Chapter 25. Watching YouTube Videos
When you’re stuck in line or sitting around a waiting room, you probably won’t have time to watch a complete movie or even a TV show episode. Even podcasts and iTunes U courses may take too much time to watch a complete episode in a single sitting. For those times when you want to watch something for just a few minutes, you can browse the massive selection of videos available on YouTube.
On a computer, you have to load your browser and then visit the YouTube site, but on your iPad, you can access YouTube directly without going through your browser at all. All you need is a reliable and (preferably) fast Internet connection, and you’ll be ready to watch short video clips whether you’re standing in line or sitting down.
In this chapter, you will learn how to watch and control YouTube videos on your iPad.
What You’ll Be Using
To watch YouTube videos on your iPad, you need to use the following:
Choosing a YouTube Video
Before you start browsing YouTube’s massive library of videos, make sure you have a reliable Internet connection. If you have a weak Internet connection, you may spend your time staring at a screen that appears frozen but occasionally lurches forward to display a few additional frames before grinding to a halt once more.
After you’re satisfied that your Internet connection is reliable, you can browse through YouTube by following these steps:
From the Home screen, tap YouTube. The YouTube screen appears.
Tap Featured at the bottom of the screen. Thumbnail images of different videos that YouTube is promoting that day appear, as shown in Figure 25-1.
Tap Top Rated at the bottom of the screen. Thumbnail images of the highest-rated videos appear.
Tap the Today, This Week, or All tab at the top of the screen to view just today’s top-rated videos, the past week’s top-rated videos, or all top-rated videos.
Tap Most Viewed at the bottom of the screen. Thumbnail images of the most viewed videos appear.
Tap the Today, This Week, or All tab at the top of the screen to view just today’s most viewed videos, the past week’s most viewed videos, or all of the most viewed videos.
Tap History at the bottom of the screen. Thumbnail images of the last videos you’ve seen appear.
(Optional) Tap Clear at the upper-left corner of the screen to remove this list of videos you’ve watched.
Viewing a Video
When you’re watching a video file, you can display controls by tapping the screen once to display controls at the top and bottom of the screen, as shown in Figure 25-2.
The available controls are as follows:
Volume slider Drag this left and right to adjust the volume.
Playhead slider Drag this left and right to play parts of the audio file.
Play/Pause button Tap to pause or resume playing of an audio file.
Rewind Tap to rewind to the beginning of the video or play the previous video in a list.
Forward Tap to play the next audio file in a list.
Full Screen/Shrink Tap to expand the video to fill the screen; tap a second time to shrink the video slightly.
Bookmark/Add Tap to store this video in your Favorites list.
To see how to control a video, follow these steps:
Follow the steps in the section Choosing a YouTube Video in What You’ll Be Using to find a video you want to play.
Tap the image that represents the video you want to play. Your chosen video appears on the full screen and displays controls briefly, as shown in Figure 25-2. After a few seconds, the controls disappear.
Tap anywhere on the screen to display the controls again. Notice that when the video appears on part of the screen, the Add, Share, Like, Dislike, and Flag icons appear at the top of the video.
Tap Shrink. The video shrinks to fill part of the screen, as shown in Figure 25-3. Tap the small screen, and you can Add, Share, Like, Dislike, or Flag a video.
Tap Full Screen. The video expands to fill the entire screen.
Searching for a YouTube Video
Since YouTube contains thousands of videos, you probably don’t want to spend your time browsing through each one. To find a specific type of video, you can type a descriptive word or phrase and let YouTube show you only those videos that match your search criteria.
To search for a YouTube video, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap YouTube. The YouTube screen appears.
Tap the Search field that appears in the upper-right corner of the screen. The virtual keyboard appears.
Type a descriptive word or phrase, and tap the Search key on the virtual keyboard. (To clear any text in the Search field, tap Close in the far right of the Search field, or tap the Backspace key on the virtual keyboard.) YouTube displays a list of videos matching your search criteria.
Additional Ideas for Watching YouTube Videos
YouTube contains so many videos that it’s impossible for one person to watch them all (not that anyone would really want to do that). YouTube videos can be great for keeping children amused while waiting in line or in a doctor’s office or when travelling on a long trip.
To get even more out of watching YouTube videos, visit YouTube’s website (http://www.youtube.com/) and create an account for free. With a free YouTube account, you can upload your own videos (and view them using the My Videos icon), create video playlists (and view them through the Favorites icon), or subscribe to certain YouTube video creators.
If you like videos that a specific person uploads, subscribe to that person, and YouTube will automatically list any new videos that person posts on YouTube (you can view these latest videos through the Subscriptions icon).