App type: Music & Video
Publisher: Lazyworm
Release date: November 8, 2010
Price: FREE (Paid LazyTube version is $0.99)
Phone features used: Owner identity, media library, web browser, phone identity data connection
Download YouTube for Windows Phone 7 or LazyTube for Windows Phone 7
When Microsoft first launched Windows Phone last October, it provided a free YouTube app that users could download to access content on Google's dominant video service. But Microsoft's YouTube app is lackluster in general, and doesn't include a number of useful and obvious features, leaving an opening for third parties. And while there are a number of decent YouTube apps available for Windows Phone, my favorite is currently the one from Lazyworm.
Confusingly, Lazyworm's YouTube app has the same name as Microsoft's. So when you're searching for the right app, be sure to grab the one with the following tile:
The Lazyworm YouTube app nicely takes advantage of Windows Phone 7's Metro UI, with Featured, Search, Favorites, Subscriptions, Most Viewed, and Top Rated screens arrayed in the standard horizontally-scrolling format. It's a rich interface, with lots of ways to discover content, and of course it's tied to your actual YouTube account so it's all highly customized to your preferences.
Curiously, the full screen YouTube player doesn't utilize the stock media player that's built into Windows Phone. I originally thought this would be problematic, but the YouTube playback controls are excellent, with an oversized scrubber that makes it much easier to move forward and backward through a playing video clip.
You can Like or Dislike videos with a nicely-done slider control (slide up for Like, down for Dislike) too.
Finally, Lazyworm offers a paid version of YouTube, called LazyTube, as well. Currently, there are no additional features, so they're using it as a way for the overly conscientious to support the creators of a favorite app. (In the future, the paid version might pick up additional features, however.) And it's just 99 cents.
This is a great app and kind of a no brainer if you're looking for great mobile access to the wealth of content available on YouTube.
