8.7. YouTube Videos on the iPod Touch

YouTube, of course, is the stratospherically popular video-sharing Web site, where people post short videos of every type: funny clips from TV, homemade blooper reels, goofy short films, musical performances, bite-sized serial dramas, and so on. Of course, you already have a Web browser on your Touch—Safari. Why not just go to YouTube in the Web browser, the way millions of other people do?

Mainly because of Flash. Most YouTube movies are in a format called Flash, which the Touch doesn't recognize. Apple, however, convinced YouTube to re-encode all of its millions of videos into H.264, a much higher quality format. And one that's playable on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and Apple TV.