The closed beta (as of this posting) service Joost – from the creators of Skype – looks to be the hottest ticket at the moment as far as beta invites are concerned. If you haven’t heard of or read anything about Joost [and the promises, hopes, and dreams early adopters forsee], check out the chatter on Technorati. I manged to acquire an invite a number of weeks back and am entertained by the idea of legally running the application on my Apple TV without any necessary hacks or general geekery requirements. Come on Apple! Update our consoles with an online directory of "approved" applications we can run from our couches. Isn’t the Apple TV already phoning home?

I enjoy the idea of one day dropping / replacing cable television altogether in favor of online content. Come to think of it, I haven’t flipped through channels on TV for quite some time. Are you still watching cable television?

If you’re looking for a Joost invite, I currently have 5 available. The first 5 readers [have received their invites] to comment with their favorite article & why (I’m curious to hear about interests readers) from the archives will receive an invite in their inbox (assuming your address in the comment form is legit). I’ll update the availability of invites as time passes as my account is replenished.

Photoshopped mock-up of Parental Controls for Streaming Content – iTunes

The iTunes Preferences menu offers a Parental section which provides content filtering for purchasing content from the iTunes Music Store, why not provide a similar filter for streaming content?

Of course, anyone with content that should not be viewed by anyone else on the network could simply disable Sharing or specify distinct Playlists, but the fail-safe should still be included server side (iTunes) rather than hardware (Apple TV).

Adding such options under the Apple TV specific menu would feel redundant (I’m sure). iTunes Preferences should be streamlined in that all Parental Controls options – Sharing, Apple TV, and iTunes Music Store – should be under the Parental menu option.

I will, however, state how ridiculously easy it is to go from shrink wrap to Apple goodness on the widescreen. Apple’s simplicity and ability to integrate with an existing home network is amazing.

• Remove Apple TV & remote from Styrofoam
• Ignore the fact that Apple includes a manual
• Connect [composite or HDMI] & power cable
• Turn-on television and select appropriate video source
• Enjoy opening credits
• Enter wireless network password
• Be lazy

You need to register a specific computer for syncing, but I skipped that step only because streaming sounded more convenient. Load time for video content was incredibly quick. Most likely due to the fact that the Airport Extreme Base Station has that N-goodness. Streaming television downloads from my Mac Pro loaded in about 1.5 seconds and movies 3-5. I am enjoying the fact that 98% of my video content consists of .mp4′s.

I wish all television related remotes were as simple as Apple’s. I only wish I could somehow control the volume on the television without needing to find the actual TV remote.