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The BBC is reporting that its iPlayer software is now available for the iPhone. This is an interesting development given the huge controversy over the corporation’s initial decision to produce it for Windows users only.

iPlayer is a new development that allows users to watch TV programmes on demand via the internet for a limited period of time - but not to save programmes for later playback.

Unfortunately the issue of whether the Digital Rights Management (DRM) software that stops users doing this is still in place is now very confused - it may have been removed, possibly inadvertently, in the player’s latest release in order to produce the MP4 files that the iPhone can handle.

And what on earth is the point of DRM from a publicly-funded broadcaster when users are perfectly free to make copies of programmes using VCR or DVD recorders anyway?

Read a BoingBoing article on this subject >>

Here’s what the corporation has to say about the latest developments;

BBC iPlayer comes to the iPhone

…it is the first time the service has been available on portable devices.

The iPhone and iPod touch are able to stream shows from the iPlayer website over wi-fi networks. The iPhone cannot stream BBC video over the cell network. A BBC developer said that the corporation was currently working on other versions of the iPlayer for “many more” devices.

Anthony Rose, writing on the BBC internet blog, said: “We started with iPhone because it is the device most optimised for high quality video currently available.

“It displays the BBCiPlayer site and BBC programmes nicely.” Read full article here…

Learn more about the iPlayer here and about digital rights management issues here.

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Interesting story on the BBC’s dot.life blog about potential challengers to Apple in the music download sector. The correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones has been looking at the chances of a new entrant into the market called 7digital:

Taking on iTunes

Could a tiny business based in London’s Shoreditch take a bite out of Apple’s digital music empire? It seems unlikely and even 7digital will admit that it’s a David facing a Goliath. But this week’s deal between the download service and Warner Music could at least make Apple sit up and take notice.

The seamless integration between the iPod and iTunes – and the manner in which the Apple ecosystem makes rival devices and services less useful to music fans – has made Steve Jobs the most powerful figure in digital music, with Apple commanding around 80% of the market. The big four labels – who saw iTunes as a saviour when it arrived promising users a viable alternative to pirated tracks – are now chafing at the bit.

They don’t like Apple’s insistence on a single price for tracks and albums, and they’re waking up to the fact that they’ve handed the retail end of their digital business to one player.

So Warner is striking a blow for the whole industry by offering its catalogue DRM-free and in MP3 format to 7digital. Read full article here…

Interesting times…

An article by Wendy M. Grossman in The Guardian today suggests this is a real possibility and offers some sound advice on choosing safer passwords:

Just as you hit the button to pay for your online purchase it happens: “First, create a username and password.”

The temptation is to pick something easy: your name, your spouse’s name, or a standard password you use everywhere. But if the site will store your credit card details, or is one you use for banking or trading shares, think more carefully.

Passwords are a perennial problem. They’re hard to think up, to remember and protect. Worse, they’re not in themselves secure - your data depends on the carefulness of many strangers. The security of the HMRC discs with the Child Benefit database lost some weeks ago - Zip-encrypted with a password - depends on the strength of that password.

Since Zip encryption uses the AES method, which the US deems good enough for officially secret documents, the HMRC files should be safe from a “brute force” attack. But other password encryption is threatened in quite a different way. Read full article here…