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If you own a mobile device and you watch YouTube videos on the go, you may want to download some of them and i’m here to quickly give a brief review of major YouTube download clients on mobile operating systems.

1. ANDROID

Tubemate is my favorite Youtube download application and the reason for this is that it has several options and even a fast download mode. You can choose to download videos at different resolutions and even save a video as an mp3 file. Another reason that it is superb is that you can log in to your Youtube account and you can view and download from your subscriptions.

Download Tubemate

2. SYMBIAN

A very good app for downloading Youtube videos onto your Symbian S60V3&5, Belle is called Youtube Downloader(self explanatory eh). I do not use Symbian any longer but from reviews i think you should give this app a go if you use Symbian.

Download Youtube Downloader for Symbian Devices

3. BADA/JAVA

If you use the Samsung powered Bada operating system or you use a feature phone that uses Java mobile applications, you can also grab a downloader called YourTube. It can download videos in various formats and also save videos as MP3 audio files.

Download YourTube

4. WINDOWS PHONE

There is also a Youtube downloader for Windows Phone called udownldr. I read several reviews about it and i think that it is worth checking out.

Download udownldr

5. IOS

I put iOS last because all the applications that i saw to download Youtube videos required that you jailbreak your device. If you already have a jailbroken device, you can download MxTube on the Cydia store. If you have a downloader that does not require a jailbreak on your device please share.

CONCLUSION

I think this about covers all major mobile operating systems, if you have/use any other downloaders not included in this post please share them in the comments below.

It is no mistake that for years, Symbian became the dominant smartphone OS here in Nigeria, and indeed Africa. The peculiar conditions of this environment ensured that. Despite all the razmattaz of iOS and Android, Symbian kept its strong hold on the African continent – and for good reasons too. Here are a few:

1. Good power management. Most Symbian phones have good battery life
2. Data management. With some of the most basic bundle internet plans, you could run the average Symbian smartphone conveniently for a month. This means huge cost savings.

My 60+ father recently replaced his Symbian smartphone, a Nokia 6760 Slide (yes; dad uses smartphones too) with the new Blackberry Curve 9360. He had used his 6760 Slide for business purposes for over a year now. Of course, he got tired of Symbian S60 3rd Edition eventually. Who wouldn’t (remember my position that Nokia needs to stop producing those older versions of Symbian)? This is 2012, please.

What were dad’s motivating factors in his choice of a Blackberry? The two items that I listed above were key, of course!

BlackBerry devices are legendary for good battery life and data management. Dad is extremely delighted to have access to a full smartphone and internet service at only N1,500 per month.

Special Data Bundles For Android?

I have heard some Android users gripe and demand that network operators are biased and should also provide special bundles for Android phones. This is mostly based on ignorance (or just arrogance, of course). Network operators provide special Blackberry bundles because of the benefits that their networks derive from BlackBerry’s server compression service.

RIM’s compression technology means that BlackBerry devices eat up less data and put less pressure on mobile networks than devices from other platforms. Get it? As such, if Google would implement a data compression service for Android devices, then the networks would gladly provide special low-cost bundles for droids too.

BlackBerry And Good Battery Life?

Some of you are probably screaming blue murder about Blackberry battery life. Hold your horses while I burst your bubble.

Nigerian network providers have been notorious for epileptic Blackberry services. That’s what’s eating your BlackBerry’s battery for the most part. Get on a more stable network and see how much better your Blackberry’s battery performs.

BlackBerry, The Best Alternative To Symbian

As people flock away from Symbian, they are looking for an alternative smartphone platform that provides similar benefits to what they have been used to – multi-tasking, Mass storage, Bluetooth file transfer, and good resource (data and power) management.

With N28,000 or less, a brand new Blackberry 8520 can be picked up at most mobile retail outlets. That is not nearly as cheap as the cheapest Android and Symbian devices, but it is not a bad price either.

The Blackberry platform is the logical way to go for the most part. Even a non-geek like my dad can tell. He has never heard of Android. He knows iPhone, but won’t buy that. But he knows Blackberry, recognises it, likes the hardware QWERTY (he finds touchscreens unintuitive, but that’s an article for another day), and thinks it is both functional and cool. So does his business partner, who also uses a BlackBerry.

Last year, I wrote an article titled Will BlackBerry become the Number One Smartphone OS in 2012?. I still do not believe that it will happen in 2012, but it is certain that with the recent news of Nokia’s change in plans for Symbian, Blackberry now stands a good chance of indeed becoming number one smartphone OS in Nigeria. Perhaps in 2013. Perhaps beyond that.

Perhaps I will be getting a Blackberry as my primary smartphone too.

You see, I like photography, actually love is the word. I think if money wasn’t a factor, a phone’s camera would be the first thing I consider in making my choice of a mobile device.

I can’t stand phone cameras that transform a living being into one from the mogue. My response is always ”did the manufacturer really have to include a camera on this device?”

Ok, this post isn’t about me and my love for photography, its about a new technology in flash.

A swiss electronics manufacturer STMicroelectronics has said it’s got the solution for taking perfect pictures with a mobile phone, in low lights. This solution is a new kind of chip for controlling LED flash.

The chip STCF04 has been produced with a super capacitor, and STMicroelectronics is stating a claim that this super capacitor will allow phone flashes to rival xenon flashes found in handheld cameras

This chip allows the flash to produce 40W burst of light, which is a really big improvement to the 2W of power most LED flash produces. This additional power will produce a flash equivalent in brightness to an outdoor security floodlight.

STCF04 is light weight, measuring 3mm per side and costs £1.25.

My opinion: I think this is small enough and cost effective to fit into today’s phone even those in the low budget range.

Will this chip see early adoption?

Is this the end to blurry pictures and the beginning for better pictures on mobile.

I just want to see wacky cameras scraped. What’s your take?

I was asked a question about mobile in Africa by PhoneBoy on Twitter the other day, “Way more mobile phones than computers in Africa, no?”

My response: “Way more. Computing is predominantly mobile here.”

In other words, mobile is the first and only computer many Africans have ever owned or used. I know this is not true in Victoria Island, Abuja, Pretoria and business centres of our cities in general. But move outside of those cities, and voila, it is mobile and nothing else for the most part.

PhoneBoy’s response was a clincher: “Funny even with computers all around me, I do most of my personal computing on my mobile.”

That rang a bell with me. I have PCs around me both at home and at the office, yet most of my personal computing is done on mobile too. The point is that mobile has advanced to the point where it is so compelling that even when there is access to Desktop and notebook/netbook PCs, the natural inclination is likely mobile.

I recently decided on an experiment: get rid of my PCs and attempt to do all my personal computing on mobile (smartphone and tablet). I am convinced that I can get away with it. A few people have expressed reservations about it though.

But you know me, I dare things that most others won’t attempt. Remember how I ran a webhosting business on a Nokia 9500 Communicator ALONE some years back? Today’s tablets are even more capable than that. So, why not?

Wish me luck!

PS: You should follow PhoneBoy on twitter. He has rich experience and insights in mobile.

Notable Highlights

Besides the obvious, here are some other notable points from the Canalys report:

1. Total annual global shipments of smartphones exceeded those of client PCs (including pads) for the first time
2. Samsung shipped 3.8 million Bada OS smartphones
3. Nokia shipped 1.2 million Windows Phone smartphones
4. Nokia shipped only 0.6 million MeeGo smartphones, so the N9 didn’t sell as much as some hoped

Nobody is paying Bada OS much attention, but Samsung is making great progress with it. 3.8 million Bada OS smartphones is no joke. It is doing significantly better than Windows Phone at the moment, though that may change as Nokia increases Windows Phone shipments this year.

Most importantly is the fact that smartphones have finally overtaken the PC. Do click the source link below to access the full report.

Source

The strategy is very simple,create a phone and then split it into different variants with certain features removes. A classic example of this is the Nokia 5800 split into two different phones namely the 5230 and the 5530.

The Nokia 5230 features the same screen size of 3.2 inches that is on the 5800 and has 3G connectivity while the Nokia 5530 features a 2.8 inches screen with XpressMusic branding and WiFi.

Even on lower end phones like the Nokia C1 and C2. The main difference between the two is that the C1 is a single SIM phone while  C2 is a dual SIM phone.

Samsung on the other hand seems to have widely fine-tuned and adopted the strategy across their whole mobile product line and across the different operating systems that they support.

A very good example of this is their Galaxy line of phone and tablets. Do you want a 4 inch mobile? Get a Galaxy S. Is it a 3.5 inch display that you fancy? Get a Galaxy Ace. For 3.2 inches, you can get the Galaxy Gio.

If you want to get a tablet, you are offered different choices too with Samsung making a tablet for practically anybody that wants to get a tablet.

You can either get a 10.1 inch version, a 8.9 inch version or a 7.7 or 7 inch version, should you want a tablet of more compact size.

Even when you look at lower end Samsung phones like the Chat series, there is the the Ch@t 222 and Ch@t 322 with one of the major differences been the optical trackpad.

Platforms

On the Operating System level, Samsung has various operating systems running on their wide array of phones. These include: Android, Windows Phone 7, Bada and TiZen.

Last year, Samsung shipped a total of 300 Million devices which goes to prove that they may finally overtake Nokia this year as the number one handset maker in the world, thanks to their versatility in production and distribution.

For some of us, it just gotta be QWERTY.

Because my job requires that I review phones, I have no problem using a pure touchscreen device when I have to. But my preference – a hardware QWERTY!

You see, I have large hands and big fingers. Nothing like an excellent hardware QWERTY agrees with those more.

My very first smartphone had a hardware QWERTY keyboard. The mobiles that have spent the greatest amount of time with me were all hardware QWERTY devices. Examples include the Nokia E61, Nokia 9500 and Nokia E90.

I loved the Nokia N8 for its fantastic camera and multimedia prowess, but I kept picking up the E7 again and again. That superb keyboard just wouldn’t stop haunting me. Even now, I still carry it around every now and then.

Commie, Anyone?

I particularly love the Communicator form factor. No; its not the same as side sliders. If its not a commie, it is not a commie.

Back in the day, when you owned a communicator, you had the most powerful devices on the block. Commies were the top dog.

I once ran my entire webhosting operation on the Nokia 9500 Communicator. That was a 4.5-inch display beast with a 330 MHz processor, a 640×480 VGA camera, and Opera HTML browser.

However, Nokia has done away with that form factor, and no-one else is doing anything like that.

My QWERTY Smartphones Till Date

1. Nokia 9210 communicator
2. Nokia 9500 communicator
3. Nokia E61
4. Nokia E61i
5. Palm Treo 700P
6. Sony Ericsson P990i
7. Sony Ericsson P1i
8. HTC Titan/Sprint Mogul pocket PC
9. Samsung i780 pocket PC
10. Nokia E90 communicator
11. T-mobile G1
12. Nokia E75
13. Sony Ericsson Xperia X1
14. Samsung B7320
15. LG GW550
16. Nokia N900
17. HTC Touch Pro2
18. BlackBerry 9630 Tour
19. Nokia E5
20. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro
21. Palm Pre
22. Blackberry 9800 Torch
23. Nokia E7
24. Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510
25. Blackberry 9300 Curve 3G
26. LG C660 Optimus Pro
27. BlackBerry Curve 9360
28. Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro

Trade-Offs

I also love great multimedia on my mobiles. Unfortunately, devices with hardware QWERTY usually don’t come with the best camera and musical experiences. However, as long as the multimedia experience is not poor, I can live with the trade-off.

A guy Can Dream

If I had one mobile wish that any of the gods of mobile can grant right now, here it is: iOS or Windows Phone user interface, plus mass storage functionality, with a 4.5-inch display in a communicator form factor.

I would bite. Hard.

There you are – my world of QWERTY smartphones. Give me QWERTY or…

I first got wind of the news on Twitter this morning, and I was shocked to find that some people were already rallying with statements like, “RIM Co-CEOs step down, RIM is burning”.

In response to that, I tweeted this:

Does a CEO quitting mean that a company is burning? Not necesarilly. We just throw words around carelessly these days. Come on guys!

Freedom of speech is a lovely thing, but that freedom comes responsibility. To think. To understand. To weigh our words before speaking.

I think that it is irresponsible and non-constructive for us to make alarming statements. They do more damage than good.

If you see specific problems with a product or company, spell them out and spell out possible ways out. That’s constructive engagement.

Just saying that something “sucks” or is “burning” is childish, insipid, and many times irresponsible.

How do you even define “burn” in this scenario? it just paints an inflammatory picture. No pun intended.

Just after I began writing this article, I ran into a tweet from @amasonic that touched on another aspect of this subject:

One of the perils of our modern world today is that ppl don’t take time to understand contemporary issues in-depth b4 forming opinions

I see a lot of that on Facebook, Twitter and even here on Mobility blog. But its worse than that. If it is just a matter of forming opinions, it might not be so bad. But people form opinions without understanding issues in detail and then recklessly broadcast those opinions.

I will always stand for responsible use of freedom of speech, and I do not suffer fools gladly. Regulars on this blog know how strong my stand is when it comes to people being irresponsible with their comments.

Inflammatory statements cause more damage than we can ever tell. RIM may be in trouble, I agree – and trust me, everyone has troubles; just of different sorts and magnitudes.

I have had trouble more than many of you will ever know, and there were times it looked hopeless. Thankfully, I deal with them. I am just glad that there were no idiots around to get on Twitter screaming, “The end has come for Mister Mobility!”

When people start saying that RIM is burning, I really do not know.

I have observed that often the more knowledgeable people are more guarded in their statements. I respect people like that. They know the implications of their words.

To you, dear friend, a BlackBerry (or any other) device may just be a mobile. But to others – many others – it is years of investments, and to even many more, its jobs and livelihood.

Think about that.

Anyway, I just got thinking about the different Twitter apps that I have used across various platforms.

What mobile platform are you using and what is your preferred Twitter app on that OS?

A leading source for breaking technology news, opinion and analysis, TechLoy has published a list of the most influential technology people of 2011.

On the list is founder and publisher of Mobility blog, Yomi Adegboye. Here is what TechLoy says about him:

Popularly known as ‘Mister Mobility’ by his fans, Yomi has been an authority in the mobile technology reviews space for some time now. In January 2011, he called out several mobile manufacturers such as RIM on their snobbish attitude towards Nigeria, especially with regards access to purchasing apps from their app stores. About 48 hours later, RIM opened up the Blackberry App World to Nigeria to purchase apps.

Other individuals in the mobile industry who made the list are: Emeka Okoye, Mayowa Owolabi, Emmanuel Oluwatosin and James Fowe. We are sure that you will want to read up about the other gentlemen and ladies on the prestigious list.

Read the complete TechLoy article: The Most Influential Technology People of 2011