YouTube Pocket (www.ytpocket.com) is the website for those who want to take YouTube with them when they leave the house, which is high praise considering that YouTube offers a mobile version of itself for the on-the-go crowd.
It does take a little bit of manual tweaking to get YouTube Pocket working, but it is well worth it if you are a YouTube addict.
YouTube Pocket - Pros and Cons
Pros
- Plays any YouTube video
- Simple and easy-to-use site
Cons
- No support for browsing through categories
- May require additional programs to be installed and settings to be tweaked for optimal performance
Guide Review - YouTube Pocket
The mobile version of YouTube is fine for those who can get the videos to work on their mobile device -- despite the FAQ stating that the videos automatically work on all mobile Internet devices, this isn't the case -- and who are content with the limited number of YouTube videos that have been converted to mobile versions.
For the rest of us that want full access to all YouTube has to offer, there is YouTube Pocket.
To begin using YouTube Pocket, you will need to install The Core Pocket Media Player (TCPMP) and the Flash plugins for TCPMP. And, because the videos are the true YouTube videos, not optimized-for-mobile versions, you might also need to tweak your playback settings.
YouTube Pocket offers detailed instructions on installing TCPMP, the plugins, and configuring your system for the best performance, so even those who aren't techno-wizards should be up and running in minutes.
Once the media player is properly installed and set up, searching for and playing videos is a snap. The interface is clean and easy to use, so you shouldn't have any problem looking up your favorite videos and watching them. Just try not to search for the latest viral video while driving!
The only other real negative besides the requirement of installing some software to get it working is the inability to browse through YouTube categories. YouTube Pocket does a browse feature with several pages of videos listed, but these do not seem to correspond to the YouTube site in any way. But, the YouTube Pocket site is young, so there is hope for additional search features in the future.