Television is not as hot as it used to be. Even though people still watch their favorite series on TV (sometimes), they don’t spend as much time in front of glass tube anymore. There’s another kind of tube today, with tons of entertaining clips to watch and without region restriction. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?
Despite the delivery method – glass tube or YouTube, movie lovers are always trying to find a way to make the movies available “off tube”. There’s the VCR in the old days, and there are countless way to download YouTube videos.
Because there are more and more modern mobile phones – like the iPhone – that play a role as entertainment gadgets, it’s only logical that this video downloading movement finds its way to the mobile world. Here are three free ways to download YouTube movies to your iPhone (and other mobile phones).
Prologue: Mobile YouTube (On Most Mobile Phones)
But before we go further, please note that YouTube has a mobile version of their service. Even though this “M” version will not allow you to download the content, it is a good alternative for mobile users who don’t mind watching streaming videos.
So if you think that you are not geeky enough to go through the trouble of downloading videos to your mobile phone, just point your browser to Mobile YouTube.
Chapter One: The Good Old-Fashioned Way (On Most OSes To Most Mobile Phones)
This method is the standard procedure that you can find in every internet user manual (if one exists). It involves a online file converting service like Zamzar to help us download YouTube movies (and convert them to a format compatible with your mobile phone).
The steps require for Zamzar are: type in the video URL, choose what format you want the video to be converted into, provide your email address and click “Convert“. You will then receive an email with the link to download the converted video. Send the downloaded video to your mobile phone.
There are many other online services that can help you download YouTube videos. And because all you need is a browser and internet connection, you can do the method from any computer under any OS and transfer the resulting videos to any mobile phone.
You can also try this method entirely on your mobile phone without using computer. I tried using Mobile Safari but failed to access the download link. But this might work using other mobile browsers and/or different online YouTube downloader services.
Chapter Two: The Tooble Way (On Mac and Windows To iPhone)
You can also download YouTube videos with the help of desktop softwares like MacTubes. One of the free and complete alternatives to do that is Tooble. This is an application that was built to help users download YouTube videos, then convert and transfer them to iPod, iPad and/or iPhone.
The interface is very simple. You can browse around for videos using the categories on the left pane, or you can use the search feature. To download video(s), just check the box(es) next to the item(s) that you want and click “Download“.
Then the video will be downloaded to your hard drive and automatically imported to iTunes. You can set the synchronization process between iTunes and your iDevices to add these converted videos.
Just make sure that you choose the right video format in the Preferences.
Tooble is freeware and available for Windows and Mac.
Chapter Three: The MxTube Way (on Jailbroken iPhone)
Looking at the two previous methods, I began to wonder: Are there any free and practical ways to download YouTube videos directly on the phone?
Well, maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough (or didn’t know where to look), but I could only find one way to achieve that: using MxTube on a jailbroken iPhone.
MxTube is a simple YouTube downloader app that you can find in the Cydia repository. Just perform a search and you will find it (there was an official AppStore version called MiTube, but the app lasted less than a week on the store before it was pulled out).
Downloading YouTube movies using MxTube is very easy: you search for videos, tap on it to access the information page, then tap on one of the download options.
Close the search feature to monitor the download process. And after it finishes, tap on the video to play it.
Tapping on the “Edit” button will allow you to delete the video(s).
Epilogue: Looking For More Ways
I have only one mobile phone. It’s possible that my mind focused only on that phone when I did the research. I’m sure there are many other free methods to download YouTube videos directly on mobile phones.
So if you know any, why not share the knowledge with others using the comment below?
Tagged: downloader • iphone • mobile phones • Youtube
