YouTube via Verizon: $15. YouTube via Orb: free

I've been a Verizon Wireless customer for at least five years, but I still don't get the VCast service. Literally. I have a hard time paying $15 a month for limited content, when I can use the Broadband Access service I'm already paying $45 monthly for nearly unlimited content. Earlier this week, Verizon tried to sweeten the VCast deal by announcing a deal with YouTube. That deal isn't sweet enough for my $15 each month, especially when MobileRead mentions that you can view YouTube remotely with Orb for free.

Bob Russell over at MobileRead got the following info directly from the Orb folks: "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."

Granted, Orb is currently a one-way service when paired with YouTube: you can't upload videos from a mobile phone to YouTube like you can with the V-Cast deal. Fifteen bucks to upload from my phone? I'll just save the movie for later; there's bound to be some post-production work to do anyway. If you're interested in the Orb feature that turns your home PC into a broadcasting tool, check out the MyCasting functionality at Orb.

Comments

[ian at orb]

hey kevin

that nails it pretty nicely!

i mean, i use my samsung i730 over EVDO on verizon to watch, today, for no *extra* fee over the hefty investment i've *already made* in my EVDO data and my good phone, ALL the youtube (and dailymotion and GUBA and google video and yahoo video) vids *i* decide i want

and we've just announced our now-live ability to search directly from your mobile phone for the vids you want (in addition to being able to browse the RSS feeds and to access vids you flagged already when you were on your PC via the OrbThis browser plugin that's available at www.orb.com/orbthis)

it's not even just the pay-extra part that's archaic about the youtube-through-vcast deal: it's the idea that broadcast (with all the implications "broadcast" has of some Program Director who *isn't you yourself* deciding what *you* can choose from to watch) has a new home on the *mobile* web that no one would even consider reasonable for a second on the PC web by this point

and there's just no reason for that. the mobile web is the full web - time for all of us to be able to mycast all the stuff to our mobile handsets that we can already enjoy on our home PCs.