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iPlayer Released for Mac, Linux; Adobe Announces AIR for Linux
Zoxed writes "The BBC reports that their iPlayer has just been released for Mac and Linux (download page). It is based on Adobe Air, but unfortunately the service is only available to UK IP address, so I can not test it out from my adopted homeland of Germany. Perhaps a UK-based Slashdotter could review it?" In related news, an anonymous reader writes "Adobe has announced a Linux version of its AIR 1.5 runtime environment that is supposed to allow rich web apps developed on it to run on Fedora Core 8, Ubuntu 7.10 and openSuse 10.3 with no modification. The company released versions for Windows and Mac OS X back in November."
Could you use a UK-based proxy and download the player?
I'm not a pro with flash development, but given the advances that javascript, CSS and DHTML are making, combined with stuff like squirrelfish extreme and the canvas object, how much potential does flash still have ? don't get me wrong : I don't want to go on a flash-bashing parade here ! I'm just wondering if the current state of javascript in modern browsers isn't up-to-par with flash for 90% of whatever flash is doing right now. The only advantages of flash are code-protection and vector graphics. But I can't really see a bonus for either of those two when it comes to rich-application-development : vectors are irrelevant here, and anyone who thinks he can just copy someone's client-side of a complete platform, and reverse engineer the server side is bound to get his head stuck in someone's ass sooner or later
Isn't this release just in time for support of those 2 versions to be discontinued?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
no, i just thought that after that many years here I should have at least on first post :)
I am on the Adobe Pre-release program and I've been testing AIR Linux since it was in engdrop form, it's never installed on Slackware or Sabayon. When will they release a version that will install across all distros? Nobody knows.
I have to say it's decent approach to the problem of deploying Web Apps. Granted we did all the backend work connecting the Flex/Air front end to the database using AMFPHP, but it's definitely a decent platform for web applications and hybrid web/desktop apps. However it still suffers one flaw: it requires a third party platform that doesn't run on everything. (think mobile devices)
I see the Support OpenSuSE 10.3, but what about 11 and 11.1 (currently downloading the ISO).
The other approach is what Google and Apple are taking with HTML/Javascript based web applications that try to be browser/standards compliant. The entity that figures out how to make it work as a standalone desktop app has a winner.
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
Wow, a low uid making a first post comment. Was the account hacked?
This is slashdot.
There are trolls.
Same as it ever was.
I'm glad all the whining us Linux fans are doing is paying off. Everybody's jumping on the Linux-supporting bandwagon, if only to stop us from telling all our friends and relatives and strangers that $COMPANY are a bunch of evil meanie heads.
Additionally, Air and Flash have some hefty licensing restrictions. From Adobe:
For the avoidance of doubt, and by example only, Distributor shall not distribute any Adobe Runtime for use on any (a) mobile device, set top box (STB), handheld, phone, web pad, tablet or Tablet PC (other than Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and its successors), game console, TV, DVD player, media center (other than Windows XP Media Center Edition and its successors), electronic billboard or other digital signage, internet appliance or other internet-connected device, PDA, medical device, ATM, telematic device, gaming machine, home automation system, kiosk, remote control device, or any other consumer electronics device, (b) operator-based mobile, cable, satellite, or television system or (c) other closed system device. For information on licensing Adobe Runtimes for use or distribution on devices see http://www.adobe.com/licensing.
So, they can call it "free" all they want, but it isn't even free-as-in-beer free.
The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.
http://samair.ru/proxy/
It's not a fail at all. It's legally required! They have paid for the rights to show the content only to brits (who paid for it with their TV license and taxes). So this is a service for the british taxpayers who paid for it. Quite reasonable really.
Now, if they could license the iPlayer tech to other broadcasters running similar schemes (here in NZ, that's ALL of them), that would be cool and a great way to recoup some of that cost for the taxpayers.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
Even on windows I have seen flash sites tell me that I need to upgrade flash to (say) version 9 because I was already running version 10.
Thats what happens when you get teenagers to do your configuration management.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Same as it ever was.
And you may find yourself
In a news website for nerds
Fighting the first post trolls
And you may find yourself
Wondering "why, in God's name, am I here?"
And the days go by...
Never mind config mgt. No-one's bothered to test it!
Are you paying £1000 a year for a TV license? No? Well fuck off.
The 3rd party ones are better. No DRM, no AIR....
www.lawrencedudley.co.uk/iplayer
Disclaimer: I helped make that on. But it IS good.
We'll be making iTunes playlist support soon....
The truth shall always be free: Boris Floricic is Tron.
Our 3rd party mac app lets you use proxies well, and we're hoping to bring in an integrated VPN..
www.lawrencedudley.co.uk/iplayer
The truth shall always be free: Boris Floricic is Tron.
[*mumbles under his breath and waves cane threateningly*]
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I'd pay the tax in return for online access to all of the BeeB's stuff.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
To be fair people outside of the UK pay for the programmes they watch via advertising. Even going to the BBC website in a non-UK country should yield ads.
So the question is, have non-British people paid for iPlayer through advertising or not? If not, then why not give them iPlayer but with ads?
Who is paying £1,000 for a TV licence? It's £139.50, dumb ass.
Because then it'd give way to British people wanting ads instead of the license tax...er...I mean fee. The BBC have a good thing going revenue-wise and they'll not let up. I'd love for it to become subscription or advert payrolled but this would mean the BBC have to work for their money.
All BBC programmes are paid for with the license fee money, not advertising. IIRC any advertising outside of the UK to non-British audiences is because the BBC sold a show overseas (and the buyer network is the one advertising) or are using it for money to operate in that country.
Silly rabbit
At this present time you only ever need a TV license in the UK if you receive broadcast television signals across radio waves or by cable/satellite.
You do not need a license to:
Far too many people think if you have a tv you need a license, but it's not the case. Granted that is the norm for most people who own a tv, but there are enough ways around it if you really want them and saying you will get a £1000 fine under all circumstances is just wrong. And in the context of this article, you don't actually need a license as it's using the iPlayer!
We should go on a Troll Roll:
...
You don't frighten us English Pig-dogs!
Go and boil your bottoms, sons of a silly person.
I blow my nose at you
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
If you flat out refuse to buy a licence year after year and flaunt the fact in their face then maybe they would take you to court and fine you a grand. Usually they just get you to buy a licence at the normal rate.
Most UK government agencies are like that - big scary ad campaigns on the dire consequences of non-compliance, but little real-world follow through.
(I say most, because HM Revenue & Customs is a notable exception - they don't need the scary ads because everyone knows that if you mess with them, they will hang you up by the balls.)
I am disappointed that all distros quoted are "old" versions of their existing ones strictly speaking. Why do software companies do this all the time?
Err... Because those are the minimum supported versions? It would be like if a program came out that only ran on Vista, not XP everyone would really question the reason why. Similarly, its not bad that it doesn't require Ubuntu 8.10 to be installed, its quite good in fact that it doesn't.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
All I want to do is watch this in the US. Can anyone help?
I've installed AIR and the iPlayer downloader, and so far neither have really worked.
Granted this is probably because I'm using 64-bit Linux, and they don't seem to support it yet (not that I was told this at any stage of the installation process, or the website where I downloaded the installer.
To get the thing installed on 64-bit I followed these instructions, and then proceeded to the BBC website to download something. Nothing seemed to work, no download links appeared. I then followed the links to an episode of Never Mind The Buzzcocks that other people reported was working. This time a download link appeared, but clicking it took me to install the program again.
To figure out why it wasn't working, I ran the downloader from the command line. It was printing the following: "Unkown desktop manager((null)), only Gnome and KDE are supported". Aha... I'm using XFCE, yet it must use the inter-process communication of either one of those desktops...
Booted into Gnome, and tried again. This time it tells me that it wants libgnome-keyring.so - I realise that no preferences are savable - it must be saving prefs with the keyring. I think that's a bit odd - what's wrong with ~/.Adobe/AIR?
After installing 32-bit libraries for gnome-keyring, the thing still doesn't work, and still won't download anything.
The problem with this application, or rather with Adobe AIR, is the series of arbitrary choices the designers seem to have made. Linux is not a platform where you can assume many things - and it would have probably made more sense to pick some generic ways of getting things done (there's a reason that text-files have always been used for config!) rather than relying upon fairly specific libraries for basic tasks and then not even falling back to a sane alternative. Perhaps a 64-bit version will fix all of this, I certainly hope so!
Joseph Farthing
http://josephfarthing.com
Are usable SWF authoring tools even small-f free yet?
Flex is free and open source, so, yes, usable SWF authoring tools are free. Download Eclipse, download Flex. Voila, you are set.
Not sure if anyone here has seen us yet .. but Titanium is an open source/open web alternative to AIR that just had it's first Preview Release (PR1) a week ago. We currently support OSX and Windows , and are hard at work refactoring and getting a Linux release into the fold for our PR2 release in January.
We're licensed under ASL and using lots of open source techs (WebKit, Chromium, Gears, libXML, to name a few).. come check us out!
http://github.com/marshall/titanium/tree/master
http://titaniumapp.com/
arcane for life
All this time I believed that Linux was immune to DRM. How did they get DRM to work under Linux?
There are 3 types of show on the bbc:
1) BBC produced, the bbc obviously have complete rights to these, but make a fair amount of money from selling these to foreign companies. As they make money (a.k.a save the taxpayers money) by selling these to foreign companies, they don't want to put this online as it would harm their revenue (a.k.a the taxpayers have to foot more of the bill).
2) Independently produced by uk companies, these have to make up something like 10-15% of all shows, the bbc will buy limited rights to these programs, so that they can be resold elsewhere in the world.
3) Stuff bought from other companies (heros, etc), the bbc have to negotiate on these contracts, with some (heros) not even being allowed onto iplayer.
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!