We've covered the BBC iPlayer in great depth here at Download Squad - from its inception to nationwide rollout - and today, the BBC has announced version 2 of the (hugely successful) project. The new-look site has been heavily re-designed, bringing together both Radio and Television shows in a central portal. Personalisation also seems to be the key to the new release, which incidentally runs side-by-side (at least for now) with the previous version. The iPlayer site keeps track of what you last watched, listing up to ten recently-viewed shows and if that weren't enough, a list of 'last night's TV' is available to help you find shows to catch up with. The video playback size also increased from 512 pixels wide to 640 pixels (a jump of 25%) and the BBC has promised a more 'cinematic' feel to pages playing video.
The iPlayer continues to use Flash to stream videos online for seven days after broadcast, and remains available only to UK residents due to the BBC's publicly-funded status - but if you're a UK resident then you can get started with this new beta here.
First came pirated copies of TV shows being traded over the internet by fans the BBC iPlayer service which lets UK residents watch any TV program that's aired in the last seven days. Now the BBC plans to stream BBC1 content live over the internet.
The new streaming service will go live sometime int he next few months. The BBC already streams content from several of its news channels live, but this will be the first time you'll be able to watch live TV from the BBC's flagship channel on the web.
You'll need a broadband internet connection to watch. And you'll also also need to pay the same £139.50 annual license fee that you pay to watch television in the UK. Critics complain that it could be tricky for the BBC to enforce that policy, which means that television owners could wind up subsidizing the content watched by people who own a computer but no television set. But officials charged with enforcing the TV licensing policy say they have ways to catch moochers. All of which means that we probably won't be tuning into BBC1 over the internet in the US any time soon.
BBC, DRM, and the iPhone: it doesn't sound very steamy. But things are definitely heating up in regards to the BBC and DRM.
The release of BBC's new iPlayer brought with it the typical suffocating DRM restrictions, with the typical amount of outrage in the blogosphere.
However, when the BBC released the new beta iPlayer software that allowed users to view BBC streams on their iPhone, the streams made for the iPhone didn't didn't include any DRM.
Certain intrepid programmers and users were quick to jump on the fact that the iPhone streams were unencrypted. One user was able to use a PC to watch the unencrypted streams by using the Firefox plugin Fast Agent Switcher to convince the iPlayer that it was an iPhone. Developer Paul Battley released a Ruby script to download the iPhone formatted files to your PC.
In response, the BBC iPlayer took countermeasures to block the streams from non-iPhone devices. Just yesterday, in fact.
Apple and the BBC could announce details of a plan to distribute BBC content via iTunes as early as tomorrow. The Register is reporting that a "TV industry source" says the BBC's content distribution arm has been working with Apple on the deal.
The BBC already offers a way to watch TV shows that have aired in the last 7 days using its online iPlayer video service. But the iPlayer is only available to UK residents, who pay for BBC content with their taxes dollars.
It's not clear at the moment whether the iTunes downloads will be available outside of the UK or not. On the one hand, an international deal would represent a new revenue stream for the BBC. On the other hand, Apple charges almost twice as much money for TV show downloads in Britain than in the US.
The BBC press office decline to comment on the rumor.
Update: It looks like BBC content is now available at the UK iTunes store, but not the US store.
We were surprised to find an interesting time waster on the BBC's website, of all places. Microlife doesn't fall neatly into a game category. Essentially you play God, and control the lives of tiny microlife, which are single-cell organisms that move around slowly.
You feed them, and can train them to become warriors to defend their nest, but you have to be careful to keep an eye on your funds. Each microlife goes through a life cycle, starting as an infant, moving through middle age where it spends the majority of its time (and lays eggs if you're lucky) then becomes elderly and ultimately dies. Illnesses can also befall your little critters, so ensuring that they stay healthy is also your responsibility.
In the early levels you get to try your hand at raising little microlife without having to worry about the evil Catchers, but later on these predators come looking for a snack, so you have to make sure to have Warriors trained up to fend them off.
Microlife is well designed to slowly introduce new game concepts as the levels progress, and keep you addicted. This time waster can eat up an hour easily, so consider yourself warned before you click. But you're going to anyway, aren't you? You know you are.
Rumors have been swirling for months that the BBC was going to allow users of their iPlayer service to access the popular player on a computer or platform other than Internet Explorer for Windows. Well today British citizens are part way there as the BBC has announced their support for the Firefox browser. Mac and Linux fans are out of luck as iPlayer still demands Windows, only now you can view iPlayer content in the alternative Firefox Browser.
The popular iPlayer is a service that acts as an on-demand viewer of BBC content. Similar in functionality to a web based TiVo. The BBC is very happy with this new development and proclaimed, "It's good because it's the first real non-Microsoft thing we've been able to do with the download iPlayer".
What's the hold up with bringing iPlayer to Mac and Linux? None other than our old favorite acronym DRM. BBC's iPlayer relies upon Windows Media Player and it's related DRM to enforce the BBC's viewing policies.
Are there any Brits who have used iPlayer? What are your thoughts on the service? Please share in the comments.
Sure the BBC's iPlayer service is great if you want to catch up on TV shows you've missed, live in the UK, don't mind DRM, and like watching TV on your PC. But what if you want to watch TV on, you know, your TV?
BBC Future Media and Technology Director Ashley Highfield writes on his blog that the BBC is looking into ways to bring iPlayer content to set top boxes. He says he's particularly encouraged by Apple's announcement that you can now download online video directly to the Apple TV instead of relying on a PC. Although nothing is anywhere near concrete yes, we think it's safe to say that means the BBC will be in touch with Apple about adding its software to the box.
If this collaboration actually happens, we're pretty sure it will be available for free to UK viewers. We can only hope that the BBC decides to let users outside of the UK access the same content for a fee. Highfield indicates that the company is already looking into other methods to get iPlayer on the TV including the Xbox 360 and Neuros OSD.
This summer the BBC launched its innovative iPlayer software. The service lets you watch selected shows that've aired on the BBC over the last seven days you:
Are running Windows XP
Are using Internet Explorer
Use Windows Media Player
Live in the UK
The service drew protests from folks complaining that the BBC was including DRM in the videos and that Mac and Linux users were left out in the cold. Well, it looks like at least some of those issues are being addressed. The BBC plans to launch a browser-based version of the iPlayer using Adobe's Flash technology to stream videos. Up until now, you had to download videos. The move to streaming video means that Mac and Linux users will be soon able to us the iPlayer.
Now if only the BBC would release a version of the iPlayer for non-UK customers. We're sure there'd be plenty of folks willing to pay a small subscription fee to watch new episodes of The IT CrowdRobin Hood without resorting to illegal BitTorrent downloads.
Nevermind all that DRM stuff that we talked to the FSF about, the iPlayer is causing all sorts of other trouble for ISPs. The player, built for viewing and downloading popular television shows onto computers through the special application is taking a toll on the ISPs bandwidth. So much so that they are looking for compensation from the BBC, threatening to initiate traffic shaping that would slow down service and render the player unusable if they don't pay up.
The BBC iPlayer is supposedly seen as 30 times as bandwidth heavy compared to other video players like YouTube. These ISPs might not realize what's in store for the internet as even more services and larger content moves online, they might have to buckle sooner rather than later and spend the $2 billion necessary to upgrade networks before things really get out of control.
As we mentioned on Monday, the Free Software Foundation's Defective by Design campaign against DRM paid the U.K. a visit yesterday with protests outside the BBC's London and Manchester locations against the use of Microsoft DRM technology in their highly debated iPlayer software.
The BBC iPlayer has been in development for a number of years now, costing the BBC public £130 million (nearly $260 million) to date. The use of Microsoft's DRM technology has been highly contentious, especially with the appointment of Erik Huggers (previously director of Microsoft's Windows Digital Media division whose technology the BBC now employs in their iPlayer software) as controller of the BBC's future media and technology group which is managing the iPlayer project.
The BBC is a publicly funded body, governed by the BBC Trust who protect, amongst other things, open access and independence form corporate influence. The BBC has been told to make the player platform independent, however Mac and Linux users are likely to be out in the cold for some time.
Download Squad decided to visit the protest and spoke to Peter Brown, Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation, about the reasoning behind the protests and what the campaigns hopes for the future. We've made the interview available either as a text transcript after the break, or via the Download Squad podcast feed.
British readers be warned: the Free Software Foundation's Defective by Design campaign is coming to our side of the pond tomorrow in protest at the BBC's decision to make extensive use of DRM (and in particular MIcrosoft's DRM) in their beta iPlayer software. For those who are unaware of the iPlayer, the BBC is making its programmes available for 'catch-up' via the iPlayer - albeit only for 7 days after download.
The issue is certainly an interesting (and contentious) one, particularly as the BBC is a publicly-funded body so has to make the iPlayer platform neutral at some point in the future, and will only allow U.K. IP addresses access to the content. The protests are outside the BBC's London and Manchester studios tomorrow (Tuesday 14th August), with Download Squad paying the London gathering a visit.
The BBC made waves when it put forth plans to make thousands of hours of content available via the web to UK residents, who already pay a hefty tax to support the aging monolith. Those feelings of goodwill were dashed however, when it became apparent that access for all really meant access for all who run Windows XP, as the BBC's DRM solution isn't available for Linux or Mac users.
Small signs of progress are appearing however, as the BBC reports some success in meeting with the Open Source Consortium about a possible Linux player for all that locked up content. Meanwhile, a petition circulated online has garnered over 10,000 signatures from angry alternative OS users who want what their Windows counterparts have; access to the BBC's enormous archives.
iPhone day is upon us. Much has already been written about the iPhone despite the fact that only a handful of journalists have used it. One thing that is common among all reviews is the AT&T's EDGE network is slow. Perhaps it is faster now but EDGE is still no 3G.
Earlier this month at WWDC, Jobs told Apple's developers to develop web applications for the iPhone instead of releasing a SDK. Again, much had been written about how developers felt betrayed by Apple, and that web applications are not really applications at all. Despite all these resentments, a few iPhone only web sites have sprung up since WWDC. Unfortunately, none of them are particularly impressive or useful probably because no one has gotten their hands on a real iPhone yet, which kind of confirms what the developers feared; that web applications will not be as good as proper iPhone applications. There are exceptions, of course. NewsGator's online feed reader allows users to read their RSS feed via the web anywhere and sync with their desktop apps when they get home. Similarly, the latest version of Google Reader does the same.
With all the attention on iPhone only web apps, I think people are neglecting the regular web sites. Just because iPhone's Safari can render regular web sites fully and allows the users to navigate/zoom around the site with their fingers, it does not mean it provides the best user experience.
My prediction will be that as soon as all the new iPhone owners get home and start surfing to their favorite news site/blog/message board via EDGE connection, they will find that -- although they can do almost everything on that smaller screen -- it is not as easy as on the desktop computer. They will be disappointed and lots will be written on the web this weekend about how web surfing sucks on the iPhone using EDGE. And I will agree with them. Can you imagine loading and navigating cnet.com on the iPhone using EDGE?
So what can be done to improve the user experience? The solution is a concept that has existed ever since cell phones were able to connect to the internet; mobile versions of web sites. The idea of a stripped down version of the regular web site for a mobile phone is as old as HTML4/CSS2 themselves. Some of the best examples that I have used are Fandango, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Vox. What is so good about specificly tailored mobile web sites? First, they are designed with cell phone in mind so the site is generally formatted to fit the narrower screens. Second, because of limited bandwidth mobile, they strip out all extraneous graphics, animations, AJAX menus and buttons, Flash, and the like. so the page will load quickly. Third, and the most important of all, because of the previous two reasons these sites always focus on what the users want to do on the site. Whether it is to find movie times on Fandango, updates your current thoughts/activities on Twitter or Facebook, or read/compose blog on Vox, these sites let users get there and do it quickly and pleasantly.
Some of the big players in the web are already there. Both Yahoo and Google have mobile version of their sites, allowing quick access to search, emails, and other features. BBC has a PDA version, so does CNN. As the battleground shifts from desktop to mobile computing, web sites need to start thinking about how their sites look on a restricted device (be it a UMPC, iPhone, etc.) because it is no longer just about providing content or services. It is about how easy the users can access these content or services.
My hope is that the iPhone will finally make web developers pay more attention to the mobile experience of their web sites. Even if iPhone 1.0 disappoints, at least other mobile web users will benefit from improved user experience.
The BBC Trust has approved a proposed video-on-demand service for BBC viewers. The announcement follows a public test of the BBC's new iPlayer service.
So what the heck is an iPlayer? Basically it's a service that offers BBC viewers online access to every television episode that has run on the state-regulated network over the past week, commercial-free.
10,500 viewers and organizations offered comments during the test period. I'm guessing most of the comments were positive.
No word yet on when the service will roll out. The BBC press release says it "will be announced in due course," which sounds so much nicer than "it'll be ready when it's ready."
The BBC plans to set up three YouTube channels featuring short clips of BBC content. There will be one news channel and two entertainment channels.
One of the entertainment channels will feature trailers and short videos related to BBC programming. There will be no advertising on this channel. It's main purpose will be to drive traffic to the BBC's website, which in the future may include full episodes of TV programs for streaming and download.
The other entertainment channel will be advertising-driven, and will include 3-6 minute clips of material from the BBC archives. Clips will include content from Top Gear, The Mighty Boosh, and nature programs. The news channel will also include advertising, and will show around 30 news clips every day. The news clips will be available only to viewers outside of the UK, which I find kind of funny. Sure you shouldn't have to watch advertising on the BBC if you live in Britain, but does that mean you should actually have less access to this BBC outlet than foreigners?
Anyway, somebody wake me when they put Doctor Who episodes up on YouTube.
BBC, DRM, and the iPhone: it doesn't sound very steamy. But things are definitely heating up in regards to the BBC and DRM. 
We were surprised to find an interesting time waster on the BBC's website, of all places. Microlife doesn't fall neatly into a game category. Essentially you play God, and control the lives of tiny microlife, which are single-cell organisms that move around slowly.
Nevermind all that DRM stuff that we talked to the FSF about, the iPlayer is causing all sorts of other trouble for ISPs. The player, built for viewing and downloading popular television shows onto computers through the special application is taking a toll on the ISPs bandwidth. So much so that they are looking for compensation from the BBC, threatening to initiate traffic shaping that would slow down service and render the player unusable if they don't pay up. 
The BBC Trust has approved a proposed video-on-demand service for BBC viewers. The announcement follows a public test of the BBC's new iPlayer service.
The BBC plans to set up three YouTube channels featuring short clips of BBC content. There will be one news channel and two entertainment channels.
