Joost

Skype co-founder wants to give you free mobile broadband

Niklas Zennstrom changed the telephone industry when he co-founded VoIP juggernaut, Skype. Now he's preparing to attack the industry again with the introduction of free mobile broadband from FreedomPop.

FreedomPop today announced that it would partner with Clearwire for its upcoming mobile broadband service. Backed by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, FreedomPop aims to disrupt the mobile broadband industry by providing mobile Internet to consumers free of charge.

FreedomPop had previously named LightSquared as its launch partner, but it appears that relationship has stalled due to mounting complications in the LightSquared camp. The FCC yesterday suspended LightSquared's waiver to … Read more

Skype co-founder Friis working on Netflix rival

A new service called Vdio will join the growing number of companies with sights set on Netflix's streaming service, the company confirmed to CNET today. And the person behind the company is none other than Skype and Kazaa co-founder Janus Friis.

In a statement to CNET today, Vdio Senior Vice President of Operations Scott Barrow, confirmed that Vdio will "let you instantly watch the best in TV and movies, right now." The spokesman said that the service is "currently in closed beta" and will initially only be available in the U.K. The service's … Read more

Kazaa founders give music another try

After seeing their last digital-media start-up crash and burn, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have come back with a new music service.

The pair, who founded Skype, Kazaa, and the ill-fated video site Joost, are behind new music subscription service, Rdio, which is scheduled to debut on Thursday.

Zennstrom and Friis first hit the music scene in the early 2000s for developing Kazaa, the file-sharing service that was accused of violating copyright in a lawsuit filed by the top music labels.

According to a story in The New York Times, Rdio will charge subscribers $5 to $10 monthly for unlimited … Read more

Joost: It coulda been a contender, or not

If you stepped in late, it sounds awfully dull.

An announcement Tuesday tells us all that "certain assets" of a "white-label" online video service called Joost have been acquired by Adconion Media, which calls itself "the largest independent global audience and content network." The acquisition "will be able to provide advertisers, content owners, and Web site publishers with an end-to-end global video platform and cross-channel video and display ad-serving solution," according to a statement from Adconion CEO Tyler Moebius. Financial terms were not disclosed. Yawn.

But really, it's an exceptionally anticlimactic … Read more

Joost sues former CEO Volpi over Skype

Mike Volpi's battle with his former employer Joost is now headed to court.

Joost announced on Friday that it has filed a lawsuit against Volpi, alleging that the former CEO used trade secrets and other confidential information in a bid to acquire a majority share in Skype from eBay.

The lawsuit comes just days after Joost relieved Volpi of his duties as chairman and a member of the board, saying that it was investigating his actions while he was chairman.

The fracas has its roots in the complicated relationship between online video provider Joost and VoIP provider Skype.

Joost … Read more

Former Joost CEO ousted as chairman

Former Joost CEO Mike Volpi has been stripped of his post as chairman and removed from the board by a shareholder vote, the online video service confirmed Saturday. Joost also said it is investigating Volpi's actions during his time as chairman and chief executive.

Joost was co-founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, who also co-founded Internet phone company Skype. Volpi left Joost as CEO a few months ago, taking a position in July as a partner at Index Ventures, a global venture capital firm. Index Ventures is part of the consortium that earlier this month signed a deal with eBay to acquire a 65 percent stake in Skype, … Read more

Joost bows to YouTube, gives up consumer video

The peer-to-peer magic that helped Kazaa and Skype dazzle consumers and disrupt the music and telecom industries has failed to produce the same kind of success with Web video.

Joost, the third major creation by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the duo that also founded Kazaa and Skype, announced Tuesday that it will dump its consumer-video service and will now focus on building "white label" video platforms for "cable and satellite providers, broadcasters and video aggregators."

The move marks the end of Joost as a YouTube and Hulu competitor and also closes the book … Read more

Report: Joost CEO Mike Volpi a candidate for ITV job

Joost may be in for more bad news, as a report out of Great Britain says Mike Volpi, CEO of the video site, is a candidate to take over as chief executive of ITV.

ITV is a British public service network and a BBC competitor. British newspaper The Sunday Times reported that Volpi is among a small group of candidates scheduled to be interviewed over the next two weeks.

The report comes two months after CNET News reported that Joost was shopping itself to cable companies. One of the companies that made inquiries was Time Warner. Joost, created by the … Read more

The 404 352: Where it's just another Friday meltdown

After yesterday's much-lauded episode with Jill Schlesinger, Jeff, Justin, and Wilson are back to classic 404 goodness today. We're glad that for once in the world we can offer some helpful financial advice. And yes, we're still offering 404k options, so please send your checks to the show.

On today's show, we've got a First Look at the new Hulu Desktop app. It kind of destroys Joost and Boxee's previous efforts. For those of you who don't know, it's an actual application like Front Row or Windows Media Center that plugs into Hulu content and can be controlled with a remote. Pretty cool.

Also, we're pretty excited about Sonic the Hedgehog coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch platforms. Jeff and Justin don't like that the game will be controlled via tilt, but Wilson thinks that--considering you spend most of the game just hitting forward and jump--it's not really that big of a deal.

Finally, we spend the second half of the show picking up the pieces after Justin offends millions and millions of Dave Matthews Band fans, who call in to unleash their hatred. Hopefully, Justin learns never to mess with DMB fans again. They are rabid. After that, we spend the rest of the show going over the hundreds of 404 logo submissions. They are fantastic! Please continue to send them in. We're extending the contest until the beginning of next week. Have a great weekend everyone!

EPISODE 352 Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more