Watch YouTube on your mobile device with Orb

[Bob Russell]

With Verizon's recent announcement about VCast offering some YouTube content on its mobile phones in the future, they are surely hoping to boost sales with some YouTube fans. It seems that everyone wants access to YouTube now, but I hope that you don't think you need a Verizon phone to be able to get it.

Orb recently announced that "its free MyCasting service (www.orb.com) is the first to take Internet videos mobile by making it possible to add, manage and stream them using any mobile device with a browser and media player. People can now enjoy their favorite videos from YouTube, Google, Guba and DailyMotion while on the move."

What that means, is that you download the desktop software and then you can see your home audio/video content from your mobile device browser. If you have a TV tuner, you can watch live TV. If you want to watch YouTube or Google video, you can do it, and Orb takes care of all the complexities and format conversions. And it's all free.

Ian McCarthy from Orb Networks shared with me that you can do a lot with YouTube through Orb, like browse the YouTube RSS feeds, play specific YouTube videos you've added to your personal Orb index with a browser plugin, and search metatags of the library of videos from YouTube, DailyMotion and Google video. More video sources are, of course, likely to be added later.

The future looks really bright for web-based mobile content. Orb appears to be leading the way with MyCasting, but you can be sure that many alternatives will be making this a very competitive market in the years to come, creating a huge battle for the eyes of the masses when home is no longer the dominant location for viewing media.