More iPhone SDK Hints? BBC iPlayer, Gameloft Games

Guardian.co.uk reports on BBC announcements about their iPlayer streaming television service, including usage stats. Amongst the announcements, however, is also the tidbit that the BBC will be launching their iPlayer service to be available on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices in "the next few weeks".

There are surprisingly few details about this iPhone version of the BBC's iPlayer. The BBC's iPlayer currently comes in two flavors: a web streaming version as well as a Windows-only downloadable version.

TheRegister.co.uk claims that this means that the BBC will be transcoding their shows from Flash into H.264 video just as Youtube has, and also claims the iPhone iPlayer will be Wi-Fi only and that the BBC has a deal with hotspot provider The Cloud to offer free access to bbc.co.uk and iPlayer. While the "next few week" timeframe corresponds to the scheduled release of the iPhone SDK, it's never explicitly stated that this version of the iPlayer will be a dedicated player. A DigitalSpy.co.uk article even notes that it is possible only "because of the devices' good web support", suggesting it may simply be a specially designed web portal.

Meanwhile, PocketGamer.co.uk posts photos from a Gameloft keynote speech in which an iPhone game is depicted. The image may simply be a mockup, however, rather than an actual peek at an upcoming iPhone game.