Google on iPhone update; EA's Sport for Mac; iPlayer for Apple TV

[AppleInsider]

Google is warning iPhone users about the effects of Apple's v1.1.3 firmware update on Gmail. Meanwhile, EA has announced plans to bring its "Spore" title to the Mac later this year. And BBC is strongly considering offering its iPlayer web video service through the revamped version of Apple TV.

Google on iPhone v1.1.3

Google says that if users setup mail on their iPhones simply by tapping the "Gmail" icon, the v1.1.3 upgrade will convert access from POP to IMAP. The result is that messages read on an iPhone will also appear as read in the Gmail web interface, and any deletions will move messages to the web Trash bin, where they will be permanently deleted after 30 days.

It is noted, however, that it is possible to disable this behavior by manually configuring IMAP, or reverting to POP in a similar manner. The protocol shift is just one of a number of changes introduced to Gmail this week, among them automatic refreshing and contact completion on the iPhone. General changes to Gmail have included larger attachment limits, expanded chat options, and the ability to integrate non-Google e-mail accounts.

EA reveals Spore for Mac

At the Macworld Expo this week, Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) announced that "Spore" will be available for the Mac later this year.

EA describes the gaming title as "your own personal universe in a box. In this universe you can create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations and even sculpt entire worlds. In Spore you have a variety of creation tools at your disposal that allow you to customize nearly aspect of your universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even spaceships. While Spore is a single player game, your creations and other players’ creations are automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, providing a limitless number of worlds to explore and play."



Both the PC and Macintosh versions of the game will feature the full experience of cell through to space with editors for designing creatures, buildings, and vehicles, EA said.

Like the game developer's other recent Mac titles, Spore for the Mac will be made possible through TransGaming’s Cider Portability Engine.

BBC to bring iPlayer to Apple TV?

The BBC is strongly considering offering its iPlayer web video service through the revamped Apple TV, writes the company's technology director Ashley Highfield on his blog.

Apple's shift from purchase-only videos to a rental model would allow the British network to mimic the functions of the website while providing a more comfortable TV environment, he says. While the shows could still be free to watch, the Apple TV's system would avoid copyright issues by automatically clearing episodes after their viewing period is up, a feature that show producers currently "insist" upon for the website.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[benny-boy]

BBC to bring iPlayer to Apple TV?

The BBC is strongly considering offering its iPlayer web video service through the revamped Apple TV, writes the company's technology director Ashley Highfield on his blog.

Apple's shift from purchase-only videos to a rental model would allow the British network to mimic the functions of the website while providing a more comfortable TV environment, he says. While the shows could still be free to watch, the Apple TV's system would avoid copyright issues by automatically clearing episodes after their viewing period is up, a feature that show producers currently "insist" upon for the website.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[/QUOTE]

This is the future of non-sport television: parallel, not series.
Not watching a channel and seeing whatever comes your way, then logging on to have your "lost" chat or dialing up to vote for your americal idol; rather, you go to a website optimized for couch-surfing, and you watch what you want, when you want, courtesy of banner ads, product placements, and possibly download fees, and the link for the chatroom/contest for the free tshirt/buy concert tickets/other community stuff is right there.

TV networks _also_ are basically "orifices" at this point (one-way, towards you). They should offer a more weblike interactive medium and I think apple TV is poised to deliver this. Tivo is a linux box that could do it too, but won't because they are focused on the DVR, and stevo will never add a DVR.

[Bageljoey]

Would the BBC's offerings be available to users in the US? Or would it be a commonwealth only thing? I would love some solid, free content available from iTunes...

Of course, I'm sure that there will be people complaining about the 24 hour vewing limit!

[minderbinder]

aTV would get a big boost from compatibility with networks' streaming websites.

I'd love to be able to stream LOST in HD from the abc website to a TV screen via aTV, even if it means watching with commercials.

I could see why apple wouldn't want to do that, since they wouldn't get a cut. Maybe someone will hack those sorts of things to make them work.

[ifiredmyboss.com]

I swear I've been hearing about Spore since before y2k was a big deal....
I could be wrong though

Plus the gmail thing zapped me unexpectedly....

[paulgreen]

Originally Posted by Bageljoey

Would the BBC's offerings be available to users in the US? Or would it be a commonwealth only thing? I would love some solid, free content available from iTunes...

Of course, I'm sure that there will be people complaining about the 24 hour vewing limit!

The BBC's iPlayer will only work through UK-based IP addresses. This limitation is due to licensing/royalty issues (e.g. allowing viewing in the USA would impact on the ability of the BBC to sell its programming) and to the fact that iPlayer is a service provided to UK television owners who are obliged to pay an annual licensing fee (which finances the BBC) -- currently £135.50, or $266, for a colour television.

I would love it if non-UK residents could purchase BBC programming --- it seems to me that this would not be difficult to implement with Apple TV.

[Foo2]

Dear AppleInsider,

Please remove the slutty ads from your web site.

Thanks.

[auxio]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Google says that if users setup mail on their iPhones simply by tapping the "Gmail" icon, the v1.1.3 upgrade will convert access from POP to IMAP. The result is that messages read on an iPhone will also appear as read in the Gmail web interface, and any deletions will move messages to the web Trash bin, where they will be permanently deleted after 30 days.

I guess for people who have only ever used POP, this is a bit of a shock. But for someone who ditched POP in favor of IMAP as soon as I understood the differences between the two, this is a welcome default.

I mean, having local copies of email and status information on every computer/device you use (and never knowing when it's actually been deleted on the email server) only really makes sense if you still use dialup or other intermittent internet access methods (and only have one device which you use for email).

Having a central repository of email which is accessed and modified exactly the same way on every network-capable device you use to view it, and has email status information stored centrally just makes more sense in my eyes. Especially nowadays with almost continuous internet access and with many people having more than one computer (or, at least, more than one device they use to check email). IMAP's time has finally arrived in my eyes.

[JupiterOne]

Originally Posted by Foo2

Dear AppleInsider,

Please remove the slutty ads from your web site.

Thanks.

You might have a better chance of this if you post this in the Feedback forum.

[Bageljoey]

Originally Posted by paulgreen

The BBC's iPlayer will only work through UK-based IP addresses. This limitation is due to licensing/royalty issues (e.g. allowing viewing in the USA would impact on the ability of the BBC to sell its programming) and to the fact that iPlayer is a service provided to UK television owners who are obliged to pay an annual licensing fee (which finances the BBC) -- currently £135.50, or $266, for a colour television.

I would love it if non-UK residents could purchase BBC programming --- it seems to me that this would not be difficult to implement with Apple TV.

Bummer. I knew it would be too good to be true if I could get BBC programing free... Still, if they could come up with a reasonable fee for "renting" programs (I don't experiment much when I'm paying $2 for a show and I don't need to own) I think it would be excellent.

The BBC financing scheme sounds rather interesting. Sorry to go off topic, but I'm curious: how do they know how many TVs you have? Are there commercials on BBC shows? I feel very ignorant...

[cutemartin]

Originally Posted by paulgreen

The BBC's iPlayer will only work through UK-based IP addresses. This limitation is due to licensing/royalty issues (e.g. allowing viewing in the USA would impact on the ability of the BBC to sell its programming) and to the fact that iPlayer is a service provided to UK television owners who are obliged to pay an annual licensing fee (which finances the BBC) -- currently £135.50, or $266, for a colour television.

I would love it if non-UK residents could purchase BBC programming --- it seems to me that this would not be difficult to implement with Apple TV.

IIRC, BBC are planning to roll out the iPlayer internationally, on a paid for basis, once they have sorted out the free service in the UK.

[The Man with the Iron Mac]

Originally Posted by Bageljoey

Bummer. I knew it would be too good to be true if I could get BBC programing free... Still, if they could come up with a reasonable fee for "renting" programs (I don't experiment much when I'm paying $2 for a show and I don't need to own) I think it would be excellent.

The BBC financing scheme sounds rather interesting. Sorry to go off topic, but I'm curious: how do they know how many TVs you have? Are there commercials on BBC shows? I feel very ignorant...

I'm sure it would be possible as they already differentiate between British and international media, e.g. they're allowed to have adverts on the international website. It's nice to know that I wouldn't have to pay anything extra to watch it (apart from buying an ... and HD TV...)

As for financing the Beeb, you just need one licence per household, and no, there aren't any commercials

[jont-uk]

Originally Posted by Bageljoey

The BBC financing scheme sounds rather interesting. Sorry to go off topic, but I'm curious: how do they know how many TVs you have? Are there commercials on BBC shows? I feel very ignorant...

The licence fee covers the 'household' so it doesn't matter how many tv sets you have.

There are no commercials/advertisements on the BBC either - that's why there is a licence fee to raise revenue the tv and radio channels ...

Jon

[melgross]

Originally Posted by paulgreen

The BBC's iPlayer will only work through UK-based IP addresses. This limitation is due to licensing/royalty issues (e.g. allowing viewing in the USA would impact on the ability of the BBC to sell its programming) and to the fact that iPlayer is a service provided to UK television owners who are obliged to pay an annual licensing fee (which finances the BBC) -- currently £135.50, or $266, for a colour television.

I would love it if non-UK residents could purchase BBC programming --- it seems to me that this would not be difficult to implement with Apple TV.

We do get BBC A (America), so we do get a fair amount of programming, but, by no means all, or at the same time it's available there, though some of it is.

[GregAlexander]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

While the shows could still be free to watch, the Apple TV's system would avoid copyright issues by automatically clearing episodes after their viewing period is up, a feature that show producers currently "insist" upon for the website.

Very good idea.
BBC needs to make sure that their shows are only available for 1 week, and then disappear.
... and I'm sure Apple wants better iTunes rental deals in the future so has built the iTunes rental system to allow various show expiry options (ie: 1 week after) and to allow it to be repeated as much as desired in that time.

My main question would be whether Apple would be willing to put BBC shows on their UK rental servers at no cost and not using the p2p system BBC is pushing.

[cwfrederick]

stevo will never add a DVR.[/QUOTE]

why not?

[GregAlexander]

Originally Posted by cwfrederick

why not?

There are 2 reasons people commonly give
1) Steve said he'd never make it a cablecard set-top box.
2) he'd make no money on DVR

#1 - in the same breath, most reports then summarise that Steve will never put a TV receiver in the AppleTV...
#2 - I think Apple can make money on a DVR... but it's difficult to balance the studio, Apple, and customer desires. A DVR that can record anything that's not rentable on AppleTV would be rather cool.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by GregAlexander

There are 2 reasons people commonly give
1) Steve said he'd never make it a cablecard set-top box.
2) he'd make no money on DVR

#1 - in the same breath, most reports then summarise that Steve will never put a TV receiver in the AppleTV...
#2 - I think Apple can make money on a DVR... but it's difficult to balance the studio, Apple, and customer desires. A DVR that can record anything that's not rentable on AppleTV would be rather cool.

Steve saying bad about something in itself doesn't mean anything. He said Apple stores would be a bad idea, the same with video on iPods, flash iPods, putting the CPU in the LCD bezel and other things. He also dismissed PDAs and the idea of an Apple phone. If you've noticed, Apple is currently doing all of those things right now.

That said, there's not a whole lot to be had over the air, though that is where I get most of my TV. Cable Card in all its current variations is a hornet's nest on a dung pile in quicksand. You don't want to step there if you can avoid it.

Apple makes most of its money in hardware, the money from content is secondary and the profits from content are almost insignificant. When it comes to songs, Apple's averaging about 20 songs sold per iPod. Apple sells not anywhere nearly that many videos.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by cutemartin

IIRC, BBC are planning to roll out the iPlayer internationally, on a paid for basis, once they have sorted out the free service in the UK.

That will be a long time, given the wonderful progress they've made so far with the UK version.

[Hattig]

Originally Posted by Bageljoey

The BBC financing scheme sounds rather interesting. Sorry to go off topic, but I'm curious: how do they know how many TVs you have? Are there commercials on BBC shows? I feel very ignorant...

The licence covers all TVs in a household, i.e., it's one licence per household, regardless of the number of people in the household.

There aren't any commercials on the BBC radio or television stations, unless you get to stations they have part-ownership of, like the UKTV stations.

Basically, the fee is quite fair for what you receive.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Like the game developer's other recent Mac titles, Spore for the Mac will be made possible through TransGaming’s Cider Portability Engine.

I haven't kept up with that, from the people that actually used Cider-based games, what's the word on how well it works?

[McDave]

Originally Posted by cwfrederick

stevo will never add a DVR.

why not?[/QUOTE]

Because they're trying to 'reinvent' TV - literally turn the current model on it's head. At the moment we have a broadcast/capture model with minimal downloads which requires you do wade through a load of crap after/during the broadcast. Apple seem to want to switch that to a download to rent/own model which is more personalised and less padded out with 'noise' and ultimately could see access to almost any video content whenever/wherever you want it.

Or something like that.

I'd rather BBC & other broadcasters integrate their content into iTunes than try to stream over the internet. It's really not designed for realtime data apps.

McD

[McDave]

Originally Posted by GregAlexander

Very good idea.
BBC needs to make sure that their shows are only available for 1 week, and then disappear.
... and I'm sure Apple wants better iTunes rental deals in the future so has built the iTunes rental system to allow various show expiry options (ie: 1 week after) and to allow it to be repeated as much as desired in that time.

My main question would be whether Apple would be willing to put BBC shows on their UK rental servers at no cost and not using the p2p system BBC is pushing.

Strategically Apple should get onto this. I reckon the 24 hour rental limit is a studio-imposed rule and the more deals Apple can get outside of that should help them break it by competition. i.e. If they can convince networks to provide rental TV shows (because who wants to keep them - except Lost) and independent film makers/minor studios to provide better rentals terms the majors would have to compete for viewer time and hopefully yield.

Maybe Apple could also provide a subscription/package-type arrangement (like a hybrid season pass) where you can download what you want from a given provider up to a point. I think that may be a while off.

McD

[Blah64]

Originally Posted by Hattig

The licence covers all TVs in a household, i.e., it's one licence per household, regardless of the number of people in the household.

There aren't any commercials on the BBC radio or television stations, unless you get to stations they have part-ownership of, like the UKTV stations.

Basically, the fee is quite fair for what you receive.

What if you don't own a TV? Is this really a TV-tax or a residence tax? I'm sure there are plenty people who don't feel the need.

While I have TV around now, watching infrequently, for several years I was an avid (uh, obsessive) "No TV. TV bad" person. And I would have been furious if I was forced to pay for something like that.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by Blah64

What if you don't own a TV? Is this really a TV-tax or a residence tax? I'm sure there are plenty people who don't feel the need.

While I have TV around now, watching infrequently, for several years I was an avid (uh, obsessive) "No TV. TV bad" person. And I would have been furious if I was forced to pay for something like that.

It's a TV fee of some sort, not a residence tax. You can avoid paying it by not having a TV. They have equipment that can sense whether or not a TV is in use to target those trying to avoid the tax but still using the TV. It's a pretty unusual system, I don't think there is anything like it.

[Amorya]

Originally Posted by JeffDM

It's a TV fee of some sort, not a residence tax. You can avoid paying it by not having a TV. They have equipment that can sense whether or not a TV is in use to target those trying to avoid the tax but still using the TV. It's a pretty unusual system, I don't think there is anything like it.

If you're not using a TV, you have to tell them as such. They assume you're guilty unless you're innocent.

Interestingly, if you don't have a TV, you're still allowed to watch shows on iPlayer. There's a statement from the BBC to that effect. They're not concerned about it, because the number of people with broadband but no TV licence is really small.

[Jensonb]

Hmm. iPlayer Rentals through iTunes = Doctor Who and Top Gear on my iPod touch...

BBC, Apple, pretty please?

[Galley]

The one application that tv needs is MLB.TV Premium. The current Mac version is Java-based, and even supports the Apple remote. Does tv have Java?

[SpinDrift]

Woohoo!

[melgross]

Originally Posted by Galley

The one application that tv needs is MLB.TV Premium. The current Mac version is Java-based, and even supports the Apple remote. Does tv have Java?

Other than it runs OS X??