Tom Taylor linked to a fascinating BBC Radio 4 In Business programme about why it still matters where we live and work. It’s available for a couple of days still via iPlayer, but if like me you don’t want to be tied to a broadband connection in order to listen to it, you’re a bit stuck because In Business doesn’t have an associated podcast.
Stuck, that is, unless you’ve downloaded Paul Battley’s iPlayer Downloader. It’s a set of Ruby scripts that pretend to be an iPhone, and allows you to download the MP3 (for audio) and MP4 (for video) files which can then be shifted to an iPod for offline listening pleasure.
At first the Beeb seemed to want to get into an arms race to try and stop this, but lately they seemed to have given up. Which is excellent news, because it’s a great way of grabbing content for use on the move. Of course, it’s also a great way of grabbing content.
[UPDATED] As Jem says in the comments, there is a podcast feed for In Business (or more accurately, anything that Peter Day has been involved in.
And if you don’t fancy munging the command line and have a Mac, there’s a marvellous GUI client called iPlayer Grabber which allows you to download iPlayer content with a single click from the links on the BBC site itself. The only way it could be any better would be if the downloads could be dropped straight into iTunes for syncing with my iPhone, but that should get taken care of with an Applescript or two…
Hi Tim. Actually In Business does have a podcast. Its a mix of Peter Days programmes for Radio 4 and the World Service. And includes this particular show:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio/worldbiz/worldbiz_20090104-2130a.mp3
I hear that links/a promo for associated podcasts will start to be linked to these dynamically generated programme pages : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00g47qy
v.soon which might explain why its not immediately obvious. I agree that the user journey for it at the moment is a bit clumsy.