Qik takes cellphone video streaming service to public beta - iPhone Qik application still coming
Posted by Will (http://www.intomobile.com/about#Will) on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 6:33 pm under iPhone (http://www.intomobile.com/category/special/iphone), Mac OS (http://www.intomobile.com/category/platforms/mac-os), Windows Mobile (http://www.intomobile.com/category/platforms/windows-mobile), Services (http://www.intomobile.com/category/sections/services), Symbian (http://www.intomobile.com/category/platforms/symbian), Applications (http://www.intomobile.com/category/sections/applications), Announcements (http://www.intomobile.com/category/sections/announcements)
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For all you cellphone videographers looking to broadcast your oh-so-important daily lives' activities to the ether with that handy-dandy video camera you call a smartphone (http://www.intomobile.com/2008/07/21/qik-takes-cellphone-video-streaming-service-to-public-beta-iphone-qik-application-still-coming.html#), Qik has finally announced their highly anticipated public beta.
What, you didn't realize that smartphone of yours was a full-fledged wireless video camera capable of streaming live video to the web for all to see? Well, Qik will have you thinking otherwise with their almost real-time video streaming service.
The new public beta now offers compatibility with handsets like the Samsung Blackjack-II, Motorola Q, Samsung SHG-i600, and the Nokia N78. And, the beta service now offering Sprint and Verizon customers the same cellular video streaming capability that was previously only available to AT&T customers that managed to get in on the private beta program. Over 30 Windows Mobile and Symbian S60-powered handsets are supported now (find the full list here (http://qik.com/sign_up)).
Also new to the Qik public beta service are the ability to broadcast your videos in to pre-defined groups. The groups can be individually set to public, private, or restricted. And, with video streaming latency times pared down to the sub-second to 3-second range, Qik is easily the most "real-time" live video streaming service in the industry.
Most importantly, Qik is still working to bring a native version of their application to the Apple iPhone (http://www.intomobile.com/2008/06/12/vidcasting-on-iphone-qik-and-flixwagon-go-iphone-live-video-streaming-for-iphone-is-go.html). Regardless of whether or not Apple has seen fit to give the iPhone or iPhone 3G (http://www.intomobile.com/2008/07/21/qik-takes-cellphone-video-streaming-service-to-public-beta-iphone-qik-application-still-coming.html#) any video recording capabilities, Qik is pushing hard to get their iPhone application out the door. But, it'll be up to Apple's higher-ups to allow or deny the application from being offered through the AppStore. Qik's iPhone application is set to kick of alpha-stage testing next week.
Of course, the iPhone (http://www.intomobile.com/2008/07/21/qik-takes-cellphone-video-streaming-service-to-public-beta-iphone-qik-application-still-coming.html#) 3G and updated iPhones running iPhone 2.0 OS are already jailbroken (http://www.intomobile.com/2008/07/19/pwnage-tool-20-launched-newest-iphone-jailbreak-solution-for-iphone-and-iphone-3g.html) and working with freely available third-party applications, so we could see Qik circumventing any Apple-bans with an application available for jailbroken iPhones.