Reviewed Showcase App
The DeskTube
March 02nd 2009 | by James
The DeskTube is an Adobe AIR application for YouTube that has lots of extensions integrated into it including Twitter and Ribbit.
bq.DeskTube is THE desktop YouTube application. Featuring the ability to search videos, view profiles, post comments, upload videos, and much much more! DeskTube features the ability to post updates to Twitter, and even text message and make phone calls right from your desktop.
The standard array of features are here like viewing and searching for videos, related videos and commenting. You can’t download the YouTube videos using this AIR app as that violates the YouTube terms of service.
This is a work in progress however there are a few close icons that don’t work, notably the Twitter and Ribbit. Also I’m not certain that those features have been fully implemented yet. The widget option on the main menu also fails to produce anything within the UI.
I think the developer also needs to work on memory optimisation. On my 2009 Macbook pro with 4GB RAM after being open for a few minutes it was using 140% of my system resources and kicked off the fans.
Design eye
The design can be a bit intimidating at first and I’m not a big fan of the excessive knockout style drop shadows used everywhere.
The dynamic tooltips that appear over the menu options are useful as you can’t always tell what the menu icons mean.
On the settings modal window I would have expected to setup all of my account login information for all of the services that DeskTube uses – no need to have different locations for all of this.
Technical eye
Built using Adobe Flash and the Adobe AIR.
In Summary
Worth a look if your into your YouTube however the performance is a concern if you plan on running the app for a long period of time. You can checkout other YouTube AIR applications from RefreshingApps.com.
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Your Comments and Views
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Vadim P.
Confirmed the perf. issue, but on a dualcore here though, so nothing was really affected.
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Damon Edwards
Wow, thanks James! Do you mind if I make a few comments, and address some concerns?
The close icons on the Twitter and Ribbit screen only become available once you’ve signed into the service, however, I realize the need for them to be active at all times, as thinking to hit the cancel button probably isn’t dominant over the more noticeable close button. Yes, the services have been fully implemented, to a point, and are being worked on as I type with the adding of twitpic, url shortning, voice filters (for ribbit), and so on.
I’m very worried about the performance you experienced. I test this on a low end, 10 year old laptop where memory never exceeds 65mb or so and the application stays responsive. Which I think is optimal considering how complex the application is. I have implemented a ton of threading and caching techniques to get to that level of memory management so hearing that isn’t very pleasing.
Maybe you’ll work with me privately and help me beta test.
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James
Thanks Damon for your comment. I did get the close to work after I signed in to Twitter, but I think your right in that it should always close as that is expected behaviour.
I do seem to be getting an unusually high processing percentage when running on my 2.53Ghz MBP with 4GB ram. Get in touch on email and I’ll be happy to help.
Thanks James
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Craig Richards
Great app Damon, worked great on my computer.
Would be nice if there was a option to turn off sound effect from switching back and forth from widget mode and or a softer more deeper sound effect because the one now is to high pitch.
Overall a must have for all YouTube fans.
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