Nico Nico Douga on the iPhone

It's finally here!
It's finally here!

I first knew about this application about a month ago from ASCII news. So I went to the iTunes Store right after I read the news but I couldn’t find any information about this application. Apparently it was still in the approval process back then. Today, though, the application went for sale for free, and naturally it became the top application to be installed today (at least, in the Japanese iTunes Store). I don’t know if this is available worldwide, but I’d probably think it is. For more information on how to get this application on your iPhone and iPod Touch and for more information on this application, read on. Also, for more information about the new Nico Nico Douga video player, read on too.

Firstly, you might want to watch the following video by ASCII, the preview of this application, to see what it can do.

Not all videos are in this application... yet.
Not all videos are in this application... yet.

My first impression of this application is pretty good. My complaint is that I think not all videos are available to view on this application. For example, searching for the keyword “VOCALOIDランキング” (Vocaloid Ranking) yields only one result, the Vocaloid Ranking Quiz. And I had “Romeo and Cinderella” on my Mylist, but when I open my Mylist on my iPod Touch, it doesn’t appear. Only old songs, such as Melt, Koi wa Sensou, etc are in my iPod Touch Mylist. And in the Daily Nico Nico Ranking, Music category, Meltdown is still the top video, followed by Double Lariat and THE MEDLEY OF KIRBY SSDX. But I guess it’s only because the application is recently made public. Also, streaming video is pretty slow and the videos are in low-quality as of now, probably due to the huge traffic it’s getting right now.

Let's try searching for Rin songs...
Let's try searching for Rin songs...

Searching videos are really simple, and I’m in love with the iPod Touch or iPhone keyboard, both the Kana QWERTY keyboard and the handphone-like Japanese keyboard. After searching for a video, we could touch the right arrow right besides it to view the video’s details. In this example, I’ll be watching Meltdown, one of my favorite Rin songs ever made.

This is a video's description page.
This is a video's description page.

I do hope in the future that HTML tags in the video description box would be fixed and I hope we can read the full description too. The usual stats are provided, and below that is all the tags of this video, which may be clicked to search for videos with those tags. Clicking on the video description box would load the Nico Player in landscape mode.

Loading the Nico Player...
Loading the Nico Player...
And the video would start streaming!
And the video would start streaming!

You could touch the video to view the full Nico Player where you could turn off comments, adjust the volume or even add comments yourself!

This is the full Nico Player.
This is the full Nico Player.
And this is how you add comments into the video!
And this is how you add comments into the video!

And the comment effect options are also in here. That pretty much sums up this application, you could hook it up with your Nico Nico Douga account and access your mylist, but I don’t think you could add mylists from the video itself. Videos can be played even if you’re not logged in. As I said, the video quality seems low and the streaming seems a bit slow, but that’s probably because the traffic is high as this application is newly released. To get it, click on the picture below.

Click here to go to the application page on iTunes!
Click here to go to the application page on iTunes!

While I’m on the subject, the new players on Nico Nico Douga is finally available. When you open Nico Nico Douga, the simple version of the player would appear instead of the old one. Of course, if you prefer the old player, you could always click on the “旧プレーヤーで視聴” link on the bottom right of the player. Or if you’d like a full options on the new player, click on the big orange “Advanced mode” button on the top right of the player.

This is the new player, simple mode.
This is the new player, simple mode.

Only two tabs are available in the simple mode, “Comments” and “Related Videos”. The comment bar is pretty small, but it will get bigger if you click on it. A comment effect box would also appear if you click on the left part of the comment box, as pictured below. This version is pretty much for everyone who is intending to just watch a Nico Nico Douga video normally on a web browser. Easy to use, user friendly interface. Below is the advanced mode.

This is the new player, advanced mode.
This is the new player, advanced mode.

As you can see, every tab is included in the advanced mode, including a link to Nico Nico Messe, and 4 menu bar above it. The Comment Effects Command box is also shown here, and how the comment bar would look like if you click on it. Overall, it makes things much easier for everyone. Oh, and here’s the best part: Full Screen is now really fills up your browser and looks much more cleaner with black borders.

This is the fullscreen player.
This is the fullscreen player.

So there you have it, the new Nico Nico Douga player and the Nico Nico Douga application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Sorry for the slow week, but we’re going to bring many more Vocaloid content on the way shortly! Thanks for visiting! =)

About: pengy


9 thoughts on “Nico Nico Douga on the iPhone”

  1. GREATTTTTTTTTTTTTT,,,
    Days after my iPod Touch and my game consoles and crap are stolen,,, THIS COMES OUT AFTER I DON'T HAVE IT ANYMORE

    /me becomes Angry German Kid / Keyboard Crasher

  2. its actually really slow like the video only plays at half the frame rate, and you must create a japanese email and itunes account.

  3. Yeah the video get slow some times, But the app its simply great i don't av any complain about it XD

  4. I downloaded it, but for some reason, there are blue and yellow little TVs over videos and if the TV is yellow, it doesn’t allow me to watch it..
    …Help?

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