Om Malik

Om Malik is a San Francisco based writer, photographer and investor. More....

22 thoughts on “Joost for Mac beta is out now”

  1. I really believe JOOST could change the future of TV and the Web. It brings together great quality video with all the interactivity and community of the web, seamlessly, and designed with the user in mind. A lot of people have tried this, Joost has done it. They need to get great content on the system, but its a great platform.

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  2. Its funny, I have exactly the opposite reaction to Hashem. I dont get why anyone would be excited about this.

    It has a nice full screen interface, but in my mind the interface is much more appropriate for a TV than a PC. Its a “lean back” interface. So I am left with the question of “what is the user model for this software?”

    Its not for little clips – the YouTube UI is much better for that, and I really dont want to watch seinfeld with this thing. I guess with a media PC connected to a TV this would be a great interface, but that is very much not a here and now thing – at least in large numbers.

    As a PC product its not at all viral because there is no way to mail links or to put widgets on websites like youtube. It doesnt speak the language of the web. In my mind, YouTube can be competitive with this at any time by just playing at a higher quality, which will come. And doing this type of UI in flash as an overlay on youtube is really trivial.

    I think this is a much harder thing to do than skype – which was viral, and kazaa, which was free music. Now that said, the good news for these guys is since its p2p they can afford to go a long time with limited success since there is essentially no bandwidth cost and they have lots of cash. But honestly, I think Brightcove is much more significant in this market and is solving much harder problems.

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  3. I agree with Hank Williams, although I prefer Hank Williams Jr.

    What is all of the hype about Joost? The content is stale and boring, the interface while clean, is not meant for Internet, but is a throwback to the days of plain jane TV. I thought you folks were into NewTeeVee, not RetroTeeVee.

    For my dollar, I would rather bet on Veoh or Democracy. I think that Veoh has got it right : web directory where you can view Flash video, and a remote controllable player that you can connect to the TV. And, it’s not the boring content that is on Joost. Joost is a closed system, so it will always be worse than any open system.

    I am the baddest musician on the planet, even when I’m dead. BTW, all my rowdy friends are coming over tonight 🙂

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  7. I’ve been using joost since the beta first came out. I use it every day at home and at work. The mac version works every bit as good as the pc version (even a little better). Yes the content is a bit light but what do you expect – episodes of “Lost”? But my little girls got introduced to Mr. Magoo – that’s friggin priceless! There are widgets and the interactivity possibilities are promising. From what I’ve seen though I think that Paul Neave (neave.tv) is what I’d like to use as a publisher and consumer. If any of you know Paul and can get me his ear – let me know please 🙂 Peace.

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  16. Pingback: Joost For The Mac, A Welcome Addition « East Coast Blogging

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