Mobile YouTube shows off cell phone app frustration

Uncategorized 1 Minute

OK, I have a $750 Nokia N95. Certainly it would be able to play the new mobile YouTube videos. Nope. It tries to open the only player on my cell phone, which is a Real Networks one. And, of course, it gives me an error on loading the videos.

We’re a long way from getting mobile apps on cell phones that work. It’ll be interesting to test the iPhone on this site. I bet IT works cause Eric Schmidt has one in his pocket and can get the YouTube team to fix its issues.

Regarding iPhone. Turns out I’m going to be camping out in front of some store in San Francisco. Hopefully with a bunch of weirdo Apple freaks. That would make my son very happy. We’ll be reporting from wherever we end up. Anyone camping at a San Francisco store to get an iPhone?

Published by Robert Scoble

I help entrepreneurs build their technology business' story, help with getting ready for investors, with other launch plans, and many other strategic things that can help your new startup. Call to talk: +1-425-205-1921 (text first).

Published

65 thoughts on “Mobile YouTube shows off cell phone app frustration”

  3. Like yourself I too am continually amazed at how little mobile phones have developed despite adding a multitude of features and communication strategies. So here is my two pence ( 4 cents your currency ) .

    Browser Interface & RSS Feeds.
    Theres a plethora of ultra small Webservers available though given the memory overloaded footprint of phones it seems you could squeeze in apache. The Browser interface would give you acess to your phones email/contacts/photos and you wouldnt need to keep updating with outlook or the vendors thirdparty app. Surely it would reduce packaging costs at the very least. RSS Feeds into my contacts and photos would be a boon since I could add my phones rss feeds to my own feed reader and access new content when at home.

    SyncML
    Ive been using scheduleworld.co.uk on and off to sync contact, calendar and notes between my phone , the net and other applications. Why are the phone vendors still expecting us to preload outlook ?

    Okay thats my two pence but when I wrote about my own phone the Sony Erricson p990i my feelings for it have not changed , and in the style of all good self promoting bloggers here is my link http://www.loudmouthman.com/2006/10/10/new-gadgets-same-problems/

    Like

  4. Like yourself I too am continually amazed at how little mobile phones have developed despite adding a multitude of features and communication strategies. So here is my two pence ( 4 cents your currency ) .

    Browser Interface & RSS Feeds.
    Theres a plethora of ultra small Webservers available though given the memory overloaded footprint of phones it seems you could squeeze in apache. The Browser interface would give you acess to your phones email/contacts/photos and you wouldnt need to keep updating with outlook or the vendors thirdparty app. Surely it would reduce packaging costs at the very least. RSS Feeds into my contacts and photos would be a boon since I could add my phones rss feeds to my own feed reader and access new content when at home.

    SyncML
    Ive been using scheduleworld.co.uk on and off to sync contact, calendar and notes between my phone , the net and other applications. Why are the phone vendors still expecting us to preload outlook ?

    Okay thats my two pence but when I wrote about my own phone the Sony Erricson p990i my feelings for it have not changed , and in the style of all good self promoting bloggers here is my link http://www.loudmouthman.com/2006/10/10/new-gadgets-same-problems/

    Like

  7. I’m not even going to try it.
    Yesterday I talked about a Canada only service called blogtv.ca
    http://www.blogtv.ca
    BlogTV is actually ranked higher than kyte.tv at 37,467 vs. 53,788 worldwide and ONLY Canadians can visit the site. People who’s geoip is not from Canada are banned.
    http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=blogtv.ca&url=blogtv.ca/
    http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=kyte.tv
    If you went through a Canadian proxy to view the site, you would have discovered that even with lots of VC, they did not implement mobile live video, and kept it on HTTP.
    The interface is exactly like kyte.tv where you have the live flash app that broadcasts channels with a chat window on the right side.
    http://www.thomaspurves.com/2007/04/09/canada-worse-than-3rd-world-countries-when-it-comes-to-mobile-data-access/
    I mentioned this before, but the link above is why.

    This is why mobile will never work outside of the US. It’s bad in Europe too.

    My point being is that if mobile is that important, then how did blogtv.ca pull ahead of kyte.tv without any mobile interface and ONLY Canadian users ignoring the biggest market on earth?

    There’s something these mobile pimpsters are not revealing to you. And that is the horrible cost of transfer is not within the grasp of the populous.

    Like

  8. I’m not even going to try it.
    Yesterday I talked about a Canada only service called blogtv.ca
    http://www.blogtv.ca
    BlogTV is actually ranked higher than kyte.tv at 37,467 vs. 53,788 worldwide and ONLY Canadians can visit the site. People who’s geoip is not from Canada are banned.
    http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=blogtv.ca&url=blogtv.ca/
    http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=kyte.tv
    If you went through a Canadian proxy to view the site, you would have discovered that even with lots of VC, they did not implement mobile live video, and kept it on HTTP.
    The interface is exactly like kyte.tv where you have the live flash app that broadcasts channels with a chat window on the right side.
    http://www.thomaspurves.com/2007/04/09/canada-worse-than-3rd-world-countries-when-it-comes-to-mobile-data-access/
    I mentioned this before, but the link above is why.

    This is why mobile will never work outside of the US. It’s bad in Europe too.

    My point being is that if mobile is that important, then how did blogtv.ca pull ahead of kyte.tv without any mobile interface and ONLY Canadian users ignoring the biggest market on earth?

    There’s something these mobile pimpsters are not revealing to you. And that is the horrible cost of transfer is not within the grasp of the populous.

    Like

  11. Doesn’t work on my phone either. As an aside, I hate YouTube for creating this site. It should up to phone manufactures to figure out how to enable Flash support on their mobile devices. Can you imagine YouTube videos being downgraded even further? yeesh…

    On the iPhone: I’m waiting to see if teens will abandon their texting habits and chomp on the iPhone. Mac enthusiasts will initially help Apple push product out the door, but I’m more interested in what happens after that (i.e. will average citizens and teens bite).

    Like

  12. Doesn’t work on my phone either. As an aside, I hate YouTube for creating this site. It should up to phone manufactures to figure out how to enable Flash support on their mobile devices. Can you imagine YouTube videos being downgraded even further? yeesh…

    On the iPhone: I’m waiting to see if teens will abandon their texting habits and chomp on the iPhone. Mac enthusiasts will initially help Apple push product out the door, but I’m more interested in what happens after that (i.e. will average citizens and teens bite).

    Like

  13. Kevin Rose was saying on one of the most recent episodes of Diggnation that he really wanted to camp out at the San Fran Apple store overnight.

    Say hello to him if you see him! (hopefully he won’t be drunk and incoherent)

    Like

  14. Kevin Rose was saying on one of the most recent episodes of Diggnation that he really wanted to camp out at the San Fran Apple store overnight.

    Say hello to him if you see him! (hopefully he won’t be drunk and incoherent)

    Like

  15. The Diggnation crew and Leo Laporte will be at the Palo Alto Apple store. That’s where I’ll be. Diggnation will be doing a show from there, and Leo was thinking of some mobile version of a podcast.

    Like

  16. The Diggnation crew and Leo Laporte will be at the Palo Alto Apple store. That’s where I’ll be. Diggnation will be doing a show from there, and Leo was thinking of some mobile version of a podcast.

    Like

  19. Wow! You are really going to camp out all night to get a PHONE? REALLY??? I guess consumerism is very strong and alive in America today! I understand that this is one really cool phone but I would rather get some sleep so that I can contribute something positive to someone’s day then wait on a hard concrete sidewalk in order to obtain a plastic encased piece of metal that plays videos from several large media distribution companies!

    Perhaps I am misreading you here. This is a news worthy story and should be covered by someone.

    Like

  20. Wow! You are really going to camp out all night to get a PHONE? REALLY??? I guess consumerism is very strong and alive in America today! I understand that this is one really cool phone but I would rather get some sleep so that I can contribute something positive to someone’s day then wait on a hard concrete sidewalk in order to obtain a plastic encased piece of metal that plays videos from several large media distribution companies!

    Perhaps I am misreading you here. This is a news worthy story and should be covered by someone.

    Like

  21. Additionally if you go to http://www.3gp.com and click on 3GP players, you will quickly see that Apple Quicktime player plays it. So YES, mobile YouTube will work on iPhone. If you visit m.youtube.com with a new mac and click on a video to watch from Safari, you will see quicktime open and connect to play it.

    Like

  22. Additionally if you go to http://www.3gp.com and click on 3GP players, you will quickly see that Apple Quicktime player plays it. So YES, mobile YouTube will work on iPhone. If you visit m.youtube.com with a new mac and click on a video to watch from Safari, you will see quicktime open and connect to play it.

    Like

  23. Richard: you don’t understand. Waiting in line is a lot more fun than actually getting whatever you want.

    I remember waiting overnight to watch StarWars (the fourth, I mean, the first one) and two of the guys who started Hotmail were next to me in line.

    I remember being one of the first into the Sunnyvale Fry’s stores and John Fry gave a group of us a personal tour around the store.

    Anyway, it’ll be a scene.

    Like

  24. Richard: you don’t understand. Waiting in line is a lot more fun than actually getting whatever you want.

    I remember waiting overnight to watch StarWars (the fourth, I mean, the first one) and two of the guys who started Hotmail were next to me in line.

    I remember being one of the first into the Sunnyvale Fry’s stores and John Fry gave a group of us a personal tour around the store.

    Anyway, it’ll be a scene.

    Like

  25. @Rishabh: yeah, several from PodTech will be there too. I guess everyone is hoping that Steve Jobs will show up there (since that’s the store closest to his house).

    That might make sense. If he showed up in San Francisco there’d be a riot.

    Like

  26. @Rishabh: yeah, several from PodTech will be there too. I guess everyone is hoping that Steve Jobs will show up there (since that’s the store closest to his house).

    That might make sense. If he showed up in San Francisco there’d be a riot.

    Like

  27. Hey Robert, I thought the N95 had a built-in Flash player. Did you try the regular Youtube site?

    Also, I guess the Treos still have some life in them, because they can play Youtube videos with Kinoma: http://www.kinoma.com/index/Player4 Weird that my almost-3-year-old Treo 650 can do pretty much all the stuff that the brand-new, expensive phones can do. And without a 2-year contract, to boot. 😉

    Like

  28. Hey Robert, I thought the N95 had a built-in Flash player. Did you try the regular Youtube site?

    Also, I guess the Treos still have some life in them, because they can play Youtube videos with Kinoma: http://www.kinoma.com/index/Player4 Weird that my almost-3-year-old Treo 650 can do pretty much all the stuff that the brand-new, expensive phones can do. And without a 2-year contract, to boot. 😉

    Like

  29. Oh man, in the UK and VERY frustrated 😉 I hope to camp out at the Regent Street Store when we have our launch in Oct/Nov/Dec?!?!

    @Robert – would be superb if Stevie J turned up!

    Like

  30. Oh man, in the UK and VERY frustrated 😉 I hope to camp out at the Regent Street Store when we have our launch in Oct/Nov/Dec?!?!

    @Robert – would be superb if Stevie J turned up!

    Like

  36. “You might need to goto settings in the real player to change how it connects to the internet from your GSM APN to your WIFI SSID.”

    That bit of technobabble is exactly the problem right there. 😛
    How about..You click on the play icon, and it plays?

    Like

  39. “You might need to goto settings in the real player to change how it connects to the internet from your GSM APN to your WIFI SSID.”

    That bit of technobabble is exactly the problem right there. 😛
    How about..You click on the play icon, and it plays?

    Like

  41. hi robert & friends…

    got the mobile youtube nicely working on my oldschool nokia 6630… hat to set the default data-gateway withihn the real player software though. I’m pretty sure that n95 is basically capable of playing back those streams… must be some kind of config- or provider-issue….

    greetings!

    Like

  42. hi robert & friends…

    got the mobile youtube nicely working on my oldschool nokia 6630… hat to set the default data-gateway withihn the real player software though. I’m pretty sure that n95 is basically capable of playing back those streams… must be some kind of config- or provider-issue….

    greetings!

    Like

  47. In RealPlayer, choose Options->Settings->Connection->Network->Default access point.

    Ensure that it is set to the correct access point, the same one that you are using in the browser.

    Access Point Settings (Tools->Settings->Connection->Access Points)

    For Cingular: The access point should be using wap.cingular as the Access point name.

    For T-Mobile: The access point should be using internet2.voicestream.com or internet3.voicestream.com, depending on which plan your SIM is configured with as the Access point name.

    Like

  48. In RealPlayer, choose Options->Settings->Connection->Network->Default access point.

    Ensure that it is set to the correct access point, the same one that you are using in the browser.

    Access Point Settings (Tools->Settings->Connection->Access Points)

    For Cingular: The access point should be using wap.cingular as the Access point name.

    For T-Mobile: The access point should be using internet2.voicestream.com or internet3.voicestream.com, depending on which plan your SIM is configured with as the Access point name.

    Like

  49. Pingback: S60 TV » S60 hack: YouTube Hack | How to make YouTube work on S60

  50. Mobile YouTube DOES work on N95s and all other S60 phones. You just need to change some settings if it doesn’t immediately.

    If you want to know how visit my S60 blog at http://www.S60tv.com . The exact article is at http://www.tinyurl.com/2xk974 .

    But I must agree that it is frustrating that things still don’t work. Last year there was this site http://www.tinytube.com I think, and it did it well but then YouTube sent them a cease and desist so they moved to provide mobile videos from other sites…

    —
    http://www.S60tv.com
    S60 smartphone news, tips, and tricks – from “outside the (emplyee’s) box”

    Like

  51. Mobile YouTube DOES work on N95s and all other S60 phones. You just need to change some settings if it doesn’t immediately.

    If you want to know how visit my S60 blog at http://www.S60tv.com . The exact article is at http://www.tinyurl.com/2xk974 .

    But I must agree that it is frustrating that things still don’t work. Last year there was this site http://www.tinytube.com I think, and it did it well but then YouTube sent them a cease and desist so they moved to provide mobile videos from other sites…

    —
    http://www.S60tv.com
    S60 smartphone news, tips, and tricks – from “outside the (emplyee’s) box”

    Like

  52. Pingback: ninthspace » The thin end of the wedge

  53. Mobile You Tube works great on my HTC Vox. It’s just a shame that most of the fun videos aren’t on mobile You Tube

    Like

  54. Mobile You Tube works great on my HTC Vox. It’s just a shame that most of the fun videos aren’t on mobile You Tube

    Like

  55. Thanks for the tip Jake

    I went to “m.youtube.com” on my N95 and can see lots of YouTube mobile videos.

    I’d recommend doing it through your wi-fi connection to make use of your fast broadband connection and to avoid paying a fortune to mobile companies

    Like

  56. Thanks for the tip Jake

    I went to “m.youtube.com” on my N95 and can see lots of YouTube mobile videos.

    I’d recommend doing it through your wi-fi connection to make use of your fast broadband connection and to avoid paying a fortune to mobile companies

    Like

  57. Movy.tv is a mobilizing YouTube site.
    You can download and install our mpeg4 player on
    your Nokia and you will be able to search and play
    all the videos/audio on the site including a couple of television channels.

    You will able to be able to upload videos/audio and
    have them “mobilized”, just like YouTube…
    but you will be able to mobilize what you want when you want

    Like

  58. Movy.tv is a mobilizing YouTube site.
    You can download and install our mpeg4 player on
    your Nokia and you will be able to search and play
    all the videos/audio on the site including a couple of television channels.

    You will able to be able to upload videos/audio and
    have them “mobilized”, just like YouTube…
    but you will be able to mobilize what you want when you want

    Like

  59. In your N95 go to RealPlayer, open options, configurations, streaming, and adecuate your conection conditions, say no to proxy (most probably), and in RED be sure that the default point acces is the same your phone use to conect to web, WiFi or Internet instead of WAP or Streaming, It Works, even here in Venezuela with Movistar, Telefonica provider

    Like

  60. In your N95 go to RealPlayer, open options, configurations, streaming, and adecuate your conection conditions, say no to proxy (most probably), and in RED be sure that the default point acces is the same your phone use to conect to web, WiFi or Internet instead of WAP or Streaming, It Works, even here in Venezuela with Movistar, Telefonica provider

    Like

  61. Pingback: Robert Scoble in Fast Company — the 100-word version [Robert Scoble]  »TechAddress

  62. Hey guys, we are upgrading our system as we speak, at this time, but we have already a system that can mobilize YouTube. We are carrier independent. There is NO addtional software download with your services. Our services are FREE to try as long as your cell phone is web-enabled. Check US out, give us feed back so we can even make it even better.

    Like

  63. Hey guys, we are upgrading our system as we speak, at this time, but we have already a system that can mobilize YouTube. We are carrier independent. There is NO addtional software download with your services. Our services are FREE to try as long as your cell phone is web-enabled. Check US out, give us feed back so we can even make it even better.

    Like

Comments are closed.