When we launched on May 27th, there were obviously a few items that did not make the release, so in the weeks following, we considered your suggestions and our 'to do list' and now have updated the site this week to further improve the iPlayer tablet experience.

You will now find, that, in addition to great quality on-demand TV and Radio catchup, you can now also enjoy the following:

Live World Cup Streaming

All the World Cup matches shown on BBC One, BBC Three, and BBC Red Button are now available for LIVE streaming on the iPad. When you navigate to the match listing from the World Cup link on the homepage you will see the next 6 upcoming matches.

The streams are available at both 400kbps and 800kbps. When you start watching it will start at 400kbps, and will then within 10 seconds go to 800kbps if your bandwidth permits.

Subtitles for ondemand content

As part of the work we did using the HTML5 video tag, we have also been able to include coloured subtitles. For any program where there are subtitles available, there will be an "S" shown in the player. Select this to turn on the subtitles.

This is the first BBC on-demand offering that includes coloured subtitles, where the colours change as different people speak. See more on this in Jonathan Hassell's accessibility blog (coming soon - ed).

Back button

The iPlayer Bigscreen site you see on the iPad was built mainly for TVs and set top boxes, where Back navigation is done using a back button on the remote control. On a tablet this requires an onscreen navigation option, especially if you are running iPlayer with the chrome hidden. We had this on our backlog, but it did not make the initial release. As your feedback also clearly stated a desire for this, we have now added this in the footer, conveniently placed for a left thumb operation.

Tips

One of the most tweeted about question since the launch has been how to hide the browser chrome. As many of you are aware of, this is done by saving a shortcut to www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bigscreen on the Home Screen and launching iPlayer from it. To ensure everyone can run iPlayer this way, we have added a Tips section in the footer. This will also include additional tips, and it will flag to you when there are new, unread tips added.

Things to come...

So, in relation to things to come, we have a few additional items still in the pipeline, such as the fact that the user interface still does not use the full screen (this requires some very interesting workarounds ) but, we're working on it... and we are also developing further improvements for the video player.

So stay tuned, and keep the comments coming.

Morten Eidal is Development Manager, FM&T.

This has led in turn to questions about whether we're going to support Adobe or Apple. But we don't back any one technical horse. We care about making our services available as widely as possible: for our audiences.

In the past we have optimised iPlayer to work on a range of devices, and the iPad (exciting as it is) is just another device we are adding to the ever growing iPlayer device portfolio.

The iPlayer site you are seeing on the iPad is what we call the iPlayer Bigscreen site where a small team build browser based applications to deliver content. The same iPlayer destination being used for iPad also works for PS3, Sony BluDisc players, Cello TVs, and in the near future, multiple other browser based CE devices.

So, back to the iPad.  How did it all come together?

Well, when the FM&T division looked at the functionality of the iPad we saw that there were two key aspects that we needed to consider: suitability of the app to touch screen and (critically) high quality video delivery.  In this particular case, the Bigscreen site was decided as the best solution. It had already been in use for quite some time, so as a core solution it was easy to see that it was a good starting point.

Just four short weeks ago, the project kicked off with the Bigscreen team.

Knowing where we wanted to be by the time iPad was to be released in the UK, the main challenges Bigscreen faced were not only how to overcome the technical difficulties (e.g. optimising a site built for pointer or remote control driven navigation to iPad, utilising gestures and touch style navigation) but also how to deliver it very, very quickly with a team that contained just 2 developers.

So, we concentrated immediately on creating a continuous rapid delivery process which could turnaround the most business value in the shortest period of time.  Drawing from the Agile Manifesto, Lean concepts and a Kanban inspired framework, we developed a variation of a daily board which tracked dependencies, tasks and features in real time.  Instead of a daily standup, we had four very short status updates per day where rapid prioritisation and block removal was agreed and actioned according to the aims of delivery for that day, which then was tied directly into the aims for each week and realistically connected the team to the overall goal.

Luckily, this gave us rapid, real time agility that allowed us to quickly produce results and feedback continuously, working around and within limited technologies - discovering quickly what worked and what didn't and guiding us to realistic, useful solutions.

Within this process framework, the technical implementation initially progressed well. For example, the iPad gestures came together quite easily; however the playback solution was much more complicated and required changes in several backend systems.

We decided that the best route to implement our video and audio player was playback using the html5 video tag. This allows us to integrate the native player into our site, where we serve two H.264 flavours, one 1500kbps for the high quality video (default), and a lower 800kbps you can use if you are bandwidth constrained.

In any case, the result is the Beta version you can see right now - we really hope you like it - delivered by a small team of 5 within just 4 weeks and with the generous support of our FM&T colleagues despite being already busy with the UK election, iPlayer V3, and now the World Cup.

And don't forget, soon we will embark on incorporating the iPlayer V3 features for Bigscreen.

But that is chapter two.

Morten Eidal is Development Manager, FM&T.

Over this time I have seen the project evolve from the first iPlayer release with TV downloads in December 2006, through 2007 with new interface designs and TV streaming, and this year topping it all with the iPlayer version 2 website, Network Radio, iPhone support, live simulcast TV, local radio, Welsh & Gaelic sites, just to mention a few.

And now we are heading to the last month of 2008 with a great promise of a new download manager for all computer platforms. What a fantastic year it has been. So, how do we top this in 2009? Have we not done all we can you might wonder? Well, - you wait and see...

Since I joined the iPlayer project, the single biggest impact on this project has been the arrival of Anthony Rose in September of 2007. After his arrival, there has been no lack of direction and priorities, and the product has taken a major leap forward. The fact that he also wants most of his new features delivered "tomorrow" is however a different matter...

In the early days of iPlayer we were building several key components from scratch, and our release cycles reflected this. 6+ months per release was common. As we now have en established system, we can ship with greater frequency - and we do!

We aim to get a release out the door every two weeks, so we can provide our ever-growing number of iPlayer users with newer and better ways of consuming our content. This means at anyone point in time we have three releases on the go, one being tested and prepped for release, the next one being developed, and the next one after that being planned. In other words, we like to keep busy!

As an iPlayer user, you only see the website and all the great BBC content we serve.

Behind the scenes there is however much more going on. There are upwards of 10 teams being involved in delivering the iPlayer and my main responsibility is to ensure our releases ship on time, and all the planned features are delivered. This requires that all these teams work towards a common goal, and that the right priorities are being followed. Ultimately, this becomes an exercise in getting people to work together. Technology does not deliver by itself, - people do.

To me personally, working on the iPlayer is the most exciting job of my career, both professionally and personally. How often do you find yourselves in a position where you can contribute to changing the publics viewing and listening habits? Letting them take control over their own spare time and at the same time be able to watch and listen to what they want when they want? That's what the iPlayer is about to me.

Morten Eidal is iPlayer Delivery Manager, BBC Future Media & Technology.