YouTube launches their iPhone app | Hacker News Reader

YouTube launches their iPhone app

techcrunch.com

49 pointskurtvarner26 comments

I started building ToddlerTube, a YouTube iPad app for kids. The first minimal version is almost finished.

Is anyone with kids maybe interested in helping beta testing it? Some more info in the google docs form: http://goo.gl/nYIGD

Background: We have an iPad first gen and an iPad3 at home. My young nephew would always ask for the older iPad and for a long time, I didn't understand why. After looking over his shoulder for a few days, I came to realize that he loved to watch certain clips on YouTube (other kids singing his kindergarten songs, Mr. Bean, kitten videos).

Since he cannot type, his search strategy works as follows:

1. Start up the youtube app

2. Go to History (recently watched videos)

3. Piggyback on the app's history feature to watch existing videos and find new related videos.

Since the history of "his videos" were only available on the old iPad1, it makes sense that he would insist on using this device only.

YouTube channels were cumbersome to create and maintain. The user experience was so bad and my nephew so insistent, that I believe there is a problem here to be fixed.

Sounds good! I've filled in my details on the form.

Direct iTunes link: http://itunes.apple.com/app/youtube/id544007664

Has anyone ever clicked one of the youtube ad overlays?

Not sure if you mean the actual little ad pop-up boxes, or just adverts in general... I watch* on average 25 Youtube videos per day and I'd estimate around 10 of those have pre-roll adverts, I normally watch 1 or 2 pre-roll adverts (assuming I have not seen them before) per day and click through after. The sidebar adverts I've never clicked and same goes for the little ones that slide in about 10 seconds into a video.

* some of the videos I "watch" are in the background (music) so I included those in my count but they rarely (if ever) have adverts (because I listen to independent music on Youtube)

Interesting thing I've noticed: At home, no video's got a pre-roll (Slovenia), but when I was in the US almost every video had a pre-roll ... it was so annoying I almost stopped using YouTube while I was in the US even though I watch probably 20+ videos per day at home.

Thing is, I watch mostly music videos and it's really really really really annoying to listen to a pre-roll first.

Yes. I often accidentally click on ad overlays.

No, never. I have AdBlock Plus installed.

I know that this is only for iOS but I would definitely sit through a few ads, if they were to improve the quality of the youtube application for android.

1. I need to be able to leave it in the background and for the video to still play. 2. I don't seem to be able to access my likes playlist. This is the majority of what I watch on youtube and it should be available through the mobile phone application.

I can't locate the application in the app store via my iPhone but can via iTunes, is this normal for newly updated/release applications?

Yes, unfortunately. Apps take time to show up in search results even after they are officially on the store. (The time before visibility, either in search results or even at a direct link, can vary by country as well.)

Yeah, the app store can be really glitchy the first couple hours after an app is released (our app once showed up in two spots at the same time on the top 100 list!)

Yep, it takes a bit of time for the search index(es) to be updated.

"Youtube Google" Seemed to work for me.

It's interesting that they chose not to include the ability to pull videos being shared on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter (these are all options in the web app).

Curious what the HN community thinks about that lack of "social" inflow - I always feel like those networks are better at curating video that YouTube's "recommended" stream.

The sidebar swipe animation needs some attention; they tried to add a cute little bounce at the end when the main panel slides in and out, but it just feels weird. Nothing else does that on iOS.

You mean, except for every other scrolling view in iOS...

...but this isn't a scrolling view.

Exactly. But this isn't the same as the scrollview bounce. Especially try doing a slow grab and letting go near the edge; the sudden artificial bounce is jarring and strange.

Nice to see them include Facebook and Twitter (along with Google+) in the sharing options: http://i.imgur.com/z7fex.jpg

They do that on YouTube too. Viral videos are key to YouTube's popularity and success so removing those sharing options would piss off a lot of people and unnecessarily hurt the product.

I've been doing android only work for the last few years, does iOS still not have an equivalent to andriod.intent.action.SEND?

The Facebook share option is not working for me.

Is this something extraordinary?

I think the sharing options were more limited w/ the previous app. (Mail, msg, twitter, ?)

2/10 for effort on that icon

Reply on news.ycombinator.com