Via Slashgear.com - Many BlackBerry users running BlackBerry OS 7 or 7.1 on their devices have been reporting that they can no longer view YouTube videos through the YouTube app for BlackBerry. While they’re still able to search for the videos, they aren’t able to play them. The issue seems isolated to only OS 7 and 7.1 devices, while users with BlackBerry OS 5 and 6 are reporting that their YouTube app is working just fine.
Sources from Crackberry have been reporting that the issue isn’t originating from BlackBerry’s side, and that it must be from YouTube. Both Google and YouTube have yet to comment on the issue. It’s speculated that it has something to do with YouTube and a change they may have made that alters the way videos are played through its mobile app.
There are some workarounds that should allow BlackBerry 7 or 7.1 users to view YouTube videos. One option is downloading the Opera mobile browser, which is still able to display YouTube videos. This method however causes the YouTube videos to display in a lower quality. The second workaround is a bit more work, but has received some positive responses from the Crackberry community: Go to a Youtube video and click on the arrow icon on the top right of the video. This should reveal the ‘share’ icon. Press it and choose ‘e-mail’ to e-mail the link to your device. You can then view the video from the link in your e-mail. The full quality of the videos is retained in this method.
Thankfully, BlackBerry’s Z10 is unaffected by this YouTube issue. It would be terrible if their supposed ‘game-changing’ device became a victim of this. Hopefully YouTube, or BlackBerry figures out what’s behind the mobile app malfunction. Until then, those of you with the affect BlackBerry 7 devices will just have to sit tight with those workarounds. We’ll let you know more when we do. [IS]
