youtube

Sneak peek - MetroTube by Lazyworm Apps [Video]

By Daniel Rubino, Tuesday, Nov 22, 2011 at 11:25 am

It's close folks. MetroTube aka the former app that used to be know as LazyTube is in the final stages of approval in the Marketplace, which means in days or even hours, the app can be yours. MetroTube is a complete rethinking of a YouTube app where the UI has be redesigned all around the Metro UI framework. We like that. You like that. So lets watch the video and get ready for some greatness.

From our earlier write up on the app's new features:

"We have a revamped UI and pinnable tile support. Users will be able to pin videos and categories (playlists, favourites, subscriptions, etc.) to the home screen for easy access. The most interesting item to pin is an individual author where the thumbnail of the latest video added will be pushed through."

Yeah, it's pretty awesome indeed.

Supertube goes Mango in v2.0 and gets video-upload support

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Tuesday, Nov 8, 2011 at 6:31 pm

Supertube, the mega YouTube app for Windows Phone, finally got its Mango wings today with version 2.0. This version brings more than just fast-spp switching though as there are a ton of new features on board:

Record videos and upload it to YouTube (Resume broken uploads support)
Choose and order the sections in the main page
Select channel to push notification
Add playlist, inbox, my video
Background uploads and downloads
Loading list more quickly
Inbox push notification
Fast App Switching (FAS)

To say this is a comprehensive YouTube app is a bit of an understatement. It does waaay more than what we need iit to, but we know there are some of you out there who need these features--so here you go. We did have a little trouble getting the video-upload feature to work, but perhaps it's just our Radar 4G. Either way, it's a powerful app. It is recommended to uninstall and reinstall the app, since there are so many changes on board.

Update: The developed acknowledged a bug in the final release and noted that an update has already been submitted to the Marketplace, which should fix it. Look for it in the next 2-3 days.

Grab SuperTube here in the Marketplace for $1.29 with a free trial. There's also a free, ad-supported version right here.

LazyTube rebranding as Metrotube

Windows Phone News

By Rich Edmonds, Tuesday, Nov 8, 2011 at 5:48 pm

LazyTube, the popular free (and paid) solution to the lack of YouTube support on the Windows Phone platform, is almost set to be launched as Metrotube sometime this month. So what's new in the upcoming version? We have a revamped UI and pinnable tile support. Users will be able to pin videos and categories (playlists, favourites, subscriptions, etc.) to the home screen for easy access. The most interesting item to pin is an individual author where the thumbnail of the latest video added will be pushed through.

Why the rebrand? It's to do with the facelift and aesthetic changes that have been implemented for version 3.0. Users who already own LazyTube will not have to repurchase the app, and they will receive Metrotube as a free update. As mentioned above, Metrotube is set for a November release.

Check out the video below for a small demonstration of pinning the above to the home screen and visit the Metrotube website for more information.

Microsoft spotlighting OneNote Syncing

Windows Phone News

By George Ponder, Thursday, Nov 3, 2011 at 6:53 pm

One of the nice features of Windows Phone is how it integrates with other Microsoft products such as OneNote. The above ad highlights this function in a lighthearted way.

The thirty second spot covers a lot and shows the potential that the Windows Phone has. Anyone else making use of OneNote?

Source: Microsoft Youtube Channel via: wmpu

HTC Titan, Radar take center stage in video series with Jim Gaffigan

Windows Phone News

By George Ponder, Friday, Oct 28, 2011 at 9:00 pm

HTC has a series of demo videos over at their YouTube Channel focusing on the Titan and Radar Windows Phones. HTC has teamed up with comedian Jim Gaffigan to add a light-hearted approach to showing off the various features of the new phones and the Windows Phone operating system.

The short videos cover a wide range of topics such as the Games Hub, Office Hub, linked Inbox, Bing Vision and yes, Pie pie charts. There's about sixteen in all and if you're curious about what Windows Phone has to offer, they're worth checking out.

You can find all of the HTC Windows Phone videos here at HTC's YouTube Channel.

Thanks goes out to Robb for the tip!

LazyTube 3.0 in the works

Apps

By George Ponder, Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011 at 7:35 pm

LazyWormApps is gearing up to release version 3.0 of their popular YouTube client LazyTube. Version 3 gets a major overhaul to improve performance and the overall user experience.

LazyWormApps will be offering a series of "What's new" videos over at their YouTube Channel that will highlight all the changes in store for LazyTube. Expect the updated version of LazyTube to hit the Windows Phone Marketplace sometime in mid-November.

LazyTube is a very nice YouTube client app for your Windows Phone and the updated version looks to carry on that level of quality.

Four new Windows Phone Mango Bing adverts [Video]

Windows Phone News

By Rich Edmonds, Friday, Oct 7, 2011 at 6:57 pm

We've seen the new Windows Phone adverts Microsoft seems to be pushing out to their YouTube channel as well as other places and they've caught our attention for all the right reasons. Probably due to Brandon Foy being hired? The adverts and videos we've seen thus far have focused on highlighted Mango features. There was one thing missing - Bing.

Microsoft has solved this by releasing four new videos where viewers can enjoy a presentation of services including Vision, Local Scout, and web search. Still upbeat, still beautiful. Check out the video above and three more after the break.

Microsoft releases seven new mini-commercial spots for Windows Phone

Windows Phone News

By Daniel Rubino, Thursday, Oct 6, 2011 at 3:27 pm

Looks like the "short but sweet" version of some new Windows Phone ads have been put up by Microsoft. The spots, timing in at about 15 seconds each, demonstrate various features of Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, including:

Connect and Share
Windows Live Messenger
PowerPoint
Hotmail 1
Hotmail 2
OneNote
Outlook

While just shorter versions of that nice, long commercial we saw a few days ago, hopefully we'll start to see these play...you know, on TV or on the web somewhere so that folks can actually see the phone.

Me Series: short films showing life of WP users

Windows Phone News

By Rich Edmonds, Friday, Sep 9, 2011 at 5:21 pm

As we still stand in awe at Microsoft's superb job at the design and structure of the Windows Phone YouTube page, we've noticed they've started a new series of short films that cover the lives of Windows Phone users. The clip above follows the work of the Eagle Rock Yacht Club, a non-profit dodge ball league and community-focused organisation founded by Chris Alves and Craig Fowler in Los Angeles, and how it's easier for them to keep socially active to help spread awareness via network integration on the platform.

It's an interesting take on "social good", which is never a bad thing for platform publicity and brand awareness. I think what will surprise most folk is how Microsoft is going about Windows Phone. Wonder if they'll come to WPCentral for us to explain how WP is helping our lives at the office. This'll be the picture of our Me Series video:

easyTube Ad-Free completely free through September

Apps

By Paul Acevedo, Wednesday, Sep 7, 2011 at 3:22 am

easyTube is a slick YouTube app for Windows Phone. It’s got some nice features like playing 720P videos, remotely loading videos on a PC from the phone, the ability to play only the audio stream from videos, and downloading videos to the phone so that they can be viewed later without an internet connection. Plus you can play your YouTube Favorites continuously without having to select the next video, which I love.

easyTube was originally available in a free ad-supported version only but a paid ad-free version came out in August. Right now they are both free, enabling everyone to get the proper adless version at no cost. This promotion lasts until the end of September - plenty of time to give it a download.

You can get the new ad-free version of easyTube here (Zune link) on the Marketplace.

Thanks to Timmy Bouwmann for the tip!

YouTube Mobile in HTML5, supports IE9 in Mango

Windows Phone News

By Rich Edmonds, Tuesday, Sep 6, 2011 at 12:55 pm

While Microsoft's YouTube app leaves much to be desired (granted, it's not their fault), it seems light is at the end of the tunnel for fans of the video sharing website with HTML5. As IE9 in Mango will be making short work of HTML5 we were hoping that Google would make the mobile version of their media community portal open to Windows Phone Mango.

Alas, it seems as though we've conquered video playback via IE9 in Mango, thanks to Google. This is a massive improvement over what was available to WP7 users. A sleeker interface is present with playlist access, commenting and more. It's still not a full-featured app with account management and more, but hey it's something. Don't forget Lazyworm.

Source: Plaffo (Bing Translate)

Major update in the works for LazyTube

Apps

By George Ponder, Sunday, Aug 14, 2011 at 4:16 am

There's a major update in the works for Lazyworm Apps two Windows Phone Youtube apps, Lazytube and YouTube. No dates are available on the release, it'll be version 3.0 for Lazytube, but we're hearing it it won't hit the Marketplace until Mango is officially launched.

What's 3.0 bring to the table? All we know is what the above sneak peak image can tell. Which looks really nice by the way.

Updates will be posted on LazyWorms' Facebook (facebook.com/lazywormapps) and Twitter (@lazywormapps) pages from time to time. The developers are also open to suggestions, comments and feedback that might help improve things (not that LazyTube and Youtube are shabby as is).

If you haven't given them a try, you can find LazyWorm's Free YouTube app here and the $.99 LazyTube app here (bothe links open Zune) over at the Marketplace.

Thanks Atta for the heads up!

Official YouTube app has gone missing in some Markets

Windows Phone News

By Daniel Rubino, Friday, Aug 12, 2011 at 4:57 pm

Sorry folks, we don't have too much to go on here just yet, but we have received numerous tips from readers like yourself that the Official YouTube app from Microsoft is no longer available in the Marketplace in some areas. This seems to have started a few days ago.

This does not apply to the U.S. market but does apply to some in Europe (all?) and at least Singapore too. Could this have to do with Microsoft filing a complaint against Google via the European Union? If you recall, last March Microsoft's Brad Smith blogged about Google's unfair search practices and how they were restricting YouTube, resulting in a sub-par user experience on Windows Phone:

"Unfortunately, Google has refused to allow Microsoft’s new Windows Phones to access this YouTube metadata in the same way that Android phones and iPhones do. As a result, Microsoft’s YouTube “app” on Windows Phones is basically just a browser displaying YouTube’s mobile Web site, without the rich functionality offered on competing phones. Microsoft is ready to release a high quality YouTube app for Windows Phone. We just need permission to access YouTube in the way that other phones already do, permission Google has refused to provide."

Our bet? These two are definitely linked. We'll try to find out more, but in the meantime, lets do a roll-call in comments of countries affected. Austria? Check. Belgium?...

Thanks, Marcus H. and Borutes, for the heads up!

HD/HQ issue fixed with YouTube Apps

Apps

By George Ponder, Friday, Aug 5, 2011 at 1:34 pm

The other day we reported that YouTube client apps such as Supertube and LazyTube lost the ability to stream or download HD/HQ videos from Youtube. The problem stemmed from YouTube changing resource addresses of videos.

Fortunately, the developers of these fine Windows Phone applications were already working on a solution. Both Supertube and LazyTube have updated versions available to once again allow you to enjoy HD/HQ videos from your Windows Phone.

"YouTube", Lazyworm's free version still has an update pending certification with Microsoft that will fix this issue. We are told that update should be pushed out very soon.

You can find the updated version of Supertube here and LazyTube here (both links open Zune) over at the Marketplace.

Thanks goes out to Atta and Kevin for the tips!

3rd party YouTube apps can no longer stream in HD--here's why

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Thursday, Aug 4, 2011 at 10:44 pm

If you use SuperTube, LazyTube or any other 3rd party YouTube app, you may have noticed you've lost the ability to stream or even download videos in HQ/HD resolution. Instead, you're left only with "low quality" which is not exactly ideal.

Here's the situation, as explained to us by the developers of SuperTube:

"Today Youtube changed the resources address of videos. All Youtube client app can't stream the video in HQ or HD. The downloading video function doesn't work as well."

So that's the bad news and the reason why. The good news is that the developers of SuperTube have finished a v1.9 update, which we have on hand and we can say this fixes the issues. Version 1.9 for SuperTube has been submitted to the Marketplace and pending approval, should be available in 2-3 days.

We'll also bet that LazyTube will have a similar fix on the way, meaning this is just a temporary issue that we can all blame on Google :-P

Supertube update in the pipeline, adding desktop sync

Apps

By George Ponder, Wednesday, Aug 3, 2011 at 12:59 am

Supertube is a popular Windows Phone app that is slated for an update. The YouTube client is moving to version 1.8 will add the ability to sync videos downloaded to your PC with your Windows Phone.

Supertube allows you to stream and download Youtube videos in HQ and HD over 3G and WiFi. The app lays everything out nicely taking full advantage of the Windows Phone Metro design. Pages include a Category page to filter video suggestions, Search page, Hot Videos page (from your categories), Subscriptions and Favorites pages (from your YouTube account) and a Download Page detailing all your downloads.

To sync videos downloaded to your PC, you will need to install a client program to your computer that is compatible with Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7. You can find the client program here along with installation/set-up documentation.

Additional features already in place with the current version of Supertube include:

YouTube Account support to view, edit subscriptions and favorites.
Nearby Video feature that will map out videos uploaded near your location.
Custom background. Hub History can be hidden or displayed.
Share videos through Facebook, Twitter, SMS and Email.
Multi-language support.

In giving the updated version of Supertube a short test drive, we found it to be a quality Windows Phone app for viewing and accessing YouTube. We'd easily rate it a 7.5 as a very good app for your Windows Phone.

The update has been submitted to the Marketplace for certification and should be distributed any day now. In the meantime, if you haven't given Supertube a try, the YouTube app comes in two versions.

Supertube Lite is a free, ad-supported version and lacks the ability to download videos or sync with your PC.

Supertube is a paid, ad-free version that will run you $1.29 and has a free trial version. You can find the paid version of Supertube here and Supertube Lite here (both links opens Zune) at the Marketplace.

Lazyworm YouTube app updated 2.4, sports live tile

Apps

By Rich Edmonds, Sunday, Jul 24, 2011 at 1:37 pm

The free Lazyworm YouTube app has been updated to version 2.4, which brings some new features including live tile notifications, volume slider in video playback and an option to toggle Music & video hub synchronization. The live tile supports push notifications for up to three subscriptions.

In the video above, as well as demoing version 2.4 of their app, the developer also touches on version 3.0 being worked on, hopefully arriving before Mango. Both the free and paid versions of the Lazyworm YouTube app will receive the upcoming update that will bring new features as well as sporting a new interface.

You can download the free Lazyworm Youtube app and purchase LazyTube (Zune links) from the Marketplace.

LazyTube v2.4 in the works

Apps

By George Ponder, Sunday, Jun 19, 2011 at 9:43 pm

An update is in the works for the Windows Phone app, LazyTube. Version 2.4 has been submitted to the Marketplace for certification and should be available in the next few days.

v2.4 brings Live Tile support to the YouTube application that will alert you on updates to your YouTube subscriptions. The Tile will keep it's chameleon traits, mimicking your Windows Phone theme color.

LazyTube is a great application for your Windows Phone if you are a YouTube fanatic. Having a Live Tile to show you when new videos are added to your subscriptions will only add to an already fine app.

There is a free trial available for LazyTube with the full version running $.99. You can download it here (opens Zune) at the Marketplace.

SurfCube v3.0 now features YouTube streaming, wins an award

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Thursday, Jun 2, 2011 at 5:02 pm

It's been awhile since we covered SurfCube, the third part browser which we think we can safely say "won" the browser-wars. The browser is known for it's virtual 3D cube design, giving new life via an innovate UI to web browsing and interaction. It's unique and not just for Windows Phone 7, but for any platform.

The big addition in v3.0, besides some bug fixes and performance enhancements, is the addition of YouTube support within the browser. What this means is, if you come across a YouTube vid while surfing you should be able to play back the video without leaving the browser--certainly a nice feature. It's still limited by Mobile IE's YouTube limitations, so don't expect it to be Flash compatible, but it handles mobile sites with video quite well. We gave it a quick spin and while buffering was a little choppy (over 3g) it handled WiFi really well. The video quality was pretty darn high even over 3G and it was certainly much more convenient. (Skip to 1:34 in the video to see it in action.)

Finally, we should also mention that the browser has won a Microsoft Innovation Award in Smartphone Application category, An award we feel is much deserved.

Surfcube is available in two versions: paid, ad-free for $1.99 or free (ad supported). You can grab the paid version here (trial) and the free on here.

Source: DotNeteers

Another video tour of Mango: Bing Audio, Xbox Multiplayer confirmed? [Updated 2]

Windows Phone News

By Daniel Rubino, Sunday, May 29, 2011 at 5:49 pm

Another day, another video of Mango in action!

This one shows all sorts of things including how Bing Audio works, YouTube video support (looks to work better within IE9), multi-tasking, messaging/history and some Xbox LIVE info (we like the part where the avatar punches and cracks the screen).

September/October can't come soon enough, that's for sure.

Update: Just got a nice tip from Antonio on this one. Check out the video around the 4:38 mark. In the XBox Live hub you see the option to "Pick a multi-player game and invite someone to play". Could this be the multi-player (phone vs. phone) feature? Any other new features hidden within the video?

Update 2: Oh look at that, we've always had that "notifications" page in our Xbox folder, but this does say "multiplayer" for the first time.

Source: Nokia with Windows Phone (blog); Thanks, Morten N., for the tip!