YouTube 2.1 App Now Available on Android Market

When you’re watching a video on YouTube, how often do you JUST watch the video? If you’re like me, you scroll down, maybe read the video description and glance over at the related videos to choose what you might watch next.
Today the latest YouTube app, version 2.1, is available on the Android Market, so YouTube app updates aren’t tied to Android OS releases anymore. The app was rebuilt from the ground up to mirror the YouTube desktop experience and is our fastest, most intuitive YouTube mobile app to date.
What’s new:

  • In-page playback: you can read the video description, browse related, rate or flag videos without having to interrupt video playback.
  • Posting comments: you can post a comment while the video is playing, just like on the desktop website.
  • Subscription updates: we’ve made it easier to access new videos from your subscriptions. If you are signed into your account, you will see all your subscription updates right on the home screen of the app.
  • New full-screen UI: To enter full-screen mode simply rotate the phone. The new player controls make it easier to seek within the video, and you can pause or resume the playback by just tapping on the screen.

Following our famous mantra ‘launch early, iterate often’, we first released an early version of the unbundled app a few of weeks ago, collected user feedback, and addressed the key user requests in version 2.1.

Please note that the new YouTube app only works on devices running Android 2.2. To install it, search for ‘YouTube’ in Android Market. It also comes pre-installed on many upcoming Android 2.3 devices, such as the Nexus S.

Posted by Andrey Doronichev, YouTube Mobile Product Manager, recently watched “Huge Bike Jump into a Pond 35 feet in the air“

New Google Earth Imagery – December 9

As pointed out by GEB readers ‘Jorge’ and ‘Ika’, Google has just pushed out some fresh new imagery!

nasca.jpg

As is usually the case, you can use Google Maps to determine for sure whether or not a specific area is fresh. This new imagery isn’t in Google Maps yet, so you can compare Earth vs. Maps to see what’s new; the fresh imagery is already in Google Earth, but the old imagery is still in Google Maps. If you compare the two side-by-side and they’re not identical, that means that you’ve found a freshly updated area in Google Earth!

[UPDATED — 9-December, 12:57pm EST]

  • Georgia; Tbilisi — thanks ‘Ika’
  • Peru: Nasca — thanks ‘Jorge’
  • Switzerland: Various areas — thanks ‘Chris’
  • Thailand: Various areas — thanks ‘Andy’
  • United States: Alabama (Birmingham, Tuscaloosa), Arkansas (Little Rock), Illinois (Peoria), Missouri (St. Joseph) — thanks ‘Andreas’
  • Uruguay: — thanks ‘Enrique’ and ‘Sam’

If you find any other updated areas, please leave a comment and let us know!