Joost widgets, and conclusions: On the main screen, there's a My Joost icon on the right. Click it, and you open a Dashboard-like window. Joost offers widget applications, such as News Ticker, Rate It, and a widget for inviting friends to Joost. Each channel has a chat room, that you can enter via the Channel Chat widget. Joost says you'll be able to create your own widgets.

Joost widgets.

Thoughts on Joost: Overall, Joost worked well. It has great potential for watching TV on your Mac. But I took a different angle with Joost, comparing it with a typical TV viewing experience - sitting on a couch in a living room, versus at a desk in front of a Mac. A few thoughts on Joost and in general, Internet TV.

• There's too much disruptive network lag. It's barely noticeable when sifting through the show listing, but it's there when you watch a show. Joost does streaming video over the Internet, so the faster your connection, the better.

• Joost has built in Apple Remote support. This is great for that living room experience. It worked well for me.
• Apple TV lacks any Internet video features, other than iTunes content. There have been reports of the Apple TV being hacked so it can run Joost, but why should we have to resort to hacking? Joost is what Apple TV needs.

• CoreCodec also makes streaming tools for mobile devices, so we could see Joost on mobile phones and other devices.

• The content possibilities might be the most exciting part about Internet TV. Small productions are no longer relegated to the local access channels on cable TV. Anyone can create a new "network" on the Internet and get immediate distribution. Sure, there will be a lot of crap being published, but a lot of good stuff, too, that could never get on to traditional TV. And the crap will eventually disappear as people ignore it.

Joost is free, and the company plans on making money via ads. Ads do show up and you can't skip them, but they're short. A Power PC version is in the works, though there's no word on when a beta will be available. You can sign up for the Joost beta at Joost's Web site.