Qik, the video service that streams live feeds from your mobile phone, has finally launched its public beta. The site has also introduced a number of new features to the service, including support for restricted group access to videos, self-service event streams, and a new embeddable player.
The beta will support a wide variety of phones on AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint, including support for software on the Windows Mobile platform that began testing in June. Qik says that it will be continually adding new phones to the supported list, which you can view here.
The site has also implemented support for Groups, which allow users to select who can upload and view selected clips. Among the included privacy options are allowance for public groups, which anyone can post to, restricted groups, which allow anyone to view (but only select users to post), and a private view, which restricts viewing and uploading to a specified group of users.
Qik has also introduced support for special Event sites, which are essentially temporary groups that are focused on a single event or conference. In the past users who wanted to create specific event pages would have to go through the company itself. Now, users will be able to create self-serve pages with custom logos where they can aggregate all of the content from a single event.
We’ve been using Qik for the last few months, and for the most part we’ve been pleased with the video quality and the convenience that comes from having a portable video camera that can stream directly to the web (although there have been some troubles with upload speeds that are largely the fault of network carriers). There are a number of very similar services in the space, including Kyte and Flixwagon. You can see a general comparison of some of the services here.
It’ll be huge when they can get it on the 3g iPhone
Dear Tech Crunch,
Have seen some Twitter users make great use of Qik already @Pistachio] . This is a very interesting technology. Look forward to more use of Qik and others.
It will/should/has illuminated immense opportunity for individuals as well as for firms that support the users of this and other video technology.
What are your thoughts on the impact of these mobile technologies?
ATB,
David
This is good news, I’ve been using qik from sometime now on my Nokia N95 & I’m excited to see the progress qik has made in the last few weeks since it was compared to Kyte.tv here on TechCrunch. I think we’ll see even more growth and popularity with Qik once the iPhone application has been released too.
It’s been a busy week for the qik team, as they also announced a partnership with cover-it-live last week.
I’m a big fan of mobile video and live streaming, something qik does well. Now we’ll have to see how the community grows since they have open registration to the public.
You can find me on qik here: http://qik.com/waynesutton
At the Future of Media Summit last week Mark Pesce spoke about about using Qik for Live Events and how large numbers of video enabled phone users could transform the future of TV
http://futureex...television.html
http://en.wikip...wiki/Mark_Pesce
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If its out, then why do I keep getting a page that says they wil let me know when I can join?!?! Anyone else having trouble entering their cell and actually getting invited/let in?
I’m having the same problems w/ the iphone.
glad to see Qik moving along in their product roadmap. Quality of the video still needs improvement but in terms of getting your blog / web site updated with video content it is the fastest way possible.
(unhacked) iPhone, please.
I didnt even know about this it’s cool.
Congrats to the Qik team. They’ve been very responsive to any questions or feedback I’ve had during their beta phase. And they’re rolling out new features and upgrades that address some things that were needed (the Groups feature is a great addition).
I think the only drawbacks are when you’re not in a 3G area, or when you encounter user-fault FAIL, like when I did not turn off the video session properly when Qik interviewing Sarah Lacy on her ‘User Generated Book Tour’ stop in DC. http://www.qik....m/brickandclick
Maybe the ability to edit our Qik videos could be a next feature. Trim the beginnings and ends, so the first ’still’ you see would be a great one, and when you goof (DOH!), you could clip off two minutes of blank screen with audio still going.
Is this only available in th U.S.? I’m getting the coming soon message in Canada
Open to public? I registered like months ago?
Quality of the video still needs improvement but in terms of getting your blog / web site updated with video content it is the fastest way possible.