One of the best features of the Nokia Xpress Browser is its support for web apps.
These apps run through the same cloud-based acceleration engine that enables the Nokia Xpress Browser to compress data by up to 90 per cent. Ultimately, this means it is both quicker and cheaper for you to access the web, and these apps.
There are thousands of these web apps for you to choose from in the Nokia Store and we have chosen one of them to feature in our Asha App Spotlight this week.
In fact, we are featuring the most popular web app currently in the Nokia Store: Vuclip Video Search.
This is a search engine that allows you to find videos and then download them to your Asha device so you can then watch them whenever you want – even without a data connection.
Vuclip Video Search may be familiar to many of you already as it is occasionally one of the web app shortcuts on the home page of the Nokia Xpress Browser, but you can also download it as a standalone app from the Nokia Store.
Using Vuclip
As it’s primarily a search engine, the home screen of Vuclip offers no real surprises.
There is a search bar along the top, six featured videos and the following options along the bottom of the screen:
- Top searches
- What’s Hot
- Most Vu’d
- My recently viewed
‘Top searches’ has a nice functionality – just tap it once to reveal the current most popular searches.
Tap it again and it seamlessly disappears again. For the record, Katie Holmes, Bob Marley and football genius Lionel Messi were the most popular searches at the time of writing.
‘What’s Hot’ appears to be more featured videos and, as you’d expect, ‘Most Vu’d’ shows the most watched videos. ‘My recently viewed’ is really useful for going back to videos you have already watched.
The Search is on
Searching for videos is quick and returns plenty of relevant results. The videos seem to be sourced from a wide range of popular video streaming websites, such as Metacafe, Daily Motion and My Space.
In my searches I couldn’t seem to find any results from YouTube but previous screenshots suggest that they are, or least have been, available.
After you’ve found a video that you’re interested in, you are then presented with a choice of downloading the video in high or regular quality.
This is a smart feature, as you may want to choose the high version if you have Wi-Fi and the regular one when you’re on a more costly, and generally slower, cellular connection.
Another thing to be aware of is that if it’s a video you really like, you can also add it to your favourites.
Once the video file is downloaded, you just have to tap the file and it will play in full screen on your Asha – job done!
Settings
On each screen of Vuclip Video Search there is a rather subtle menu icon. It’s semi-transparent and hovers in the bottom right corner. It’s very easy to miss but there’s some useful information to be found within.
Inside you’ll find your data usage so you can keep track of how much data you’ve been consuming and your downloaded videos. If you’ve cleared the page in the ‘My recently viewed’ list then you can always come to your downloads to launch the video again.
Also, if you’re worried about using up too much of your device storage, you can also delete videos that you’ve downloaded.
In terms of basic functionality that is pretty much all the bases covered. Like all the best apps, Vuclip Video Search is fast, easy to use and effective. If you want to watch videos on your Asha, then this is the place to start.