No More YouTube App in iOS 6
Apple has begun seeding the fourth beta version of iOS 6 to its developers, and rather than the appearance of a new app making the headlines, it’s the disappearance of one instead.
The app in question is YouTube, a staple of iOS since the beginning, but one that will no longer be a part of the operating system when iOS 6 is released. Apple has told TheVerge that its license to include the dedicated YouTube app has expired, hence its removal.
In a statement, Apple says “customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store”.
It’s difficult to say how many users this will affect, but those that it does should be happy, as the baked-in YouTube app is hardly the best example of a Google app on iOS, and a standalone, dedicated app has the potential to be much better.
Of course, the death of the YouTube app is just a part of the “Googlectomy” Apple is performing in iOS 6, as it has abandoned Google Maps in favour of its own mapping software too.
iOS 6 doesn’t have a release date yet, but if the rumoured September 12 iPhone launch event does take place, and the phone is subsequently released on September 21, expect it to come out somewhere in-between those two dates.