YouTube Videos Available on Nintendo Wii, PS3
The more technology advances, the smaller all of your personal technology shrinks – even across different platforms. That became more apparent Thursday, when YouTube announced on its blog that through YouTube for Television, YouTube videos will be accessible through the Nintendo Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3:
Have you ever wanted to just sit on your couch and watch YouTube on your TV? Well, now that’s possible via YouTube for Television, initially available through the Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii game consoles at www.youtube.com/tv. Currently in beta, the TV Website offers a dynamic, lean-back, 10-foot television viewing experience through a streamlined interface that enables you to discover, watch and share YouTube videos on any TV screen with just a few quick clicks of your remote control. With enlarged text and simplified navigation, it makes watching YouTube on your TV as easy and intuitive as possible.
What, no XBox 360?
As mentioned, you’ll be able to access the YouTube video hub at YouTube.com/tv – which, by the way, won’t do anything for you if you’re reading this on a computer. So get on that PS3 or Wii!
This technology is currently in Beta release, which is usually techno-babble for “Released, but we want to cover ourselves if we have bugs.” If you have internet access and a Wii or a PS3, you should be able to start watching YouTube videos right this minute.
Meanwhile, YouTube’s aspirations of world domination continue to find their way into your living room entertainment center. You might recall an interesting release, the AppleTV, which became the first TV doohickey to offer YouTube on an actual television set.
Couple this with other recent announcements – like Sony’s Bravia TV gaining an “Internet video” link and TiVo jumping on board, and the merger of Internet and TV might be coming faster than you originally thought. This is possible because of the YouTube APIs, a very Google-ish page that tries to make YouTube as accessible as possible throughout a variety of platforms.
Still, very few such devices today contain a Web browser or provide access to YouTube. Our hope is that this site may help to accelerate an industry evolution towards open television access to Web video. Over time, we plan to add support for additional TV devices that provide Web browsers.
YouTube continues to expand the amount of users that have access to their videos – in the coming years, watch for some interesting disputes between music publishing companies and TV networks regarding copyright issues. With YouTube and TiVo becoming used more and more, it wouldn’t be shocking to see these disputes become a hot-button tech issue a few years down the line.
