As iPad fever reaches boiling point here in the UK, the BBC have quietly rolled out a version of the iPlayer specifically tailored to Apple's tablet computer. As part of the new iPlayer 3 beta that was unveiled this Wednesday the iPad will be able to access the last 7 days of BBC TV and Radio programmes just like we are used to on our desktop and laptop computers and games consoles.
This comes as quite a pleasant surprise as many expected the iPlayer would be useless on the iPad due to the fact that all the video content is powered by Adobe's Flash video player, which Apple famously doesn't support on the iPad due to several issues including power consumption and poor performance. We assume the BBC will be streaming non flash video to the iPad using a different kind of video platform, because that's pretty much the only way to do it.
Bearing in mind most iPad users will probably be sitting in their lounges, in their beds or in coffee shops across the country (taking advantage of free WiFi) we predict the iPlayer will surge in popularity on the tablet device and has the potential to be the most popular use for the iPad in the UK. Especially considering it's free! it's hard to imagine people not using it.
Have you grabbed an iPad today? If so let us know what you think of the BBC iPlayer app in the comments section below.
Source: BBC Internet Blog