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Qik from Qik Inc. is a video application previously only available on jailbroken iPhones. On Thursday, however, Apple made the application available for free in the iTunes App Store for the iPhone 3GS only.
What's different between Qik and Apple's Camera app? Qik lets you capture moments in video to share with family, friends, or the whole world. Unlike the Apple Camera app, which shares via e-mail, MMS, MobileMe, and YouTube, Qik shares video using e-mail, SMS, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, as well as Web sites and your favorite blogging platforms, including Blogger, Tumblr, and Wordpress. Feel like being social? You can post your videos to MySpace and Digg.
(Credit:
Qik, Inc.)
There is one big gotcha, however. Qik can't stream live video (which it was originally designed to do), and it only uploads video over a Wi-Fi connection--interesting, since the free Ustream 3GS recording app can upload videos on either a Wi-Fi or 3G connection. (The lack of video streaming in both apps is a limitation imposed on the them by Apple.)
If you record video and don't have immediate access to Wi-Fi, Qik will automatically upload your video once you are connected to Wi-Fi again. If you are connected when you shoot, your video will immediately upload after you stop recording.
(Credit:
David Martin)
Qik also allows you to shoot video in portrait or landscape modes, just like Apple's Camera app. Recorded videos can also take advantage of the iPhone GPS by automatically including location information in your recorded videos.
Update, August 22, 2009 at 9:29 a.m. Pacific: The latest version of Qik that we found in our updates in iTunes today removes the Wi-Fi only restriction for video upload. You may now use 3G and Wi-Fi for video uploading.
Article updated 8/5/09 at 3:00 pm PT to clarify Qik's YouTube uploading capabilties.
Qik brings simple post-production to Android.
(Credit: Qik)It's been about a month since Qik for Android became available on the Android Market as an open alpha version. Since then, Qik has been feverishly updating its video streaming and broadcasting app. Starting Wednesday, Qik for Android (version 0.1.3) lets you trim captured videos and more speedily share them with friends, or post them to social networks.
Qik's editing mechanism comes in the form of a slider tool. It's not immediately clear how to get to this point. You'll need to film in offline mode for a start, then post-filming, tap on the "review" thumbnail to pull up the playback screen. From there, you press the "trim" button to see the tool. Though you can shave off each end by tapping endpoints and dragging them along the timeline, editing is not advanced enough at this point to support splitting. Once you reinstitute online mode, Qik will automatically shoot the edited footage up to your online account.
In addition to basic editing comes sharing. Qik's settings now contain a sign-up dialog for entering Facebook or Twitter credentials. (There's also a YouTube set-up, but that refers to a preference you'll need to spell out online; Qik for Android can't currently upload individual videos on a select basis to YouTube.com from the Android phone the way you can from Qik on other mobile platforms.) A fourth setting, shortcuts, lets you add people from your phone's address book to a new sharing ribbon on the bottom of the app. Along with the icons for your social networks, this area serves as a kind of speed dial for alerting friends about your video broadcast via e-mail or SMS. Clicking on a social network will upload the video file to Facebook and YouTube, and will send the Qik link to your Twitter feed. New settings make it possible to enter a default tweet from the phone, and to program the app to automatically upload all videos to Facebook. Better keep it clean.
Even with the sharing bar, Qik still boasts an uncluttered interface. There's plenty of room to grow to give users total control about the video capturing and creating experience, but these two features are significant steps forward.
Qik for Android alpha is freely available from the Android Market, but be aware that you may encounter bugs and other instability issues during your evaluation.
Updated on 11/20/08 to correct details about Qik's social uploads.
Last week I learned of mobile video-broadcasting application Bambuser. Since then, I've compared it side-by-side with its direct competitor, Qik. The similarities between the two are more than skin deep: both turn the cell phone's camera into a live recorder and stream the video online, both allow viewers to chat with the videographer by flashing the message on the screen, and both are currently in development mode. They also both let you integrate with Twitter, Pownce, and a variety of other social networks.
While Qik, in beta, comes out the clear winner in interface, features, privacy, and performance, Bambuser, in alpha, offers two reasons to keep paying attention: geotagging and support for Web cams.
Qik on BlackBerry.
(Credit: Qik)Qik is more sophisticated application overall, but Bambuser can automatically geotag videos from Symbian phones or manually place you on a map online if you're using Windows Mobile.
In addition to harnessing the phone's camera, Bambuser can also configure your Web cam to stream your video live if your subject or stage is stationary--a litter of puppies, for instance, or your own face.
Qik has the better product and handset reach, but it could stand to learn from Bambuser's flexibility. They could both work on expanding their mobile applications to make it easier to publish videos to a variety of outside sources (like Facebook, the elephant in the room), and to add greater context both before and after streaming the video. I'm thinking of something along the lines of Juicecaster's rich photo- and video-sharing service, which wouldn't stray from the livecasting that makes these apps so ripe for generating instant newscasts and fly-on-the-wall videos.
Want to try Bambuser or Qik for yourself? Check your phone's compatibility here with Qik or Bambuser.
If Bambuser's mobile live broadcasting app sounds familiar, it's because it's trying to unseat Qik.
As one of the companies presenting at Wednesday's Under the Radar conference in Mountain View, CA, Bambuser is trying to convince investors and future partners to propel their business forward. Like Qik, Bambuser broadcasts the contents of your view finder from your mobile phone, which viewers can watch live online. Also like Qik, Bambuser viewers can chat with the filmmaker when the video is live. However, Bambuser throws in recording and geotagging from the Webcam in addition to the phone.
As an extra touch, you can set it to update Twitter, Pownce, and Jaiku when you begin a new broadcast. That makes Bambuser more feature-rich, but it has an uphill battle to unseat the rival favored by tech blogger elite Robert Scoble.
Bambuser is in public alpha mode for Symbian and Windows Mobile phones, where Qik is strongest. You can look for your model here and get started with your broadcasts.
BlackBerry users feeling left out can start video streams from Qik.
(Credit:
Qik)
California mobile video company Qik on Sunday announced the alpha release of version 1.0 of Qik for BlackBerry. The free, downloadable application (covered here and demoed here) lets cell phone filmmakers stream video live from their mobile phone to Qik.com, social networks like MySpace, Orkut, and Facebook, and to any personal blog.
When you're done filming, Qik also plays a post-production role by auto-publishing the recorded video stream to YouTube or Seismic. You can opt out by turning the feature off before or during the stream.
At the outset, Qik's alpha download will only be available for the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 and 8130, and for the BlackBerry Bold. Qik plans to follow up with support for the BlackBerry Pearl Flip and the Curve.
Initially, one of Qik's signature features will be absent from all BlackBerry models: the ability for viewers watching real-time videos to interact via instant messages. Qik tells us that the live chat feature is running into a "text and camera app issue." In Qik, the incoming instant message lays over the video, something that's not built in to the BlackBerry platform.
Qik's inclusion of the BlackBerry platform brings the company's mobile presence up to six major phone manufacturers, including the iPhone, many HTC models running Windows Mobile, and Symbian-revved Nokia handsets. The complete list of cell phone models that Qik's live streaming video application supports can be found here.
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