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If you have yet to be invited to Joost, you’ll be happy to hear we’ve got 10 more invitations to give out.  Last time around, things got a little crazy around here.  If you’re not familiar with Joost, it is a new service from the guys that created Kazaa and Skype that allows you to legally watch network television shows on your computer.  It’s really the first attempt a company has made to make an Internet-only cable provider.

All you have to do is leave a comment below, and we’ll choose 10 lucky commenters at random for the Joost invites.

You have until next Wednesday, 3/21/07, to get your comment in (this was moved from 3/23 to 3/21 because Joost just informed us that the links are going to expire). Oh, and make sure you enter a valid email address so we can send the invite—don’t worry we won’t share it with anyone else.

Check out Joost

Update: This contest has been closed. Thanks for your entries, and stay tuned for more great contests from Gadgetell.

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From the bowels of the PC Mag staff comes their latest “Top Ten Worst” list (does that actually make it the bottom ten?). Here are a few highlights from their list of the worst names for software and applications:

• Crush or Flush - Basically a free “Hot or Not” mobile app.


• PikiPimp - Pimp your own mug online (though the name just reminds of of Pikmin, which is a pretty fun game)


• GIMP - A free GNU Image Manipulation Program that some of my web design buddies swear is almost as good as PhotoShop


• eefoof - (Isn’t that that French for fart?) A YouTube-for-cash site where posters can earn money.


• Joost - (I guess it’s a play on the term “juiced") an internet TV viewing app


• Gubb - An internet-based place to, uh, make lists? (PCMag must love that site. I prefer to pronounce it with a long “u,” which makes it much more funny).

It’s not really one of their better lists since it doesn’t go going very far back in time and includes several non-apps/web site (without even linking to any of them). I’ll give ‘em “eefoof” as a bad name but a few are just silly misspellings to make sure a business could get the same domain name as their product name ... which, of course, does not depreciate any potential wackiness.

I think Microsoft PowerPoint is one of the most hilarious quadruple entendres around, as well as *69 (would that count as an application?). I’m sure Gadgetell readers can come up with a much better list of crappy application names… post away, maties!

Read [PCMag]

As you may already know, the founders of Kazaa and Skype, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have created another blockbuster.  Until recently, the new IPTV service has been referred to as The Venice Project, but now it has come out that it will be called Joost.  I’m sure somewhere along the line this was a planned leak, but we’ll play along and act like it was “found.”

Yesterday, we were The Venice Projectâ„¢. Today, we’re Joostâ„¢. Tomorrow, we’re yours! Imagine having infinite choice, and TV that is truly interactive. TV anywhere, anytime…

Just after the news leaked of the name change, The Venice Project’s website changed over to Joost.com’s name servers.  We’ve got a couple of beta test invites left, so we’ll pick 2 random commenters below to share with.

Check out Joost

Via [NewTeeVee]

IPTV has been on the rise ever since video podcasts (or vodcasts) became popular.  The founders of Kazaa and Skype are now moving into the space with their new P2P software, dubbed The Venice Project.  Earlier today, they sent out notifications to those that registered (myself included) that it is now time to move into private beta.

Welcome to The Venice Project beta testing program. As you may know, we’re working on a project that we think will completely revolutionise television. Combining the best features of TV with the powerful social features of the internet, The Venice Project will give TV viewers, advertisers and content owners more choice, control and creativity than ever before.

We’d like your help in realising this vision. Today, we’re inviting you to take a sneak preview of our work and take part in The Venice Project’s first beta testing phase. This is a private, invitation-only beta test and the software is still in the early stages, but we would greatly value your opinions. We hope you’ll participate actively by giving us your feedback on everything from bugs to performance issues and suggestions for new features.

The Venice Project