I always say you can’t predict the future if you can’t envision it. I’ve always imaged that someday television programs won’t be shown, they will be posted. So you won’t have to record them, you will simply watch them when you get home. Socially, the key will be the first ones to watch them so you can talk about it with your friends.
Well those days are coming sooner than we think. A new product called Joost is currently being tested to allow users to share video. This is geared toward television and will offer DVD quality television for free. Allowing you to watch what you want – when you want.

So more hype from the Web 2.0 (I hate that term)? Remember when they shut down Napster and twenty more file sharing programs sprung up in its place? One of the most popular of these was Kazaa (who were sued and lost). These same guys went on to create another small piece of software Skype (which was sold to eBay for $2.6 million).

These same guys have come up with Joost. They hope to do to the television networks what Skype has done to the phone systems. You may not use Skype yourself but nightly there are 4 million users that do.

Of course the television execute aren’t happy but this time Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis (the Swedish inventors) are doing everything by the book – with DRM (Digital Rights Management) in place. Warner Bros is already on board. Its also been described as YouTube on acid!
I have signed up to be a beta tester so hopefully I can give you first some first hand information. Keep you eyes open for Joost and I will let you know more as I play with it.

We were going to get the kids a new Nintendo Wii for Christmas but after trips to Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. we could not find one. Yes, I went to Ebay and yes they had plenty but I wasn’t going to paying $400 to 500 for one – plus $50 in shipping. (I must confess, it desperation 3 days before Christmas I did bid $272.52 for one which promptly got out bid. So for Christmas Nate received a Wii game with a note that we would get a Wii for the family when they were available.

We stopped in Fond du Lac, WI on our way up to Desi’s family to celebrate Christmas with her family at Best Buy, Walmart and Target – again to no avail. We talked to a kid working at Best Buy, and I’ve talked to others who said the same thing, the calls they receive on Wii’s compared to Sony’s Playstation 3 is 10 to 1. In fact, the kid in Wisconsin said, a guy returned his Playstation 3 because he couldn’t sell it on Ebay (I’m not sure I believe that part).

Nintendo played it smart by going after gameplay instead of the ‘high def’ and competing with Playstation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox. The Wii’s remote control with attachable Numchuk lets you play a video game like never before. Xbox and Playstation 3 remain with pretty much the same controllers. The other nice thing I think parents like is that that sort of interaction gets the kids moving when they are playing.

To be honest, due to the short supplies of Wii, the real winner this Christmas was Microsoft who exceeded their numbers units for Xbox. If you were going to get your kid a game system, there were plenty of Xboxes around this Christmas.

The loser is Sony and they could be in a world of hurt. The reason for the short supply and the late release of Playstation 3 was Blu Ray – Sony’s high definition video format which is competing with HD DVD. Sony has lost its edge on the TV market when the LCD and Plasma units came out. Their PSP is ok but doesn’t touch Nintendo’s DS. They needed to win the game console war to support their Blu Ray format. At this point they have all but officially lost. I say serves them right after their CD DRM disaster when they installed rootkits on peoples PC’s when they played their Sony music cd’s.

I agree with Tim Jarrett – Boycott Sony (author of BoycottSony.com). Here’s to Nintendo, the latest ‘little guy’ fighting against the huge corporations. OK, Nintendo is a huge corporation too. But 32 Billion vs. Sony’s 48 Billion vs. Microsoft’s 306 Billion makes them the ‘little guy’. Hey, maybe we should all gang up on Microsoft – I’d be for that!

We did eventually find a Wii. Nate got a tip from school that EB Games had gotten some in. Desi went out there and picked up the last one. I have only bowled and boxed but it was fun and I wasn’t sitting around on the floor numbing my thumbs. Way to go Nintendo, you got us again – at least until the next game system war.