Our iOS devices offer a variety of services, and when it comes to watching viral videos, few do it better than Google-owned YouTube. Sure, the iOS stock YouTube app is woeful and dated, but thankfully, there are plenty of alternatives out there offering a fuller, altogether more feature-rich YouTubing experience.
iDevices aside momentarily, one of the most annoying things about catching a stream is the buffering. If, like me, your connection is generally poor, you may find yourself watching in agony as the stream catches up to the level of content buffered, as opposed to actually enjoying the video clip you’re trying to watch. Inevitably, the connection cannot handle the stream, and you’re forced to look on as your clip pauses for two, three, ten or more seconds; annoying doesn’t adequately describe the feeling.
FoxTube helps to eradicate the buffering issue for those using an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. It allows you to play any YouTube video on-the-fly without buffering, and as well as being handy for uninterrupted video, actually boasts a decent amount of supplementary features.
The search function is pretty impressive, and you have a whole host of playlisting and organizing features enabling you to tailor the experience exactly to your requirement. If you make a playlist, FoxTube will begin pre-caching videos in advance, meaning when any given video takes center stage, the usual annoying wait is no more.
If you have an iPhone 4 or 4S, there’s support for TV-out, and if you’re rocking the Cupertino company’s very latest smartphone, FoxTube accommodates AirPlay and AirPlay Mirroring.
You can tweak the gestures to suit (there are plenty to choose from), although far from simply bringing great functionality, the video playback customization is equally impressive. You can play your video back at different speeds, make bookmarks within a video, and, if you wish, study the video frame-by-frame in extreme slow-mo.
When you see just how many features FoxTube possesses, it’s hard to believe anybody would bother with the comparatively bare stock offering. At $2.99, it’s worth the price – particularly if you’re always checking out the latest viral clips or music videos on YouTube.
Download FoxTube for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch [iTunes link]
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