When I first saw iDesktop.tv one of my first thoughts was that it must be a US startup. Now I will admit that is incredibly Silicon-Valley-centric of me, for which apologise. In fact iDesktop.tv is coming out of Davendra Patel’s 3rd Eye Solutions agency in good ol’ Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, UK which makes it doubly cool.
iDesktop.tv – a relaunch of YouTubeDesktop – is basically an Ajax interface onto YouTube videos with a few more features added, chiefly the ability to download videos to your desktop. I know there are apps for this kind of thing, but few achieve this is in the consumer-friendly fashion of iDesktop.tv. When you download a video, you can choose from a variety of formats to convert it to – AVI, MP4, 3GP, 3GP2, MOV, WMV, FLV, EXE or ZIP. That means you can then transfer the video easily to a PC or a mobile phone, iPhone or iPod without using any other converter program. Windows can be dragged around and resized and you can create playlists or share video links with friends. It’s also possible to dim the background while watching videos.
You can also import your saved playlists or favourite videos from YouTube by logging-in. Each user profile displays a video comments list and information and you can see their other other videos or see their favourites. Searching for videos is a fun experience where you can make thumbnails zoom in and out, and search results can be sorted by relevance, date, rating or view count. The player can be opened in a new browser window and be maximised to four different aspect ratios.
There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of monetisation of the site, but I’d put that aside for now, because this is a really interesting interface onto YouTube which even YouTube ought to take a look at.
However, there are of course also some tricky implications. Interfaces like this rob YouTube of advertising impressions while sucking up bandwidth, although in theory pre-oll and post-roll adverts wouldn’t be affected. And don’t even ask about the licensing issues for the videos concerned, but it just goes to show that if you want to put content out there you need to make sure the video itself contains any necessary branding or copyright information.
This is undoubtedly the first time the words “cool” and “Wellingborough, Northamptonshire” have ever appeared in the same sentence, and the only time they ever will. They’re probably throwing street parties as we speak.
Its a very, very nice interface.
Well, I don’t see Wellingborough shouldn’t get some cool factor if the rather blandly named “Mountain View” can have it. I foresee a whole new tech conversation: “How’s you’re startup going?”, “Well, we managed to get some office space in Wellingborough…”
This is great. Only this week, I’ve been trolling the web looking for a tool to help me convert the .flv files RealPlayer now lets you download off ANY video website. I really thought the RealPlayer function was cool of course.
I did in the end find a few, but I can tell you that I think this blows RealPlayer, the converters and YouTube out of the water. I have a Neonode N2 just crying out for some videos. Not to mention the Nokia N810 thats in the post. Should be no problem getting the site to work on that browser.
Good work guys. I’m off to find space in Wellingborough for our startup.
>I’m off to find space in Wellingborough for our startup.
I know of an empty office you could have on the street behind my house. Conveniently half-way between the railway station and the town centre.
Glad you guys like , thanks.
Sure the mayor of Wellingborough, will be proud of us.
‘Wellingborough Valley’ here we come.
Well Done that man!! Good to know people have finally recognised your product… one of many out there! Like FlashJester, PhotoWoto, Grab and send etc… just shows the quality of your work… and pretty more to come right!
Well done Davu & the Team!
Really great interface. Very slick design.