New version will include access to thousands of additional videos, notably major-label music videos, which is made possible with now-allowed advertising.Days before iOS 6 lands on iPhones without the familiar pre-installed YouTube app, Google has released a new version with some significant upgrades. (get from here.)
Tens of thousands of additional videos can now be played through the iOS app, notably major-label music videos.
That will be made possible by advertising, which was forbidden in the original Apple-designed app. The new YouTube also includes an easier way to browse any channels you've subscribed to -- just swipe right from the left side of the screen to see a list of them -- and new options for sharing videos with friends, including Facebook and Google+.
Last month, a new beta release of iOS removed the YouTube app, which has been a part of Apple's mobile operating system since the original iPhone launch. Apple said at the time that its license to include YouTube had ended and that users would be free to access YouTube via the mobile Web or a forthcoming app that YouTube was building itself. That app arrives today.
For YouTube, breaking with Apple meant a chance to bring the slick, modern experience it built for Android devices to hundreds of millions of current and future iPhone owners. YouTube had little control over the app that bore its name for the past five years; Apple built the app itself according to YouTube's instructions but updated it infrequently. The ban on advertising made it difficult to access copyrighted content inside the app; many a music fan went looking for a Lady Gaga video over the years on iOS and came up empty.