Vidown is Back in MAC, baby!

Well, not Macs exactly, (they've never has an issue) but their little brothers, the mobile "I" devices. By design, the stock Safari browser on IOS devices is crippled by Apple so it cannot download files from the open internet. Only files from iTunes can be downloaded to these devices, and since Apple gets a 30% cut of everything sold, there's no mystery as to why.

There have been a number of 3rd-party download manager applications developed for IOS over the years to work around this intentional limitation, but Apple systematically makes changes to the next OS upgrade to break them. (they REALLY like getting that 30% of everything) Judging by that history, it's hard to say how long this recent work-around will last, but for now you can purchase and download files from any Vidown store to you iPhone/iPad/iPod device as long as you first go to the App store and install the Dolphin browser and the VLC media player. Press & hold the Download button after purchase and a menu will pop up with a few options. Select "Save Link" and the Dolphin browser will store the file in its own private storage space. Then you can click the browser's settings button (looks like a gear) and select the downloads area. From there you can open the file and play in VLC, which seems to store the file path in its own playlist for later viewing as well.

I checked this on an old iPad running version 9x and a few customers have confirmed with newer versions, so it seems to be working for everyone. If you show up at a Vidown store with an IOS device, it will trigger the same warning we have had for the past few years, but now it mentions that you can install Dolphin and enjoy the same basic abilities that literally every other device on the planet has always had.

Enjoy.

Just wanted to kick this back up for the weekend. Seeing a lot more IOS devices coming in now, but a lot of them are still switching to computers or Android devices for the second attempt. Maybe they just have no idea what networking is and want to have the clips on multiple devices, or maybe they are still having download problems even with Dolphin.

If you download from Vidown (or any other system) with Dolphin, post a comment about whether it's working for you or not.

Remember folks...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R59TevgzN3k

I'm typing this on the curiously-named KY-CALC app. This includes (obvs) a browser with the ability to download files from t'internet which are then stored in the app's archive. This is also known as Secret Photos but appears on the home screen as KYCALC with appearance of a calculator, which in fact it is! So anyone who sees your home screen would have no clue. Entering a pin and = gives you access to the goodies within. That way you can have fun and not frighten the horses.

Pure genius. Is that an IOS app?

It is. Must go, I've got to total up my petrol receipts

Did you know there's an app for that?

That's not quite true. You can download files from apps other than iTunes.

Apple doesn't use a traditional file system, so everything has to be stored in an app. That's why, for example, podcasting apps are quite happy downloading video and audio.

Of course, it's annoying that safari isn't open. It would make sense for it to automaticall drop and audio or video files downloaded into iTunes for you - like it does with images and PDF into their respective apps.

On the flip side, there's a reason Safari isn't subject to much in the way of virus and malware.

Pick your poison I guess. Until everything is purely streaming anyway.