Defying all conventional logic, Joost has upgraded its internet TV client to version 1.0 -- and it's still in beta. That means you can only download Joost 1.0 if you're a current beta tester, or if you know someone kind enough to send you an invitation.

There are a few new features and performance tweaks in Joost 1.0 beta, including a modified user interface, larger icons, and the ability to customize your interface by dragging and dropping channel thumbnails.

Joost 1.0 is also supposed to work better on slow networks and will try to restart stalled video streams. Probably the best news is that the developers have finally included an updater service, meaning you won't need to download an installer file every time an update is released. But honestly, the latest version of Joost still appears a bit buggy to wear a 1.0 label. At the very least, this should be considered Joost 1.0 RC1.

The Joost team also reports that you'll need to install and run Joost 1.0 as an administrator if you're running Windows Vista, which is all well and good, but we were unable to get the program to work properly on our Vista system. It starts up just fine, and will resume the last video you were watching. But when you try to pull up a channel menu in order to switch videos, nothing happens.

Update: It looks like Joost has added a download link to their front page, meaning the public beta has begun. No more invitations needed. Also, a few days into the beta, we noticed that our difficulty pulling up the channel guide has disappeared. Perhaps it was a network congestion issue, but the beta seems to be working well now. And finally, Joost has added links to featured content to their web page. Want to watch La Femme Nikita episodes? Just click the "play now" button to launch Joost and the show will begin to play.

[via eFluxMedia]