I want an app that allows me to bookmark videos to watch later. When I use the app, my videos play in sequence without further intervention. Ideally, it syncs with my iPhone and desktop.
Let’s take a look at Extract and mobile-dl.
Extract, by Zach Waugh, is a Mac OS X app that allows you to copy and paste video embed code. The benefit is that you can resize a small video window without webpage chrome–float the playing video on top of your other windows and continue to work/surf while you watch. Nice, but the copy and paste implementation could use some work. Also, it’s a strictly manual affair, and it doesn’t fit my ideal mobile workflow.
mobile-dl by Scott Jackson is an elegant solution in an ugly package. You paste URLs into a text file and it downloads those files to your hard drive. What is lacking here is the ability to grab video file links straight from the URL á la Tumblr or play back downloaded files sequentially. It is just waiting for a beautiful Cocoa wrapper to presents your videos ready to play.
Taken separately, each of these apps is wanting, but together they could form a full-fledged killer app. If only these fine gentlemen could team up and use their powers for the good of the world!