The fix provided by iPhone Hacks reader SpikeyMickey303 for the YouTube problem on jailbroken iPhone seems to have worked well for most iPhone hacks readers (thanks SpikeyMickey303 once again for the excellent step-by-step guide) but a few readers have reported that they are still facing an issue.
I stumbled upon this YouTube download utility for the iPhone called MxTube developed by Max believe it or not, a 16 year-old, which seems like an interesting alternative to the YouTube app on your iPhone and can also be used as a workaround to the YouTube problem you might be facing with your jailbroken iPhone running software 1.1.4.
Based on some blog reports, apparently 16 year-old Max has been trying to develop a utility to download YouTube videos for quite sometime, and has been courting many experienced programmers for their time to come up with a solution without any luck until he got attention from iPhone hacking genius Pumpkin, who ultimately helped him develop MXTube, an unauthorized native iPhone application to download YouTube videos on your iPhone.
MxTube is a nifty native iPhone application, if you are looking to download and save a fairly long YouTube video/videos (assuming over Wi-Fi) so that you can watch them offline. The native iPhone application allows you to search YouTube exactly the same way as you would with the YouTube app but with a few extra features like it allows you to watch low or high (good option over Wi-Fi) quality videos, completely independent from connection speed and you can also continue the downloads when suspended. You can access the videos within the app once saved (as video bookmarks).
The native application also allows you to watch videos in portrait or landscape modes and can play the videos in QuickTime or the YouTube applications (though not sure if the YouTube option will work if YouTube app is not working on your jailbroken iPhone).
It is still unclear if the application gives you the ability to manage the downloaded YouTube videos such as a way to delete videos after you have watched them, a critical feature due to the limited storage space available on the iPhone. iPhone Hacks reader, Max, just confirmed that you can delete the videos after you have downloaded or watched them, so thats no longer an issue. Thanks Max for clarifying.
Checkout the screenshots of MxTube’s User Interface below:
You can also checkout the video demonstration of MxTube in action below:
If these additional features along with the ability to download and save YouTube videos for offline viewing interests you then you will need a Jailbroken iPhone. If you want to jailbreak your iPhone then you can checkout the the Step-By-Step Guide to JailBreak iPhone Firmware 1.1.4 using ZiPhone. The jailbreaking method will also install the Installer app which will make installing MxTube easier. MxTube should be available under the Multimedia Category (you might need to add the BigBoss Repository).
As always, please do remember that you will be installing this unauthorized native iPhone application at your own risk.
Some of the known bugs so far are mentioned below:
- Search crashes when in airplane mode or there is no connection present.
- Search crashes when loading more than 75 items.
- Downloads crash during the download process for large videos.
- Downloads finish prematurely and have playback issues.
You can check Max’s website for more details on MxTube.
Max and Pumpkin, Congratulations for a really cool native iPhone application!
On a side note, what’s going to be interesting to see about Apple’s iPhone Software Development Kit announced earlier this week is to see if developers can develop official native iPhone applications like MxTube. I guess we will get an answer to this question fairly soon, if the answer is "Yes" then Apple definitely have a winner.
It will be great to get your feedback on the latest native iPhone application in the comments.
Top iPhone Hacks Categories:
Hacks
iPhone Applications
Unlock iPhone
JailBreak iPhone
iPhone Tips & Tricks
iPhone Games
iPhone News
What next?
