TinyTube - mobile YouTube !!

I just saw a mobile version of YouTube called TinyTube at http://tinytube.net/

Basically it gives an interface to browsing and searching YouTube videos that fits on mobile devices, and then converts them to 3GP format to play on mobile devices, with options for low, medium, or high resolution/bandwidth.

I just tried it on a mall's public Wi-Fi and on 3g/UMTS, and it works well. It doesn't give all the bells and whistles that YouTube gives, but bottom line, it gives access to YouTube videos.

Note that you can browse their site from your computer to see how it looks, but it's smart enough to give you regular Flash videos if you're on a computer, and only convert to 3GP if you're on a mobile device (presumably to save its server resources). On a mobile device, instead of a link "stream" you'll see links for low, medium, or high bandwidth/resolution.

One minor point is that on my TyTN the videos are first converted fully, then downloaded fully, and then viewed, and are not streamed, so there's more wait time. But that's a minor nitpick compared to the bottom line that this system has opened up YouTube content to mobile devices.

Very impressed, this is exactly the right service to offer.

http://tinytube.net/