PlayBox review [iPhone]

It's been discussed in short, and alluded to pretty regularly, but there's one aspect of the iPhone revolution that has gone unrecognised, even if we're all gradually getting used to it. Music is rapidly changing into 'music videos.'

Obviously there's always going to be a massive placeholder set aside purely for audio entertainment, even if it's just so we don't trip over the curb or wander out into the road while listening - or watching - our tunes. Pulling in videos to go along with your playlists is becoming increasingly popular however, and even expected, and isn't quite the download heavyweight it once was.

Apps like PlayBox are seeing to that. Rather than buying, renting or borrowing music videos for free, and hauling hundreds of megabytes down from the iTunes just so we can listen to music with a moving picture is too cumbersome to bother with. Streaming them from YouTube is a far more appealing, and lightweight option, of course, and there are so many vids on the global channel that most any track you can name is ready and waiting to float from the Internet ether and land on your device.

What PlayBox does is pull that video content closer to your current iPod expectations, by building up playlists so you can set your tracks going and sit back. It's a very simple system, with a fast and accurate search engine pulling in a selection of videos from your keywords for you to add to a list.

Despite this being traditionally something we do with music, PlayBox certainly isn't restricted to audio entertainment. Any number of YouTube videos can be added to a list, regardless of their content, so if you're looking for more of a teaching aid, instructional repository or a random collection of skateboarding stunts or breakdancing competitions, the app is happy to compile it for you.

A single tap is all it takes to save a video in the search results to your library. Once in the library, you can add a video to any number of custom playlists that you want. The benefit here is that you might want to add the same vid to a couple of different playlists, so keeping a track of your overall YouTube haul is very beneficial.

These playlists aren't compatible with iTunes, naturally, but you can still export them into an email and retrieve them later if required. And the obligatory social networking aspect allows you to drop your faves straight onto a Facebook wall, in case you want others to share in your micro-cinematic tastes.

Once compiled a single button press sets your string of videos off playing one after the other, with no further effort on your part. Alternatively you can shuffle them, but it's still only a single button press to get the visual goodness flowing from YouTube.

All in all this is a very simple app with a very specific function, but what it does, it does well. Very well. And given that the app just went free (well, ad-supported, but it's not at all invasive) there's no reason not to give it a lash.