Talk about late to the party. Trundling along some months after the release of emTube, YouTube Pocket and YTPLayer to name but three, YouTube have released a beta of the official mobile YouTube client.
YouTube for Mobile is a Java app that should in theory run on any half-decent handset. Despite this, YouTube claims it is only suitable for use with the Nokia N73, N95, E65, 6110 and 6120 and the SonyEricsson k800 and w880 phones. There is no indication that it is using any special features of these phone, so it’s a bit disappointing that YouTube are blocking downloads from non-blessed handsets (and from my perfectly legit N73, for some reason)
The app is decent enough, and will let you log in to the site using your usual id and leave comments, etc. but compared to something like emTube it does feel a little clunky.
Still, it’s early days and it’s good to see YouTube embracing mobile video, albeit a couple of weeks behind everyone else.
Previously on PocketPicks.. we reviewed the S60 YouTube viewer YTPlayer. It was pretty good, but required Flash Lite 3 and was really only a beta version that the developer is no longer working on.
emTube seems much more like the real deal. It is written in Nokia’s development language du jour Open C, which lets it access the phone hardware directly and run much faster than a Flash app.
Unlike many other mobile YouTube players, emTube actually plays YouTube movies directly, rather than converting them to a new format. The app allows you to download a copy of a movie to a memory card for offline playing and will also play other flash movies stored on your phone.
As well as the usual search and favourites facilities, a nice touch is the support for the Nokia N95’s accelerometer - just rotate the phone by 90 degrees and it will switch to landscape mode, iPhone style.
emTube is a free download, but the author is asking for donations if you are suitably impressed. Go on, it’s nearly Christmas..
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