The BBC's new iPlayer 2.0 public beta is now online at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayerbeta . The current iPlayer is, amazingly, almost a year old.

Rebuilt, although not completely redesigned, the new version introduces some new features and will be run alongside the current iPlayer software until 7 July 2008.

Take a look – the BBC actively invites your feedback.

Behind the scenes, the iPlayer 2.0 abandons the old static page architecture in favour of a dynamic page rendering engine. The BBC's head of digital media technology, Anthony Rose, believes that the new iPlayer platform "can provide a personalised TV and radio experience, can adapt itself to different display sizes – and a whole lot more".

BBC TV and radio combined

The first 'new' thing that you notice is the freshened-up layout. While the bold black and maroon colour scheme hasn't changed, the iPlayer homepage now showcases both TV and radio programmes.

Previously, the BBC's extensive radio content was only accessible via a sidebar option and a rudimentary pop-up box. It smacked of a bolt-on extra; a design afterthought.

The new site design gives the BBC's TV and radio equal weight. The top of the iPlayer homepage is dominated by two scrollable carousel components.

Click on the left or right edges of these content strips and you'll scroll through the TV and radio highlights. Loiter your mouse pointer over a TV or radio programme and it will display a small synopsis. Nice.

Below the two carousels, the new iPlayer site is split into a cluster of boxy modules. There's an at-a-glance view of yesterday's TV, bright quick-links to BBC radio channels, a most popular TV/radio list, plus selected BBC news and sports highlights.

A 'Last played' widget will remember the last 10 programmes you played (although not when I tried it today).

Larger screen for video playback

For catching up on BBC TV, the new iPlayer features a larger playback window – 640 pixels wide, an increase of 25 per cent from the previous 512 pixels. It obviously retains the full-screen option, although the experience is much like watching a VHS recording.

Below the video playback window, there's now a new 'more like this' display, which aims to show you programmes relevant to the one you're watching. There's also an automatic bookmarking feature.

So if you half-watch a programme online, the next time you log onto the iPlayer you can resume watching it from where you left off.