Download YouTube videos to your iPad with Video Tube

This free YouTube player for the iPad does not offer many features but it does do one thing that other players do not: it lets you download videos.

When iOS 6 was released two months ago, the native YouTube app went away. Google has since released a YouTube app for the iPhone, but it has yet to release a YouTube player for the iPad. After its most recent update, my recommendation for the best all-around YouTube player for the iPad is Jasmine. If you'd like the idea of being able to download videos to your iPad to view when you are offline, however, Video Tube is the way to go.

The app is laid out with seven buttons along the bottom. Using these buttons, you can browse different collections of videos, including a helpful history of the videos you have viewed. When you play a video, you can view related videos to the right, more from the uploaded of the video you are watching, and comments. You can also tap to expand the video to full screen. In the upper-right corner is a search box, a Share button (with the standard trio of Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail), and a download button.Before we get to the good part, let's quickly cover Video Tube's drawbacks. The biggest omission is the inability to sign into your YouTube account, which means you can't comment on videos, see your channels and favorites, and so forth. You also cannot play audio in the background, as you can with Jasmine. In addition, the free version of the app includes a large banner ad at the bottom of the screen. The paid version gets rid of the ad, but costs $2.99.

Tap the download button to begin downloading the video you are currently viewing. You'll quickly find, however, that not all videos will download. Many music videos and other videos with copyright-protected material cannot be downloaded using Video Tube. Another annoyance is the download status window sits on top of the app instead of in the background. Your downloaded videos can be accessed via the Downloads button at the bottom of the screen.

Sorry kids, no Bieber downloads for you.

To download Internet videos outside of YouTube to your iPad, I would direct your attention to the admittedly wonky Video Downloader Super Lite.

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