Chinese Trademark Laws = My Hero!
It's hilarious what they can get away with. Seriously. I ordered a $2 toy for my iPod (nothing special, just a little speaker that plugs into the top of the player.) from a Chinese electronics shop and look what I got:
One of my roommates actually thought I got a nano. It's seriously that convincing. They have the Apple logo, the iPod font, the arrows, the color, the box art, everything.
I also happen to love "Engrish" which is displayed in the image above. It says - word for word: "This product listens the cheerful charge may simultaneously carry on!"
Joost Preliminary Review/Invites
Ok, just got accepted into the beta test of this program and so far I love it.
Basically, it's like free OnDemand for your computer. So far, they only have deals with National Geographic, MTV, and a few others, but I'm sure they'll be cutting deals with more companies as time goes on.
The picture quality is great for what you get, which is instant gratification. I'm used to torrenting when I want to check out a show, but I could realistically see myself checking out Joost instead in the future if they ever get into a deal with big name productions.
The interface is really clean and the social networking aspect of the program is really interesting - you can actually chat to other people that are watching the same thing as you while you're in full screen thanks to the little HUD-type display they've implemented. They've also included the early version of an Instant Messaging tool (which for now only supports gmail and jabber), so you can continue talking to your friends even when you're in full screen.
The only negative aspect that I can really see is the bandwidth - you're going to need a pretty decent connection to make full use of this program, and if you let it run in the background, it'll suck up your bandwidth pretty quickly.
Post here for invites and I'll try to get them to you as I receive them.