youtube

When it rains, it pours. Today, the official YouTube app for Windows Phone 8 has received a massive makeover, bringing new features and becoming more than just a web-wrapper for the popular video streaming site.

Version 3.0 is now going live in the Store (depending on region) and brings a new UI, High, Medium and Low video quality settings, pinnable channels, ability to download videos for offline play, play under Lockscreen and more. Indeed, it’s just about everything most casual users could want in an official YouTube client.

Look down at your Windows Phone, odds are if you want to watch some YouTube videos you have crowd favorite Metrotube installed. It’s been by far one of the best YouTube experiences on any mobile platform even though it’s a third party app. Newcomer myTube looks to challenge them and seems well equipped. It’s just as beautiful and fluid, but has some killer features that I haven’t seen on any YouTube app on any platform. Let’s see if it can dethrone the king.

We’re not sure what’s going on over at Google but either incompetence or the trolling bug has seized control of operations. Last week we saw a purposeful redirect of maps.google.com send Windows Phone users to the search page instead of allowing them to use Maps (Google later backed down) and now today it’s affecting YouTube.

The behavior is specific: head to m.youtube.com and click any video. In the past, such an action would launch Internet Explorer’s HTML5 video player, allowing Windows Phone users to watch just about everything that was mobile (assuming it wasn’t a Flash-only video). Now on Windows Phone 8 devices we get prompted to install an app.

This one has been brewing for a while and it seems that the rhetoric is now stepping up as Microsoft and Google prepare to do battle. The stage has been set and much of the coming drama will focus on Windows Phone.

Microsoft has today written publically about Google’s direct refusal to open up YouTube access so that Windows Phone users can easily use the service when mobile, something we first reported back in March 2011. The plot thickens when we learn that Microsoft has a high quality YouTube app ready to release. Don’t be evil, read on past the break to find out more.

Metrotube was recently pulled due to YouTube alterations that broke playback. The developer has got in touch with us to reveal that an update containing a fix has been submitted and should be live in the Store within the next 24 hours (it is currently live for those in the US). The app update has passed certification, meaning consumers will be seeing the release shortly.

The updates for Microsoft’s latest mobile OS keep on coming and this one is very welcome indeed. Lazyworm have just released an update to their very popular Metrotube app for watching YouTube videos, joining the other new or updated Windows Phone 8 Apps. The update brings the release to version 4.0.

A long-time favourite on Windows Phone, the app makes great use of the Metro UI, taking full advantage of the new large tiles and introduces the ability to preload videos for later viewing. Read on past the break to find out more.

Just as we covered an update rolling out for MetroTube, SuperTube -- another YouTube app for Windows Phone -- also has an update hitting the shores. SuperTube, previously known as YouTube Pro before rebranding earlier this year, was one of the first YouTube Windows Phone apps to feature HD and high quality streaming.

Upon returning to the Marketplace, the developers made the paid version free for all to download due to the situation which required them to take down the app and slap on a new name. Today we're pleased to relay the announcement of version 2.5 being pushed through to consumers. This is the first update we've seen for SuperTube since May, which is a good sign of support from the developer.