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Joost, a video application by Joost, is available for free at the App Store.
For Internet junkies with high-speed access, there's a growing set of options for viewing online TV shows and movies. Sites like Hulu, Joost and even YouTube are showing full-length TV shows online. While YouTube is far behind Hulu and Joost in that regard, at least iPhone owners can watch YouTube videos on their mobile screens.
When I stumbled upon Joost in the Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) App Store, I was pleasantly surprised. I had briefly used Joost's client-side Mac video viewing application in its early days, back when Joost had very little content ... then forgot about it. Hulu, of course, took off and provides a solid Web-browser-based experience, and I occasionally use it, too. Hulu isn't available on my iPhone, though -- Joost is. Might I be able to snag a few shows here and there while I'm out and about?
Joost for the iPhone is free, and it boasts more than 46,000 available videos, including music videos, TV and movies. Nice.
I downloaded Joost directly from a Verizon FiOS WiFi connection that was cranking out 4.5 Mbps and easily installed it on my iPhone 3G. Note that the app only works when you've got a WiFi network -- unlike the iPhone's native YouTube app, Joost doesn't work over a 3G or EDGE connection.
How It Works
At the bottom of the Joost app screen, you get five intuitive icons to choose from: Joost Picks, Popular, Browse, Search and More. The videos available in Joost Picks and Popular are shown in a familiar iPhone format -- a thumbnail graphic on the left next to a title and a short description. Browse offers Film, Music and Shows subcategories, while Search offers a simple text entry field.
On the surface, Joost seems to work great. However, once you start viewing videos and shows, it soon gets disappointing. The Britney Spears "Womanizer" video at the top of the most popular list quickly started breaking up in both sound and video.
The quality of the video wasn't bad, but it wasn't as sharp as I expected it to be -- some of YouTube's videos are much clearer. After all, this was Joost -- a company that stakes it business on online video.
So while I'm not particularly interested in Britney Spears, the most popular video left me sorely disappointed.
How About a Movie?
Next up, I tried the old-school Bruce Willis sci-fi movie "The Fifth Element." And the result? Joost popped up a window that said, "This movie could not be played."
More disappointment, of course.
I then found an episode of "Numb3rs." I'm not a fan, but it's been on my list of shows to try out. Why not now?
It, too, was besieged with audio and video pauses and hiccups. If I were a "Numb3rs" lover and trying to catch up on a missed episode, I might have thrown my iPhone across the room.
I'm Not the Only One
The 1,813 reviews on the Apple App Store seem to agree with me: Joost has lots of promise but it fails miserably. The average rating is two stars. Many users, though, noted that they were basically waiting for a non-buggy updated version from Joost.
User kingofdc wrote, "This app has tons of potential, and already performs well. Once the developer fixes some bugs, it will be a must have for any iPhone user."
The poor performance, however, might be limited to the iPhone app. Wondering if something fishy might be going on with my fast WiFi, I tried Joost on my MacBook using Safari. The Joost site loaded super fast, and within seconds I had found that episode of "Numb3rs" and was watching it on my MacBook. And guess what? Not a single audio or video hitch. So, is the iPhone underpowered, or is the app itself a wimp? Hard to say. That's a question for another day.
Bottom Line
Right now, Joost for the iPhone sucks. Ranking it on a scale of one to five, it's just a one.
However, second-generation iPod touch owners might get a slightly better response because the processors are clocked to run a tiny bit faster to supposedly better support apps (i.e. games). However, I haven't seen any data here to illuminate this possibility, and I haven't been able to test it yet myself.
Still, because Joost is free, it's worth downloading just to show Joost that we're interested. And besides, maybe you'll have better luck. Oh, one more thing: If Joost does indeed refresh the app and turn it into a great solution, your iPhone's App Store icon will at least show you when it's time to update it and try again.
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