Mention the BBC and images of Kings, Queens, Jeremy Clarkson, and Monty Python come to mind if you’re not lucky enough to live in the UK, but that simply isn’t the case these days for those of you fortunate enough to call the land of Fish and Chips your home. You English know there’s more original programming and in depth news coverage coming out of the BBC than you can shake a stick at. One of the first things I do after waking up in the morning is boot up my laptop and turn on BBC Radio, which has no geo-restrictions and streams globally. But anyway, what’s more important here is iPlayer. Think of it like Hulu, but for the UK. With iPlayer you can catch up on the shows you love, listen to the radio, and read up on what’s new in the world of soap operas, but until now there hasn’t been a neat and tidy way to do it on the Apple iPad or on your Android device. Today that changes, for the iPad at least [iTunes link].
If you’re on an Android device then things get a little tricky. First off, your device needs to be running Android 2.2 or higher. That shouldn’t be a problem in the UK since people tend to upgrade their phones a little bit faster than their colonial cousins. That and operators over there subsidize a much larger number of handsets. Second, and perhaps most tragic of all, you need to be connected to WiFi to use the app, so no streaming while you’re waiting for your mates at the pub. Oh and the Android app uses Flash while the iPad app uses h.264, so chances are iPad users have better video quality.
Give it a try and let us know how you like it. Us foreigners can’t wait for the BBC to launch their subscription iPlayer application, but that’s going to be a while.