The BBC Internet blog reveals the UK version of the iOS iPlayer app now supports 3G and AirPlay.

The app is compatible with Apple AirPlay. If you are running iOS5, you can connect your iPhone or iPod touch to Apple TV and watch your favourite programme on your television.

This also works with the iPad. However, the app uses its own player rather than the default iOS one, and so this means you don’t get an in-app control for toggling AirPlay and firing BBC content at your Apple TV. So here’s a handy cut-out-and-keep* guide for getting AirPlay running using the iPlayer app:

1. Launch BBC iPlayer app;
2. Double-click your home button to bring up the multitasking tray;
3. Swipe this to the right, which should reveal playback controls—on the iPhone, you’ll need to do this a second time, to see the AirPlay button;
4. Tap the AirPlay button (a rectangle with a triangle pointing upwards) and select your desired output device;
5. Play your video.

Kudos to the BBC for finally getting AirPlay working in the UK iPlayer app (it’s been in the non-UK one for a while); here’s hoping that a future update makes activating AirPlay a little easier. Also, here’s hoping the BBC’s rivals realise that they, too, can offer AirPlay—it’s a bit odd that ITV, C4 and LoveFilm are all currently avoiding the tech like it’s a bad smell.

* Assuming you print it. Or chop up your display with really sharp scissors, you nutcase.

Angry Chickens is blasting its way to the top of the App Store charts, proving once again that one path to iOS gaming riches is:

• Create run-of-the-mill game with plenty of pay-off
• Include birds
• Make birds cute
• Polish game until it squeaks

Whether or not you bother with the fourth of those will depend on whether you want your game to be dismissed immediately or bob about in the charts for months.

But Angry Chickens has drawn ire, because it’s such a rip-off of Angry Birds, except, you know, it isn’t. Yes, it involves irritating cartoon birds and also has a title quite clearly designed to confuse people. And, yes, it has physics-oriented destruction-based gameplay. But Angry Chickens is actually a rip-off of Siege Hero, which is a 3D version of Angry Birds, which is a clone of Crush the Castle, an artillery game by the Siege Hero guys, which itself is effectively an online (now also iOS) and advanced take on ancient Apple II game Artillery, which was probably based on a BASIC game also called Artillery.

Clear?

The entire Mac press is all excited about a new Apple product that hasn’t been revealed by Apple, but has been sneakily unveiled by unnamed sources talking to a publication with a poor track record regarding Apple rumours.

Apple will launch their new Apple TV in time for the last quarter of 2012, with sources in Japan telling SmartHouse that 3 sizes are being planned including a 32″ model and a 55″ model.

That of course makes perfect sense, given that Apple makes a 3.5-inch, 4-inch and 5-inch iPhone, along with a 7-inch, 10-inch and 13-inch iPad, right? Oh. And, as Adam Banks noted on Twitter:

Yeah, and how Apple, a computer company, makes only one computer monitor, but obviously would make 3 TVs

Also, Apple loves entering markets with slow device turnover and that scrap it out in price wars, as evidenced by the _____, _____ and ______. Therefore, like the aforelinked publication, I have no doubt whatsoever that Apple will next year offer the iTV in small unicorn, medium unicorn and MEGA UNICORN sizes, for three times the price of a competing TV, kick UK broadcaster ITV in the face, and not, in fact, continue sneakily working its way into the living room through revisions to the existing Apple TV and iCloud (as an affordable but surprisingly powerful media hub, games console, and rental service), because that would be a totally stupid suggestion.

UNICORNS ALL THE WAY!

ZDNet, reporting on how Apple argues Samsung could avoid infringing on its iPad and iPhone designs:

Samsung could avoid infringing on its iPhone designs by not making rectangular phones; not putting the screen on the front of the phone; adding “substantial adornment” to the fronts of their phones; and not having bezels around the screen.

Apple’s suggestions for a non-infringing tablet include, again, a non-rectangular shape, front surfaces that are not flat and that have substantial adornment; avoiding making the tablet thin; using thick rather than thin frames around the screen; and introducing a “cluttered appearance”.

Sounds an awful lot like “maybe you should make the same kind of shit you were creating before you decided to rip off our products, assholes”.

I know I’m not in the majority on this, but I still believe Apple has a point. Its suggestions are ridiculous, but if the iPad and iPhone designs are so obvious, why did no-one bring one to market before Apple did?

It’s also worth noting that Samsung in particular appears to be bearing the brunt of Apple’s anger. Perhaps, as The Verge showcased earlier this year, that’s in part down to Samsung also:

• Ripping off Apple’s packaging
• Ripping off Apple’s device photography and positioning
• Ripping off a bunch of Apple’s iOS icons

In the long run, I’ll be amazed if Apple wins anything. I suspect lawsuits will continue to be flung in every direction and end in a flurry of cross-licensing and bile. I also suspect Apple’s design is so simple and now so ubiquitous that courts will end up siding with rivals that there isn’t any other way these kinds of devices can look and still be workable. But, as noted, this doesn’t really let Samsung off the hook, because it’s gone further than any other company, crossing that line from inspiration to plagiarism.

Hat tip: David Meyer.

A chunk of the internet growled at Apple yesterday over its Siri feature being ‘anti-abortion’, and I suggested it was probably not intentional. Sure enough, Apple has now responded, and it’s confirmed that this issue is a “glitch”:

Our customers want to use Siri to find out all types of information, and while it can find a lot, it doesn’t always find what you want. These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone. It simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better, and we will in the coming weeks.

I can’t say I’m surprised by this, but I will happily admit I’m glad.