By Amit Agarwal
The "official" YouTube app on the iPad provides instant access to the world's largest library of online videos, but unfortunately the app doesn't feel fresh anymore. Even though a third version of the iPad hit the shelves earlier this month, the pre-installed YouTube app has largely remained the same all along.
Apple added a camera to the second-generation version, and some people do shoot videos on their iPads, but there's no easy way to upload these videos to YouTube.
The social sharing options available inside the YouTube app are also limited. You can "tweet" a video thanks to the Twitter integration inside iOS 5, but if you want to share a video on Facebook or even Google Plus, Google's own social network, it requires too many steps and most people won't go that far.
The new YouTube went live few months ago, and the focus shifted from highlighting popular videos to creator channels. But the iPad app for YouTube hasn't been updated to reflect the change. Also, the YouTube desktop website supports several search commands, yet none of them seem to work inside the YouTube app. So how do you discover new channels?
I'm not sure we'll see an improved YouTube app anytime soon, but there are some good third-party apps in the iTunes Apps store that seem to offer a better YouTube experience.
One of my favorites is NowBox. It connects to your YouTube account and creates a TV-like guide for all the channels to which you are subscribed. You can then watch individual videos available in a channel, or you can play all the videos of a channel in continuous mode on your iPad. There's also a convenient search function to help you discover other channels that might interest you.
Next in the list is Vodio, a beautiful app for watching videos from a selection of handpicked sources. Unlike NowBox, which is tied to your YouTube account, Vodio provides its own directory of popular YouTube channels arranged in categories such as tech, entertainment and sports. You can subscribe to one or more of these channels and they will appear inside an attractive carousel. Swiping right or left will switch channels, while swiping vertically will help you navigate videos from the same channel.
There's a limit to the number of channels that you can subscribe to (10), but if you are looking to filter out the noise and just focus on the best, or most popular video content in particular categories, Vodio is a must-have app. And unlike the official YouTube app, Vodio can play videos even while the app is running in the background.
Show You is another interesting app that highlights videos shared by your friends on various social networks, including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. As mentioned in a previous column, Show You can also be used as a video bookmarking service – you can email a video to your Show You address and it will be added to a personal queue that you can watch any time.
I also recommend YT Player for your iPad. While the previously mentioned apps are focused on channels, this app will help you enjoy any public YouTube playlists on your iPad. Provide a YouTube username and YT Player will fetch all the public video playlists associated with that account. Select a playlist and tap to play the entire video playlist in continuous mode. The videos will play even if you switch to another app. This also comes in handy when you want to enjoy music playlists on your iPad while surfing the web.
Amit Agarwal writes a technology blog. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook or send him an email at amit@labnol.org.
You can follow India Real Time on Twitter @indiarealtime.
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