If you fancy getting your fix of Auntie on your iPhone, relax: your dream has come true. The BBC’s iPlayer is now available for both the Apple mobile and the iPod Touch.
For BBC junkies, that means a chance to switch off the goggle box and watch TV on the iPhone instead. Insterestingly, this is the first time the Beeb has customised the iPlayer for a mobile device. Apparently, the Beeb said it started off the iPlayer’s mobile odyssey with the iPhone because it’s the “device most optimised for high quality video currently available”, according to the BBC blog.
I can see what they mean about optimised, but the same blog also says: “You’ll need to be online via a wi-fi broadband connection (the iPhone’s EDGE connectivity is too slow for streaming video).” That doesn’t sound too promising – why bring out a media playing app for a mobile phone that you can’t use on the go? It’s great to hear that the Beeb is taking mobile seriously but it’s a shame the first attempt can’t be used over mobile networks.
TV quality over EDGE is just about acceptable. But it does require consistently good signal strength. Far better to use 3G and fall back to EDGE if coverage dips. I can see why they’ve gone with WiFi, though – higher speeds = higher quality.
What interests me is how they’re streaming it. They can’t use Flash because the iPhone doesn’t have that. I guess it has 3gp streaming – if so, does that mean that any phone can access the streams?
Excellent technical article from the BBC’s Bloggers – http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/03/bbc_iplayer_on_iphone_behind_t.html
The Apple iPhone isn’t a 3G device, and hence (unfortunately) the iPlayer isn’t really a truly mobile platform. Yet