YouTube has just announced a big milestone for its livestreaming television service, YouTube TV. The company has expanded the product into its 100th service location, making it available to people in parts of Tennessee and Virginia. With the expansion, YouTube TV is available in most of the nation's big cities and metro regions.
YouTube has released a list of smartphones its recommends for the best streaming experience. These "Signature Devices," the term used by the company, are said to offer best-in-class YouTube experiences across multiple aspects, including reliability and performance, and when viewing 360-degree content in addition to regular videos. The new Samsung Galaxy Note 9 comes in at the top of the list, and there's one surprising absence.
Google plans to release improvements and new features for YouTube Music every two weeks. The decision will address many complaints subscribers have about the service, including limitations on searching for content, finding new albums, sorting content, and more. At least one feature -- support for saving to local storage -- is rolling out now.
YouTube is home to tons of different videos and, therefore, tons of different aspect ratios. While YouTube's desktop player is 16:9 by default (and indeed, that seems to be the go-to aspect ratio these days), there are still plenty of older videos that were recorded and uploaded in 4:3. Then, of course, we have the always controversial vertical aspect ratio of videos recorded on a smartphone.
You would think that being owned by Google means that YouTube would prioritize adding features on Google’s platforms. After all, there are already too many app developers coming first to iOS and only to Android later (or never) that Google doesn’t need to make matters worse. And yet that was exactly the case with YouTube’s dark mode, which is already available everywhere except Android. Well, that changes now, at least for the lucky few that have the feature rolling out to their Android phones.
Virtual reality, or at least 360-degree content, has become the new hot thing in entertainment. Naturally, that means new territory for Google-owned YouTube to conquer. While limited to non-interactive content just like its regular version, YouTube VR markets itself as a way to experience new worlds up close and personal. Like literally in your face. Now it is introducing newer ways to experience virtual reality, either alone or with your virtual friends and strangers.
Skip video on YouTube this week on Android and you might have an issue to deal with. Previous versions of YouTube - the Android app - allowed users to skip forward and backward with a tap on the progress bar. Now, not so much. The good news is that YouTube developers are hard at work looking for a solution to the problem, and it should be fixed soon.
It would seem that Verizon's preparing to partner up with one of two tech titans to deliver 5G television service to the masses later this year. Initial services could launch in approximately 4 large cities before the end of the year, but only if Verizon is able to partner with a big name in television programming. Apparently the ability to "provide television" is the forte of either Google or Apple - strange as that may seem.
YouTube is testing a new Explore tab that helps users find new content to enjoy. This is different from the company's existing Recommended content, expanding upon it to present users with more videos to watch. The feature will be going live for only a small number of iOS users at this time, according to YouTube, which will merge the existing Trending tab content into the new Explore option.
A couple of days back, YouTube TV found itself in a bad position at what was probably the worst possible time. During the World Cup match between England and Croatia, YouTube TV's streaming service went down, and it took Google about an hour to fix the problems. This, as you can imagine, left a lot of YouTube TV subscribers livid.
Hulu isn't the only company that experienced a livestreaming issue during a major live sporting event. YouTube TV went offline during a recent World Cup game, forcing many viewers to tune in with a separate app to continue watching. This is the second time YouTube TV has experienced a streaming problem during a big live sports game, and though YouTube has apologized, many customers are unhappy.
It is an unfortunate and maybe unnecessary fact of digital life that you are being tracked no matter what you do. While there may be legit reasons for doing so and benefits offered in exchange, some would prefer not to be tracked at all, even if only for a moment. That’s what incognito, a.k.a. private, modes are for and now YouTube users on will be able to enjoy a moment of privacy for their viewing activities.