iPhone Users to Face TV License Fee

iPhone: App is the newest licensing stream for the BBC.

Owners of Apple's iPhone are bracing themselves for a big annual bill, after the BBC announced that they will be making their content available through an iPhone application, thus making the mobile phone eligible under TV Licensing laws.

From April, users of the iPhone will be able to access BBC audio and video using an App downloadable from the Apple App Store.

Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, BBC Director of Future Media and Technology Erik Huggers said, "BBC audiences want to access the digital services that they have paid for at a time and place that suits them, and the BBC App will make that possible.

"As the app has been developed due to the unique way the BBC is funded, it is only proper that the service be paid for using that same unique method. Therefore, as users will be able to access content for which they would pay a licence fee if on a television, users will from April be subject to the licence fee if they possess an iPhone."

SOurces at the TV Licensing Authority confirmed the new development and added that it would be aplicable to all UK iPhone users, whether or not the BBC Apps are installed. The spokesman said, "if you have a TV you have the capability to watch BBC programming, and are subject to the Licence Fee whether you do so or not. With the BBC App you now have the capability to watch BBC programming, so obviously the same applies."

BBC Director-General Mark Thompson was unavailable for comment, as he was busy relaxing in a hot-tub full of taxpayer's money.

EXCLUSIVE!: Apple iTablet Specs Leaked

Jobs: Officially launching iTablet later today.

Documents obtained exclusively by The Diary from Apple's Cupertino HQ, have cast light on the eagerly-awaited new product from the cult-like technology giant.

The tentatively-named iTablet has been Apple's most anticipated offering since the hugely-successful iPhone, and The Diary is exclusively able to offer the first definitive details and specifications of the product, to be officially announced later today.

We can reveal that the iTablet is a newly-designed pill for Apple fans, which will be available from Apple Stores worldwide and from all good pharmacists by Q2.

Containing a unique blend of MDMA, LSD, Ketamine and Jojoba oil, the iTablet has reportedly been personally tested by Apple supremo Steve Jobs. Insertion of the tablet in suppository form is reported to provide a number of positive effects including:

• Hallucinations of Apple OS X code in full, glorious psychedelic form;

• The ability to register one's brain with the iTunes Store by the power of thought alone;

• The recognition of Steve Jobs as a prophet and the architect of a Glorious iFuture;

• The irresistible desire to buy a black turtleneck. This will be addressed with the release of the iTop later this year;

• A consistent and irrational belief that Apple's product pronouncements are actually important in the larger scale of the real world.

The iTablet reportedly has the Apple logo on one side of its smooth, industrially-designed shell, and an image of Steve Jobs on the other, thus guaranteeing months of coverage in technical magazines about how amazing, far-thinking and incredibly advanced it is.

Apple's scientists have strongly denied rumours that the iTablet has addictive characteristics, with one member of the development team saying, "this is for marketing to fanboys. Come on, they'd buy a dog-turd from us if it had the Apple logo, it's hard to get any more addicted than they already are."