Want to watch YouTube on your shiny new Windows Phone 7 handset? You can… but since Google hasn’t released an official app and because Microsoft didn’t bake support into the operating system, you’re going to have to rely on a third party app.

A few days ago HTC released a free app for anyone with a Windows Phone 7 device built by the handset maker.

But if you don’t have an HTC phone, it turns out you can also pay $1.99 for an app called RealTube which will let you watch YouTube on WP7. Oh yeah, it also lets you view content from a number of other Flash video sites including CNN, DailyMotion, FunnyorDie, MySpace, and MSN.

The app converts Adobe Flash video to Silverlight, which is necessary because Windows Phone 7 doesn’t currently support Flash.

RealTube isn’t a complete YouTube app, meaning it won’t let you manage your YouTube account, view updates from your friends, or all those other features you would expect from a dedicated YouTube app.

The company offers a 15 day free trial if you want to check out RealTube before paying for it.

WP Central posted a demo video, which you can check out after the break.

Update: It turns out that while Windows Phone 7 doesn’t officially support HTML5 or Flash in the browser, there’s also a YouTube plugin from Microsoft which lets you click on any YouTube video from your browser to open it in a YouTube player. It also adds a shortcut for YouTube to your list of applications, but basically it just opens m.youtube.com in your browser. via PocketNow

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Google has rolled out  a new version of its YouTube app for Android, with a retooled user interface that lets you view video descriptions, rate videos, or browse for related videos without stopping playback of the video you’re watching. YouTube 2.1 also lets you post comments while ea video continues to play.

The update also makes it easier to seek in a video in full-screen mode (which is what you get when you tilt the phone sideways while a video is playing), and shows the latest videos from your subscriptions on the home screen if you’re logged in.

YouTube 2.1 for Android is available as a free download from the Android Market for Android 2.2 and up.

In related news, the official YouTube app for Symbian has also received an update, offering better video quality and support for the latest Symbian devices.

via Download Squad

Google has released a new app for Google Android called YouTube Remote. As you might have guessed from the name, it’s a remote control for YouTube… or to be more specific, it’s a remote control for YouTube Leanback, the full-screen version of YouTube Google launched recently for media center computers and Google TV devices.

Scan to download

Here’s how it works. You fire up the mobile app on your Android phone and login with your YouTube credentials. Then login to YouTube Leanback on your computer or Google TV. Your phone will automatically connect and you can start browsing or searching for videos on your phone and play them on the big screen with a single tap.

You also get the usual media controller buttons including pause, fast forward, rewind, previous and next track buttons.

I took YouTube Remote for a test spin, and it works pretty much exactly as promised. You can check out my short video of the app in action after the break.

YouTube Remote is available as a free download from the Android Market. Unfortunately it’s only available in the US for now, but Google promises that the app will be available internationally soon.

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Google has pushed out a new version of its YouTube app for Android, and while most Android phones come with YouTube preloaded, the new version is available as a separate download from the Android Market. This is part of Google’s move to make it easier for users to update key apps without waiting for their phone company to upgrade to the latest version of the Android operating system… although the new app currently requires Android 2.2 and up.

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The new YouTube app supports in-page playback, allowing you to read comments while a video is playing.You can still watch videos in full screen, simply by rotating the display.

YouTube for Android makes it easy to search YouTube, view and subscribe to channels, or shoot videos with your camera and upload them directly to YouTube. You’ll also see a personalized list of recommended videos on the home screen when you login.

The new YouTube app for Android is available as a free download from the Android Market.

via Droid Life

The folks at Phandroid have snagged an incredibly blurry photo of a phone that’s purportedly running an early build of Gingerbread. That’s the codename for the next version of the Google Android operating system, which may or may not be labeled Android 3.0 when it’s released.

While the photo doesn’t really show us much of anything, Phandroid reports that the updated operating system features a refined user interface with graphic elements that fit together more smoothly. Android is often criticized because it doesn’t look like the same design team worked on the home screen, the contact app, the messenger, and so on. It sounds like Gingerbread may address any design consistency problems a bit.

Google has also reportedly built video chat into the operating system, allowing users to make video calls using Google Talk, much the same way they can with the desktop version of the app. The YouTube app has reportedly received a new design. And users may be able to receive phone calls to their Google Voice numbers over WiFi and 3G. It’s also possible that Gingerbread will add hardware graphics acceleration to make visual effects in the operating system run smoothly without affecting overall speed or performance.

This is all just rumor and speculation for now… and even if it’s all true, it’s possible that Google could drop or add features before launching Gingerbread.

Apple has posted an updated beta version of iOS 4.2 for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. If you happen to have an Apple developer account, you can download it now.

There’s no official change log, but some users are reporting that the OS seems more stable, the YouTube app works better, there’s a new animation effect for multitasking, there’s an indicator in the App Store letting you know which apps work with the Game center, and there are new features allowing you to mark YouTube uploads as public, private, or unlisted.

You can check out a video showing the new multitasking animations below, courtesy of MacStories.

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Muziic is a music-on-demand app, but unlike services from Grooveshark, Mog, and most other mainstream music apps, Muziic doesn’t maintain its own music servers. Instead Muziic grabs audio from YouTube.

Here’s how it works. You enter an artist name or song title and Muziic searches YouTube. You can then either add the track to your playlist or tap the title to start playing the song. A new window opens with a still image from the YouTube video and the song will start to play. You can skip tracks or view progress on a timeline, but I didn’t find an easy way to fast forward or rewind within a song.

Update: Other users have pointed out that the full YouTube video actually plays — as it does on the iOS version of Muziic. That feature doesn’t currently seem to work on my Nexus One, which is why I reported seeing just a still image from a video.

Muziic has an iPhone app, and this week the company also launched an Android version. Unlike the iOS version, the Android app requires Adobe Flash Player 10.1 to work.

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For the most part the two apps work similarly, with featured tracks, internet radio, albums, and playlists on the front screen, as well as a search bar. For some reason the iOS version features a list of these items though, while there are large square icons in the Android app.

Muziic has no problems playing music in the background, as you’d expect from an Android app. Just start up a song or playlist and then hit the Home button to exit the app without closing it. But there doesn’t seem to be a simple way to search for tracks in Muziic while continuing to listen to songs in the background. When you go to the main page, the music instantly stops.

In other words, the app is quirky. But the upshot is that you can listen to almost any song on YouTube any time you like. On the other hand, YouTube is choc full of remixes, covers, and live performances. So when you search for the Beastie Boys, don’t be surprised if you occasionally wind up with a bunch of frat boys belting out karaoke covers.

Muziic is available as a free download from the Android Market.

via Gizmodo

Windows Phone 7 may not have support for Flash or HTML5 at launch, but it looks like you will be able to watch YouTube videos using some sort of YouTube app. A former Microsoft employee posted a picture this week which showed icons for apps in the Windows Phone 7 Market testing zone. And one of the apps is clearly labeled YouTube. The picture was later removed, but nothing ever truly disappears from the internet.

Of course, it’s also clearly labeled “Music Hub Add-On,” which may mean that it’s not a full-blown app, but rather a tool that you can use to add YouTube content to the existing Windows Phone 7 Music hub.

Other apps in the testing zone include a few games, a Yelp application, RSS reader, shopping list, stock, and weather apps.

via Engadget