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Seven Uses for YouTube You Never Thought of

 

What do you use YouTube for? Catch up on that episode you missed? Watch the latest music video? See your favorite band in concert? Sure, these are the typical uses of YouTube, but if you haven’t done any of the things I am about to list below, you haven’t unleashed the full power of YouTube! In fact, both of my parents were instantly YouTube addicts when I showed them some cool stuff you could do on YouTube. Here we go!

 

YOUR NEW JUKEBOX

Pirating music is illegal but sometimes you just want to hear a song without buying it. I know that I like to hear an album before I buy it to make sure that it is worth the money. Well, just enter the song in the YouTube search box and viola! Usually the music video for that song will come up but sometimes fans will make a “video slideshow” which basically consists of the given song with pictures of the artist on the screen. This is especially so if a music video was never made for the song. Its music on demand!

 

Quick tip: If you listen to some secular music like I do, you probably know that not all music videos are clean. A quick way to make sure you don’t see anything inappropriate is to add the word “sims” (minus the quotes) after the song title in the search box (ie- “God of Wonders sims”). Many fans make music videos using the Sims computer game and upload it to YouTube. I have seen some iffy Sim videos, so it’s not foolproof, but it works most of the time. Honestly, I just minimize the window now and don’t even bother watching it.

 

YOUR NEW CYBER TEACHER

In the perfect world I could hire a professional teacher for everything I wanted to learn, but I don’t have the money for that; instead I turn to YouTube. Many hobbyists will post videos on how to do certain things whether it be skateboarding or how to play Fur Elise. I learned how to play many worship songs on the piano because piano teachers and worship pastors took time to post video tutorials. Actually, I haven’t even paid for sheet music recently since I am a visual learner. My little sister used YouTube to learn how to skateboard and she is doing quite well. While we’re on the topic, you can actually see tutorials on how to jailbreak your iPhone or iPod touch on YouTube!

 

Quick tip: To find a piano tutorial on YouTube, enter the name of the song preceded by the instrument you are using. For instance, when I learned “Trading My Sorrows” on the piano, I searched for “Trading My Sorrows piano” (minus the quotes).

 

YOUR NEW AGENT

Are you looking to land a recording contract? Start posting your videos on YouTube! Yes, I know there are plenty of videos on YouTube with people who have the most horrible voices but there are also some very talented singers on YouTube.  One that comes to mind is Jessica Sanchez. I remember the first time I heard her voice; I was blown away! This girl defiantly deserves a recording contract! Don’t believe it’s possible? Let me tell you a true story: A mother who had a 3-year-old daughter by the name of Nia would record her mouthing to various Mary J. Blige songs. Anyway, Mary J. Blige’s manager discovered the videos on YouTube and actually got in contact with the mother to have Nia on a TV commercial for the upcoming album. While I do not watch MTV, I understand that it was prominently played on that channel. If a toddler got on a commercial for mother, you can certainly get one for singing! If you are interested in seeing her videos, click here.

 

Caution: Please be warned, while I think the Nia videos are cute, some of them are very inappropriate so please check the lyrics before you listen to any of her songs and decide whether or not you feel it is clean.

 

YOUR NEW KARAOKE SOURCE

Do you and your friends have impromptu karaoke nights? Do you wish you had more karaoke songs? Have no fear, YouTube is here!  Simply search for the song you want preceded by either “karaoke” or “instrumental”. Some videos will even include the lyrics for you to sing along to while others just show pictures.

 

YOUR SOURCE FOR CLASSIC TV

Did you forget the tune to the I Love Lucy theme song? You want to see that funny scene when Beaver and Wally fool their mom into thinking they took a bath? YouTube has clips from many classic TV shows (and many new ones, too). In fact, some uploads have violated the law and posted entire episodes. My advice? Support the actors and buy or rent the DVD.

 

YOUR iPOD’S VIDEO RESOURCE

If you’re like me, you bought the iPod video* thinking you were going to put movie clips on it just to find out that downloadable videos are hard to find. Well, we are going to re-introduce your iPod to video! There exist many YouTube to iPod converters that are free. I recommend searching on CNET’s www.download.com because you have the guarantee of not getting spyware. Is it legal? Well, according to CNET, YouTube’s policy states that it is legal so long as you do not redistribute/sell it. I have done it and it works like a charm. Remember to check and make sure that the converter works with your MP3 player.

 

*This should work for any portable media player

 

YOUR DIGITAL POST CARD

I know a family who recently went into the mission field. When the holiday season came around they wanted to say Merry Christmas and show their friends back home what the city was like. Rather than email the entire video, they emailed everyone the link. This was so much more convenient than downloading a 17MB file (I can hear the dial up users going into tears).

 

Updates on previous articles:

The world of technology is contantly changing, here are some changes since we last spoke**:

 

iPods: Apple has been waging a loosing battle of against hackers who seek to jailbreak iPhones and iPod touches. Before Apple could even publically release a firmware to disable the third party applications, a new way to jailbreak was discovered. Jailbreaking the iPhone and iPod touch has become as easy as just opening a website and clicking “install”. The ironic thing is that the jailbreaking makes the Safari browser more secure! To entice people to move up to the new firmware and seemingly loose their third party apps, Apple released little goodies for their loyal “fan boys”. For instance, in the 1.1.2 upgrade, iPod touch users were finally able to add events to their calendars (a feature I scrutinized Apple for leaving out in the first article). As of press time, we are awaiting the next major upgrade (1.1.3) which will add support for a mock-GPS, rearranging of icons, and multiple recipient text messaging. Apple, however, surrendered by announcing a Software Development Kit to make applications for the iPod touch/iPhone  in February. By the time you are reading this, the firm date should already be set; check www.apple.com. There is so much more to this story that I don’t have time to get in to, but a quick Google search will tell the whole tale.

 

AmazonMP3: Apple recently announced that they have sold their 2,000^th DRM-free song at the iTunes Store. As stated in the article, the price has dropped to 99 cents. Amazon’s online music store is continuously adding to their catalogue although it is still limited. Most MP3 players at Amazon now come with a gift certificate to the AmazonMP3 store.

 

Leopard/Vista Emulation: There has been a minor update for Vista Transformation Pack dubbed version 8.0.1. A user guide was released on Christmas.

 

**At the time of writing the Consumer Electronics show is going and the Macworld 2008 conference is forthcoming. Given that by the time you read this, both will have already ended and thus some of the updates will not be as accurate. I have done my best to keep the updates recent.

 

Community Soundoff!

Nobody responded so I will try a new question:

What is one thing you wish Apple would change on the iPhone?

 

Questions!

Again, nobody asked questions. Email me at jarrettc@northstar-acedemy.org with any tech related questions, and it may appear in the next article! Don’t worry about a question being too “dumb” or too complicated—just send ‘em in!