Alas a little bit too late for the main holiday season, but in time for the boring winter commutes the BBC iPlayer has released a major update to the BBC iPlayer. This latest update allows catch-up TV viewers to download shows they want to watch to the mobile device, and then play them at leisure, rather then being restricted to streaming which requires a constant Internet connection. At present only iOS devices such as iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad are supported, but support for Android is on its way also.
The cached content will be available for 30 days, before self-destructing, and once playback has started will be available for 7 days (online video rental stores would do well to note this longer availability period). The downloads are not restricted to a single programme, so you can in theory pre-download enough content to keep you occupied on a long flight, or when abroad on holiday.
For those with slower broadband services, the option to download before playback will also be welcome, as people will be able to download the higher quality versions and avoid the annoyance of buffering during playback.
what about those using windows/laptops? would be nice to have this when away from home, rather than restricted to smartphone-only solutions