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YouTube App Removed From iOS 6 Beta4

TrueSatan writes "iOS 6 beta 4 has removed the YouTube application that existed on iOS since the first version in 2007. Apple confirmed that YouTube is gone from iOS 6. Google is apparently building its own app saying: 'Our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended, customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store.'"

28 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. Downward Spiral by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    First no Google Maps, now this. iOS is really heading south.

    1. Re:Downward Spiral by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      But I live in Antarctica you insensitive clod!.

    2. Re:Downward Spiral by Richard_at_work · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yup, because no one could possibly produce anything better...

      YouTube never made sense as a built in app - it also breaks your flow of usage if you want to view multiple videos on one page, as each takes you out of the fecking browser and into another app. Keep it all in the browser and allow it to full screen the video when requested - you know, like PornHub does!

      And relying on a third service for what is rapidly becoming a central reason to have a multipurpose phone (mapping and turn by turn navigation) when the relationship between you and that third party was never going to fly, especially when that same third party is fostering a competitor to your platform - goodbye Google Maps, hello something better.

    3. Re:Downward Spiral by Cinder6 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      YouTube made lots of sense when the iPhone first came out. Back then, youtube.com didn't work properly in Safari--the app was necessary to even watch YouTube videos. Since then, support was added and the .app never received much in the way of updates. This move is actually a good thing. Just go to youtube.com/mobile and tap "add it to the homescreen".

      --
      If you can't convince them, convict them.
    4. Re:Downward Spiral by cpu6502 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      >>>relying on a third service for what is rapidly becoming a central reason to have a multipurpose phone (mapping and turn by turn navigation) when the relationship between you and that third party was never going to fly, especially when that same third party is fostering a competitor to your platform - goodbye Google Maps, hello something better.
      >>>
      How disappointing you don't see a problem with this. It would be equivalent to Comcast/NBC ejecting all the ABC and FOX-owned channels from our television screens. Goodbye FOX News... goodbye FX... goodbye ABC Family... goodbye Disney... goodbye Nickelodeon... goodbye A&E... goodbye Showtime... et cetera. (Don't worry: They'll soon be replaced with NBC-owned channels which are "better".)

      --
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    5. Re:Downward Spiral by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The Android app has quite a few extra features compared to the mobile site. The UI is more responsive since there is no need to fetch HTML/Javascript of course, and you get all the usual system integration goodies like the sharing menu. On-screen controls and the menu button work better while watching videos too.

      If the iPhone version sucked, well, that isn't a reason to celebrate it going away. That is a reason to complain that it sucked compared to other versions.

      --
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  2. Re:thank god by mwfischer · · Score: 5, Funny

    What about the other 51 apps you probably have on your phone that you used once? /also guilty

  3. Re:Glad to be an Android user.... by the_B0fh · · Score: 3, Informative

    What has that got to do with anything? You *DO* realize that youtube is available via the Safari browser too, right? And that you can put a shortcut to it in your screen? And the mobile version can pull down better resolution stuff..?

    A lot of people prefer to use the mobile version of youtube rather than the app. With the app, you can't even copy a damned url link.

  4. Good by MrDoh! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    These devices should come with the basic app market/store and as little else as possible. When signing up, offer the basics, browser/email, and a list of suggested good to haves, but the lighter these things are on base install, the better. Ok, might be a pain for some people getting a device that's 'empty' and needs 5 mins of installing before it's considered useful, but sure would make upgrades easier later with having no apps baked in.

    --
    Waiting for an amusing sig.
  5. Does there need to be an app for everything? by Compaqt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm amazed at the indolent culture spawned by the iPhone: Nowadays, you can't just go to a website. You have to have a special executable for every single different website you visit!

    It seems like there are people who don't go to certain websites, until they announce "Announcing the blah.com iPhone App!"

    --
    I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
    1. Re:Does there need to be an app for everything? by magamiako1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Part of the reason for 'having an app' is for native performance on the hardware itself. Even Facebook is making a native app on iOS.

      Source: http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/27/3120964/facebook-objective-c-app

    2. Re:Does there need to be an app for everything? by oakgrove · · Score: 3, Interesting
      As a part time mobile developer, I can kind of understand why. For any truly interactive site running a lot of javascript and doing anything ajaxy, the performance on a mobile device more is nothing short of ass-tastic. You go to a lot of sites and get greeted with some weird javascript popup that's almost impossible to click close on as the button just doesn't respond well. And a lot of sites take a long time to load especially blogs like theverge.com. A mobile app for those sites almost always loads the content quicker, has native controls for scrolling etc. so you don't have to rely on the craptacular javascript emulated UIs, and just does a better job of formatting the content to the screen. Of course all that could just be the fault of the website in question but I just don't see (for example) how engadget.com could ever be as good on the iPad as the engadget app. They both show the same content but the app is so much faster and has additional features that would be very difficult to do on the actual site with web dev tools. The only real issue is that if you had an app for every single site that needed one you'd have one cluttered phone. Maybe they could just disappear and automatically pop up if you put the url in the browser or clicked a bookmark. This could be done right now at least on Android since you can trigger apps to respond to custom uri's. Like slashdot://slashdot.com when clicked as an embedded link or in a bookmark could automatically open a "Slashdot" app.

      Of course with suitably fast mobile devices, the speed advantage of the apps starts to get smaller and smaller. On my Xoom with Jellybean I don't bother to use any mobile site apps as the sites work perfectly well in the browser and all controls work well. My first gen iPad not so much.

      --
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  6. Re:Glad to be an Android user.... by Kenja · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So you choosing to download an app is "apple making a decision for you", unlike the app being included no mater what you choose?

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  7. Re:Mars expedition is staged by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Funny
    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  8. Re:Glad to be an Android user.... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In this case, the change is actually for the better as far as you are concerned, then - where previously YouTube was a stock iOS app, and, as such, unremovable, Now it's going to be just another app published by Google via App Store, so you can decide whether to install it or not.

  9. Re:Not like we used it anyway by Supp0rtLinux · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ironically, since the Safari web app came out, people have been asking for this especially since many of the videos won't play in the native app anyway you need the web app or Vevo, etc. Yet as soon as they pull it, people start making a big deal out of it. Sure Apple is distancing themselves from Google a bit, but its not like this broke something. It would be different if Google Voice was built into IOS like it is on Android and then Apple removed it. That would have some impact. But simply removing the YouTube app? Not so much.

  10. I don't see a problem here. by westlake · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The proper place for Hulu, YouTube, Netflix, and all the rest would seem to be as optional downloads from the iOS App Store.

    The only fair alternatives are to pre-load all competing media players and give them the same prominence as iTunes or introduce a purely bureaucratic solution like the European "browser ballot" for media play.

  11. Re:Glad to be an Android user.... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why wouldn't Apple approve it? Especially when they already gave the line of "Google is working on their own app" as an excuse.

  12. Re:Glad to be an Android user.... by Desler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Then just download the new app when it hits the store and shut the fuck up. This is a change only in that the Youtube app is no longer unremovable from the system which was a stupid idea.

  13. Re:Mars expedition is staged by EdIII · · Score: 4, Funny

    From what I've read, the new Total Recall movie doesn't even happen on Mars.

    WTF!?

    Then it ain't Total Recall. If I can't see a mutant 3-titted Martian hooker in cheap biodome light, then I just don't see the point in watching that movie...

  14. Re:Coming soon, "Apple iTube" by MrEricSir · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wait, what? They're removing a watered-down YouTube app made by Apple, and now you'll have the option to install an official one instead (or just use the website.)

    So no, it's the exact opposite of what you said.

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  15. Re:customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser by larry+bagina · · Score: 3, Informative

    I don't have flash on my computer. In my experience, 100% of youtube videos are html5 compliant on Safari/h.264. With Firefox/ogg/webm, a large number don't work.

    --
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  16. Re:Life is hotter in the south by oakgrove · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Instead of iOS developers being limited in what they can do with a map (like no turn by turn directions) by arbitrary Google limitations, iOS map based apps can now do anything they like atop a map.

    How about iOS developers that need high perfomance javascript in their webviews? Or users that would like to use Opera as their default to open links? On Android not only can I make any browser (or none of them) the default but I can fine tune it down to the point that links from different sites seamlessly open in my browser of choice, e.g., some sites just look better in Opera like Slashdot, some better in Chrome like CNet. And because a developer restricts API access or doesn't offer a particular API at all doesn't mean it's some "arbitrary decision". There are many things that go into those types of decisions and just because Apple brass is accusing Google of essentially "being mean" and you parroting the party line doesn't make it so. Think carefully lest you be hypocritical.

    --
    The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
  17. Re:Mars expedition is staged by kallisti · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Therefore Arnie's Total Recall was not Total Recall.

    Yes it was, it's just not "We Can Remember It For You, Wholesale". Which neither movie really resembles in the slightest.

  18. Re:Mars expedition is staged by Pathwalker · · Score: 3, Funny

    The grounding is a trick; it just ties you into the Earth's energy fields, and makes the mind control easier.

    Just remember:
    * Shiny side out blocks mind control.
    * Shiny side in blocks reading your thoughts.

    You have to pick one!

  19. Re:Mars expedition is staged by Ossifer · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yet again something easily filmed in Arizona....

  20. Re:thank god by Ossifer · · Score: 3, Informative

    The difference is that you can delete most of those. Also, when you upgrade to iOS 6, you won't have to delete the youtube app--it'll just be gone.

    Most people I know have a folder of undesired, undeletable Applue-supplied apps...

  21. Re:thank god by Ossifer · · Score: 4, Funny

    How could Android phones possibly have any bloatware? I mean haven't Google, the phone manufacturers, and your carrier teamed up to give you FULL CONTROL of what's running your phone?