British broadcaster the BBC has revealed that its iPlayer catch-up TV service will work on the Nokia N96 when it goes on sale early next month here in the UK. That means you’ll be able to download or stream Eastenders (or whatever) on your phone from day one, for free. Well, as long as you’re doing it via Wi-Fi or have a decent data tariff, obviously.
Some N96’s will ship with the iPlayer application preloaded, while for those that don’t, you’ll be able to download it from the BBC website yourself. The N96 thus joins Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch in supporting iPlayer, although there’s no news on when the N95 version promised by the Beeb in July will launch.
Still, it stands to reason that iPlayer will be available for a wider selection of handsets as we go into 2009. I’d love to see a fully-fledged iPhone application available on the App Store too, although whether it’ll be possible to support full show downloads is anyone’s guess.
(via Mobile Entertainment)
Catching up with Doctor Who or ‘Enders while you are meant to be working has never been easier thanks to the BBC’s iPlayer service but, although Auntie Beeb launched an iPhone-compatible iPlayer streaming service a few months ago, non-Apple mobile owners have been left out.
That should be set to change, according to the BBC’s head of digital media Anthony Rose.
Speaking to Marketing news source Brand Republic, Rose said that the beeb are working on a version of iPlayer that will be compatible with the Nokia N95.
Whether this means that any S60 3rd Edition smartphone will be able to enjoy mobile re-runs of Strictly Come Dancing or if the BBC will be somehow restricting iPlayer to working with a specific handset is not clear.
The iPhone/iPod Touch version of iPlayer was hampered by the lack of Flash support or the ability to install any apps without jailbreaking the device, but S60 devices should be a lot more flexible.
The BBC has announced that a limited selection of shows on its iPlayer service are now available for viewing on the iPhone. It’s a bit of a surprise given that Macs aren’t even supported yet but with the iPhone currently enjoying a fresh flush of publicity on the back of the SDK announcement, it seems the BBC has decided to strike while the iron is hot.
Currently, only the BBC-produced ‘Whistleblower’ documentary is working apparently with content being streamed-only via the iPhone’s built-in QuickTime player. Of course there will be more shows to follow and perhaps the lack of content is further evidence of the BBC looking to jump on the current Phone publicity fanfare, which is understandable.
The service is running in the UK now and is in its beta form so we shouldn’t be to hard on it for the time being. As more content is added and the service becomes more robust, we’ll be sure to let you know.
(Via tuaw)
