In October 2007, the BBC said that the iPlayer would be available for Macs and Linux by the end of the 2007. Two weeks shy of the end of 2008, the BBC finally delivers. Maybe their developers accidentally took a trip in the TARDIS.

Using Adobe AIR technology, the BBC has developed a version of the iPlayer that is compatible with OS X and Linux. The press release states that the player has entered beta as of today and a final release is scheduled for February 2009.

The beta testing of the Mac-compatible iPlayer is being conducted through the BBC iPlayer Labs. The application download itself can be found here.

The beta version of the BBC iPlayer Desktop requires OS 10.4 and above. The site does not indicate if the download is a universal binary. The BBC iPlayer is only available for UK citizens.

Thanks to all those who submitted the tip!

You may already use one of several different Dashboard widgets for listening to BBC radio programmes over the net; but the team at BBC Labs has just released a new one that offers something a bit different.

It's part of a wider project called Radio Pop that turns radio listening into a social activity. As long as you're listening to your BBC programmes via the Radio Pop player (available in-browser or, as I said at the start, as a widget), you can "Pop" your favourites - in other words, flag them.

Your Radio Pop profile page shows what you've been listening to. Your Pops show the things you liked most, and give you quick access to programme information pages. Right now it's limited to live radio streams, but plans are underway to add the BBC's Listen Again output as well, which will make it much more interesting. (Developers: there's an API for you to play with, too.)

Since I'm in the UK, I haven't been able to confirm that this works elsewhere; YMMV. One additional requirement for making it work is a copy of Real Player, which the BBC uses for all its radio streams. Download it via the links on this BBC help page and you'll get a version that doesn't come laden with ads.

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple and inventor of the Apple I and II, talks with the BBC about starting Apple in 1976. "Everything was ... thinking about the good of humanity," he said. His starting salary? $24,000 a year: maybe a quarter of what an Apple engineer makes today.

For those of you new to the Apple universe, this is an entertaining 10-minute brief of how it all began.

Woz has probably told this story a million times, but he talks about it with the same enthusiasm as if it happened yesterday. He discusses the Silicon Valley homebrew movement, Microsoft, and the perceived animosity between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

Also -- and totally off-topic -- Woz wears a giant watch. I mean, seriously. Huge.

The iPhone mobile music store doesn't serve up podcasts, so where are you gonna go for a fresh hot bowl of Auntie Beeb? Why, to the BBC itself, silly. The BBC's radio labs blog just announced a new iPhone-savvy webpage that offers simple phone and iPod touch browsing.

If you're on a touch or iPhone, you can just go to bbc.co.uk/podcasts and save yourself some extra typing. The site recognizes when you're visiting from an iPhone and they plan to expand this service to other hand-held devices.

Thanks, Chris

We've covered the brouhaha over the BBC iPlayer several times. Basically the BBC is putting lots of their video content on the web, but they chose a Windows Media-based solution that was incompatible with Macs (and Linux). After an uproar from British Mac users that actually got a response from 10 Downing Street, the BBC assured the public that a Mac compatible solution would be forthcoming. Now the Guardian is reporting that the Beeb has settled on an Adobe Flash-based system to stream content to Mac (and Linux) users "by the end of the year." Non-Windows users will still not be able to download content, however.

This kind of streaming-only "solution" for Mac users looks to be picking up steam with Napster recently announcing the same sort of streaming-only (no download) service for Macs. While we can certainly appreciate that getting something is better than nothing, I hope that full feature parity is in the works across the pond.

A while back we posted about a bit of an uproar that arose when it seemed that the BBC was going to roll out a Windows-only online TV offering. Well the BBC suits have apparently responded to numerous complaints and today they announced that their "iPlayer [service] will be re-engineered to work with Macs." Of course they couldn't do this without a little bit of snarkiness, with BBC New Media boss Ashley Highfield saying that Apple's "proprietary and closed framework for digital rights management gives us headaches [but] it is one of our top priorities to re-engineer our proposed BBC iPlayer service to work on Macs." Further, it will still be on Windows first, with Mac support only coming later. Nonetheless, UK Mac users should count themselves lucky, and kudos to the BBC for at least allowing themselves to be pressured into doing the right thing.

Thanks to Chris and everyone else who sent this in!

This one goes out to all the UK TUAW readers in the audience: apparently, the BBC is planning to launch a smashing new on-demand, online TV service. Everything sounds super-duper until the minor detail of being Windows-only. This of course ruffles more than a few feathers, especially since the BBC purports to provide "services for everyone, free of commercial interests and political bias," so residents have created a petition to help the BBC see the error of their ways. The petition is open to UK residents only, and August 20th, 2007 is the deadline for joining the fight.

While I don't have many details on why exactly the BBC has gone Windows-only with this online venture (for now), my first guess is that they're using Microsoft's DRM. Hopefully, with the DRM discussion finally rising up the ranks to those who need to can actually do something about it, petitions like this and the bad decisions that inspire them will cease to exist.

Thanks Graham

The Beeb is reporting that hundreds of episodes of "programmes" will be released for download via the Zudeo service, based on P2P client Azureus. The videos will be available in HD and will be DRM'ed, exact rights and pricing to be announced. This is certainly big news for fans of Brit TV who don't have... you know... cable.

Seriously, though, HD via P2P is a big deal, especially from such an august content horde as the BBC. The presence of a Mac client (Azureus is Java-based) is also good news, although it remains to be seen if the actual videos will play for us. Will P2P challenge the video dominance of the iTunes Music Store?

[via Digg]

The Woz is out and about selling his book as hard as he can. His latest media appearance is a segment on Simon Mayo's program. It is available for download as a podcast (what isn't these days?).

They start off talking about gaming and then segue (or is that Segway?) into Woz's book and his time at Apple.

Thanks, Mike.

Remember that rumored Firewire breakout box (codename: Asteroid) for Garageband that was leaked to a few websites? You know, the one that Apple decided was important enough to sue said bloggers to find out who their sources were? Ahh, I thought you would.

Apple won the first ruling which would have made the websites turn over their sources, if said websites hadn't won the appeal. Apple has decided that it isn't worth their time to try and appeal that appeal, and so it looks like the bloggers won.

Finally, I can safely blog about all the inside Apple information I have.... so any Apple employees want to give me any dirt?

Guy Kewney is something of an expert on technology, the man pictured to the right is a cab driver. Which would you expect to see on the BBC talking about the recent Apple v. Apple verdict?

Well, the BBC was hoping for Guy Kewney, but due to a mix up they got the cab driver who tried his best to answer the questions (you can watch it here, his face is priceless). You can read Guy's take at his blog.

I'm just waiting for the day when the BBC mistakenly asks me for my opinion about anything.

Thanks, Will Gore.

UPDATE: Andy points us to Guy Kewney's blog, which tells us that this guy (also named Guy) isn't a cabbie, but rather an IT worker who was at the BBC for a job interview.

The BBC (or the Beeb to those in the know) has just released a very cool Dashboard Widget. What's it do? I'm glad you asked! The BBC Motion Gallery Search is basically a quick and easy way to search the BBC's Motion Gallery, which is a website that has lots of very cool video clips on it.

Pretty slick.

Think you know your Apple history? Well, we'll just see about that. The BBC has a 10 question quiz about all things Apple. Take the quiz, and post your results in the comments.

I got 9 out of 10.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

The BBC is about to seriously boost their podcast offerings. By the end of the month, more than thirty shows will be made available as podcasts from the BBC, including:

Woman's Hour
Start the Week
Broadcasting House
Today in Parliament
Front Row

Fire up your iPods, UK!* Time to start downloading.

Update: In the name of international relations, I have edited this sentence to read "Fire up your iPods, UK!" instead of "Fire up your iPods, England!" I guess I should have paid attention during geography class, eh?