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The laws of nature indicate that if there’s no Internet connection, you can’t watch streaming videos. Roadshow for iPad defies that law, downloading videos to your tablet for offline viewing.
This is exactly as awesome as it sounds–though let’s get the bad news out of the way right now: Roadshow doesn’t support YouTube (owing to Apple’s App Store restrictions). So much for saving all your favorite cute kitten videos.
You can, however, pilfer clips from other sources, including CollegeHumor, Funny or Die, The Onion, and TED Talks. In fact, all four of these sites are conveniently bookmarked in Roadshow’s built-in browser, which works more or less like Safari.
The difference is that when you load a page containing a compatible video, Roadshow pulls a thumbnail up to its “video shelf.” Tap that thumbnail and the clip gets downloaded on the spot. It’s all very quick and easy.
For any video you save, you have the option of not just watching it, but also viewing its source Web page, e-mailing it to a friend, and sharing it on Twitter.
The free version of Roadshow, which includes banner ads, limits you to 15 videos. If you want unlimited videos and freedom from ads, it’ll cost you $4.99 (via an in-app upgrade).
Although it’s disappointing that the app can’t save videos from more sources (there’s so much on YouTube I’d like to save), it’s great with the sources it does support. If you want some video clips for the road, Roadshow lives up to its name.
While we’re on the subject of streaming video, be sure to check out VLC for iPad, PBS for iPad, and Crackle for iOS.
