Blog 64
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A Note About Today's Changes
Today we’ve decided to make some changes at Joost. In these tough economic times, it’s been increasingly challenging to operate as an independent, ad-supported online video platform. In order to position ourselves well for the future, we began investigating additional lines of revenue for Joost.
After much analysis, we have decided to change our focus and to start providing white label online video platforms for media companies and distributors. We have built a solid technology platform that there is demand for in the marketplace, and look forward to this new chapter for our company. At the same time, we’ll continue to operate Joost.com and its associated video applications.
Unfortunately, as a part of this change, we will say goodbye to many of our colleagues and friends. This is obviously disappointing and sad – it’s never easy saying goodbye to coworkers, especially when people have poured so much of their time, talent, effort and emotion into a company. We appreciate the contribution that all of our employees have given to Joost, and wish them well in the future.
Thank you for all of your support. -
Remembering Michael Jackson: 1958 - 2009
Like the rest of the world, we were shocked and saddened by Michael Jackson's sudden passing yesterday.
The King of Pop transcended music, becoming a cultural icon of the type that the world might never see again. He single-handedly revolutionized the music video and the music video industry. Thriller, Black or White and Remember the Time featured intricate story lines and - unsurprisingly - elaborate dance routines that are entertaining in their own right - with or without the soundtrack.
Well after the stream of news and tributes in his honor has slowed to a steady trickle, his legacy will live on. -
Do You Love Cartoons?
There's something about old school cartoons. Maybe they take you back to your childhood, and you can remember sitting on the floor, watching cartoons while snacking on milk and cookies.If you were lucky, you got double-stuffed, chocolate covered Oreos.
Maybe you were too young or not born, and you missed the cartoons of the '80s. Action figures of your animated friends He-Man and She-Ra never made it into your toy chest.
Or maybe, and most tragically, you weren't allowed to watch cartoons. Instead, you were forced to do things like play outside, finish your homework or practice a sport or an instrument.
Now you can self-diagnose and fit yourself into one of these categories. Or you can take our Retro Cartoon Quiz and put yourself in a category based on your results. In addition to Prince Adam and Princess Adora, there are the Transformers, G.I. Joe and more.
Good luck...and if you don't like your results the first time, try again! -
A Note about the iPhone OS Update
Tomorrow brings with it the much-awaited iPhone 3.0 OS update. This software update includes a lot of great new features, but we need to modify the Joost iPhone app to make it work on this new software.
To get a little more technical, some of the APIs we used have changed significantly, so we have to rework a great deal of the application logic to make the Joost app work on 0S 3.0.
We're working hard to finish the OS 3.0-compatible version and will submit it to Apple very soon - and hope that it will be approved quickly. We'll let you when the new version is available (or if you want to continue watching Joost on you iPhone or iPod Touch, don't download the 3.0 software update).
In the meantime, we released a version of Joost customized for the Sony PlayStation 3 today - check it out - and some other side projects - at Joost Labs. -
It’s Time to Subscribe
You might have noticed a new button hanging out on Joost.com – the Subscribe to Channel button. And maybe you’ve wondered – what does that mean? What will happen if I click this button?
Quite simply, if you click this button – and you’re signed up for Joost – then we’ll send you an email when there are new videos in the channel. Right now, we’re sending these emails twice a week – and we only send them to you if there are new videos in the channel. We include information about new videos in all of your subscribed channels in one email – even if you subscribe to 50 channels.
This week, if you’ve subscribed to some of these channels, you would be among the first to find out about these new shows:
Showtime: the season premiere of Weeds – is Nancy pregnant?
The Colbert Report: clips from Stephen Colbert’s Iraq trip
TV Guide Celebrity Interviews: Mark Paul Gosselaar talking about a Saved by the Bell reunion
Some channels add new videos every day, while some add them weekly, monthly, or every couple of months. So if you have a favorite channel, it pays to subscribe – especially since it’s free.
Let us know what you think at [url=mailto:feedback@joost.com]feedback@joost.com[/url] – and don’t forget to manage your subscriptions and email preferences to make sure that if you’ve subscribed to a channel, you get the email updates! -
R.I.P. David Carradine
Sadly, David Carradine passed away yesterday in his hotel in Bangkok.
As a TV actor, he was best known for his work on the 1970s TV show Kung Fu as David Chang Caine. Kung Fu is interesting to watch today - a retro look at a Chinese-American orphan raised in a Shaolin monastery in China to be a Shaolin master...who then travels to the "Old West," circa the late 1800s, of America. -
It's Our New and Improved Embeddable Player!
We just released a new version of our embeddable player which, in addition to a new user interface, has some new and improved technical features.
First of all, you can now choose to share your actions – like watching or favoriting a video – from Joost’s embeddable player to your JoostFeed on Joost.com. In other words, you can be logged into Joost all over the web.
Hand in hand with that, you can favorite or shout at a video directly in the embeddable player - try it out on this episode of Naruto Shippuden. You can also share the video you’re watching with your friends and followers through Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon and Delicious.
The top right corner of the embeddable player has a Goodies tab – and clicking that tab gives you just that – Goodies. There’s a search box which lets you search for any video on Joost – and start watching it, if you’d like. (You can also toggle between a grid-like view of the different videos that match your search and a more iTunes-y like format, formally known as coverflow.)
The Goodies tab also has links to find related videos, grab the link for the video so you can share it with your friends or grab the embed code so you can embed the video you’re watching on your own website or blog. You can also find more information about the particular video you’re watching and link back to your profile on Joost.com.
Last but not least, there’s an Easter egg available. We won’t tell you exactly what it is, but if you enjoy the live programming we have, and you have your own website or blog, you’ll probably like it.
What do you think? Tell us at [url=mailto:feedback@joost.com]feedback@joost.com[/url]. -
What Do Edie Falco, Sharon Stone and Glenn Close Have in Com
There are a couple of right answers. Like, they're blonde. And they're actresses. But the other answer - which you might have guessed - is they're all on Joost right now.
Edie Falco has traveled up the Jersey Turnpike to be a New York City nurse in the new Showtime series Nurse Jackie. It's not on TV until June 8, but you can watch the premiere episode now, and find out why Jackie, who, as you might have guessed, is a nurse, is part sinner, part saint.
Sharon Stone and Glenn Close appear in two movies - Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction, respectively (as if we had to tell you that) - that are a part of our Paramount Pictures channel, our brand-new movie channel. In addition to these movies there's the Richard Gere - Edward Norton thriller Primal Fear, (as a complete aside, that title and Basic Instinct seem to go together, don't they
; formerly-married couple Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson (who, incidentally, was initially cast in Sharon Stone's role in Basic Instinct) in Dead Again; and Keanu Reeves and the other guy (whatever happened to him in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. Not to mention Eddie Murphy Raw, which has at least one person in our office reminiscing about the time his mom found his Raw soundtrack.
Speaking of outrageous moments (and movies) - we have clips in from last night's MTV Movie Awards. If you haven't seen the now-famous (or infamous Bruno/Eminem moment, now's your chance! -
DameElizabeth is All Over the Web
Elizabeth Taylor is all the rage of the Internet these days - is she or is she not on Twitter? While it seems, frankly, unlikely, it also does kind of seem to be her.
But Elizabeth Taylor is more than just another celebrity on Twitter. Don't forget about her first voracious talent which made her such an icon in the first place - acting. Check out this collection of her movies to see where it all began. -
Do Only Crazy Ladies Go On Reality TV, or Does Reality TV Ma
Ah, a classic chicken-and-the-egg dilemma: are the women who go on reality TV programs, where they live under the cameras for 24 hours a day, crazy, or does being on camera 24 hours a day make them crazy?
At the very least, there's a certain amount of self-indulgence that propels someone, anyone, to be on a 24-hour-a-day reality TV show - and/or a certain desire to cash in on something. Just look at Jon & Kate Plus 8 or any of the Real Housewives. But is that crazy or opportunistic?
Regardless, we love these shows...and there's a special breed of character that we love the most: The Outrageous Woman. Presenting, in no particular order, our four favorites:
Tiffany Pollard, a.k.a. New York: A reality-TV show veteran, at this point, this year New York is going to work at various jobs, chosen by her adoring public. Or maybe they're not-so-adoring, since they send her to work at a nudist colony, a pig farm and as an exterminator.
Daisy De La Hoya: Like other bachelorettes before her, Daisy has parlayed "not getting the guy" - in this case, Rock of Love's Bret Michaels - into a televised search for her own beau.
Stephanie Pratt: Oh, Stephanie, where to begin...but with a brother like Spencer, a sister-in-law like Heidi, and a supporting cast that also loves the spotlight, can we really blame her?
The Girls of Charm School: If it's possible, each woman on this show is more outrageous than the next, with the singular exception of Ricki Lake - she is "all that."
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