YouTube

Apple's iPhone doesn't have a Flash plugin, which means no watching videos on YouTube among other things. Given the popularity of YouTube, Apple worked with Google to include a custom YouTube application for the iPhone that plays H.264 encoded YouTube content.

The entire YouTube library isn't available for viewing on the iPhone, but all new content added will be available in an Apple TV/iPhone compatible H.264 format while older content is slowly being converted.

The YouTube interface on the iPhone is just as clean and elegant as the rest of the applications; you can search for YouTube videos, view the most popular or featured videos. Unfortunately there's no way to browse channels or if you've found a particular video, to view everything by that member.

The quality of the videos depends on whether you are on WiFi or Edge. On WiFi, you get a higher quality H.264 stream while on Edge the quality is noticeably worse (honestly it looks the same or a little worse than .flv YouTube you get on the web).


YouTube over Edge, ugh


YouTube over WiFi, mmm

As you'd expect, streaming over WiFi is fast but performance over the Edge network is actually reasonable if you've got full signal strength.

4GB vs. 8GB Google Maps
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  • CaptainDDL - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link

    Could you take a picture of what the iPhone shows when you're trying to connect to a secure Wi-Fi connection? Thanks.
  • slashbinslashbash - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link

    Love the Group X reference.

    And once again Anand reminds me why I read Anandtech and don't really visit any other tech sites. He covers everything I want to know in a way that other reviewers can't.

    It's strange but I guess understandable that the iPhone doesn't use AIM/iChat/etc. AT&T (and any other carrier for that matter) would rather not have the iPhone than give up the lucrative SMS plans. But I doubt it will be long before there's a web-based AJAXy AIM client that will run beautifully on the iPhone and only use the data plan, not SMSes.
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link

    I'm glad people got the reference and didn't just think that there was something horribly wrong with me :)

    I don't want a web based AIM client, I want AIM support from Apple in the same fashion as SMS support on the iPhone. Dammit Steve, you know it'd be awesome.

    Take care,
    Anand
  • Zirconium - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link

    I don't want Apple's iPhone, I just want BANG BANG BANG!!!
  • frank5592 - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link

    get to top of web page by double tapping the gray top menu bar

    Very helpful for long web pages

    Great review, very impressive work and by far the best review of the iphone

    BTW, typing this on iphone safari and noticing that predictive typing is some what slow and does not always show up
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link

    Thanks for the tip and the comment, I've updated the review :)

    Take care,
    Anand
  • Chaotic42 - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link

    Seriously, this was an *excellent* review. I don't even have a cell phone and I couldn't have cared less about the iPhone before I read this, but I was bored. This answered every question that I or anyone I've talked to about the phone has had, and it was a great read. It makes me want one now.

    *Very* well done, Anand.
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link

    Thank you so much for your kind post, there's no better feeling than pouring a lot of work into an article and getting a response like that. Thanks again :)

    Take care,
    Anand
  • Dennis Travis - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link

    Agreed, your iPhone review was totally outstanding. You covered everything and then some and took the time to explain each feature in a way that anyone can understand.

    Another great review Anand. Told me everything I wanted to know about the iPhone.

  • michael2k - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link

    It sounds like you will want an iPhone if:
    1) You have $600
    2) You like the iPod
    3) You like Star Trek: The Next Generation

    The only thing missing is voice recognition! And flexible roll up displays.

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