The Clymo Brief: free TV and games for the iPhone
I was in the Apple store last weekend for my customary dreamlike gaze at lots of things I can’t afford. I’d popped in for a quick look at the Macbook Air. Seconds later I was standing with my mouth open marvelling at its styling, its weightlessness and, wow, that price! It looks super cool but costs a fortune. No real surprise when it comes to Apple products.

Then I wandered over to the iPhone, which is jaw-droppingly gorgeous and, at a whopping £269, hideously expensive. You’ve gotta hand it to Apple though, their staff are as helpful as they come. No less than eight of them offered a helping hand during my visit. Incredibly, they also managed to make £269 sound like a bargain.
The ever-patient Apple store personnel must get a lot of that though. Lots of trying and not so much buying. Whenever I go into the Regent Street branch, you can’t get a look-in for punters hogging the machines. I usually have to queue behind people catching up on a mountain of webmail or doing their internet banking. I’ve even seen a bit of online dating. All courtesy of the Apple store.

If anyone crashes then the obliging staff smile politely and do a restart. I guess this policy gets ‘em through the doors and if you’re going to pay top whack for a deliciously designed Apple product then why shouldn’t you be able to have a go at using it? They’ll be even busier this week now that you can stream TV shows onto the iPhone and iPod touch via the BBC’s iPlayer service.

The online catch-up facility is already a mighty fine idea, although at present there’s only a small trickle of content filtering through a rough-around-the-edges beta version. Content won’t play using the iPhone 2.5G EDGE network connection because that’s too slow for streaming and the Flash technology normally utilised by iPlayer hasn’t been a realistic option either.
Instead, programmes need to be repurposed for the iPhone, and rather than downloading them to the device, the shows are converted into 516Kbps content streams and piped directly into the Safari browser. So theoretically all you need to do is find a Wi-Fi hotspot (or your local Apple Store), connect and you’re in business. It works too!

The BBC has already inked a deal with Apple to sell some of their content through iTunes, with everything from Ashes to Ashes to Life in Cold Blood being made available for £1.89 a pop, but this announcement takes us into the realms of free TV on the move.

The Beeb has also done a deal with UK Wi-Fi company The Cloud, which provides free web access at around 7,500 outlets. A quick search in my area revealed that these are invariably located in one of three locations: a fast food outlet, a gym or any one of many pubs. I know which one I’ll be heading for in order to watch a bit of telly. Once I’ve spent my savings on the iPhone itself that is. Hopefully I’ll have enough change for a pint.
Apple has also announced that they’ll be allowing third-party developers to build custom applications for the iPhone. A decision further enhanced by the unveiling of their Software Developer Kit (SDK). This Apple download allows application developers to build and test new applications for the iPhone then make them available online or via the App store, which opens for business in June.

An ideal place to start would be improved instant messaging and better integration with Microsoft email applications. Gaming could be another exciting area to watch. There are already a host of games developers, including Electronic Arts, ID Software, Freeverse (who’ve created the intriguing iPhone mock-ups shown here) and Sega working on titles, and now Gameloft have plans for over 15 games for the iPhone and iPod touch by year end.

Brian Akaka, Marketing Director over at Freeverse in New York seems particularly upbeat about the iPhone developments. “We're very excited about developing for the iPhone,” he says. “The SDK looks to use many of the same libraries and development tools as for the Mac, so it should be an easy transition for Mac developers such as ourselves.”
And, according to Akaka, we won’t have to wait too long for the games themselves. “We're still taking a look at the iPhone SDK, but we anticipate it being about a 3 to 6 month development cycle for iPhone games. We plan to have at least one iPhone game ready for the June launch of the App Store. We're shooting for a summer launch of the entire Flick Sports line-up, depending on how things go.”

Rumour has it that Apple plan on releasing a 3G version of the iPhone, possibly by the middle half of the year. Giving the gadget a faster network connection than that of the ploddy EDGE technology could really help to convince possible buyers of the iPhone to finally open their wallets.
The Beeb are looking at rolling this streaming content out for a host of other handsets in the near future too and they plan on announcing another device by the end of this month. With iPhone rivals like the much-lauded Nokia N95 clamouring for your attention there’s plenty of scope.

Meanwhile, back in the Apple store, even the lovable staff still can’t persuade me. An iPhone looks divine and works pretty well to boot, but it also comes with a price tag that makes me feel queasy. By the time you’ve bought the phone and signed up to one of the monthly packages you’re looking at spending nearly £1,000 per annum at the cheapest end of the scale. That’s bonkers.

I’d buy an iPhone tomorrow if Apple and its network provider could improve that whole pricing structure, but it’s still becoming a whole lot more tempting as each day passes. For now though, I’ll just keep on dreaming down at the Apple Store…


Rob Clymo is a journalist employed on a freelance basis by Microsoft. The views in this article are those of the author and not of MSN or Microsoft.
Microsoft owns MSN UK.