From YouTube to You(r)Mac.

Using simple drop-down menus, TubeSock takes YouTube (www.youtube.com) video clips, reformats them for your iPod, and saves them on your hard drive.

To convert a YouTube video, simply enter the video's URL at the top of TubeSock's window. At the bottom of the window, choose your format (H.264, Flash video, MP4, or MP3 - TubeSock can even strip out the audio from a video and save that content alone as an MP3) and where to save the file. You need an Internet connection - obviously - and the conversion time depends on your Internet connection speed, the length of the video clip, and your Mac's horsepower.

Say you're hanging out at YouTube.com, and you suddenly find a video you want to keep. Since you can make TubeSock an option in Safari's Bookmarks Bar, you just click on the Show In Tubesock button in Safari, and that video appears in TubeSock, ready to reformat and rip. TubeSock maintains the quality of the YouTube clip you converted, so you don't have to worry about it making things worse.

Copyright alarm bells may now be ringing: Fear not, as TubeSock reps assure us that you're protected under YouTube's personal-use agreement with people who post to their servers - what you can't do is broadcast clips once you've downloaded the files. Seems fair.

The bottom line. We wish all software were as easy to use as TubeSock.

COMPANY: stinkbot
CONTACT: www.stinkbot.com
PRICE: $15
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, Internet connection
Inexpensive. Easy-to-use. Simple Safari integration. Preserves YouTube's video resolution.
Can't load clips directly to an iPod.