Qik, a startup that allows you to stream live video to the web directly from your phone, has launched support for RIM’s incredibly popular Blackberry platform. The software is currently available in an alpha state (so don’t be surprised if you encounter bugs), and includes support for the Blackberry Bold and Pearl (other phones, like the Flip and Curve, will be available in a later release that the company expects soon).
This brings Qik to a much broader platform, and also helps cement Qik’s lead in terms of device support well ahead of competitors Kyte and Flixwagon, neither of which support Blackberry. However, Qik will have another competitor on the Blackberry platform: today’s news comes hot on the heels (and may have been prompted by) the launch last week of Next2Friends, the first streaming video application that supported Blackberries.
Two weeks ago Qik also launched alpha support for the J2ME platform, which is found on a wide variety of phones.
Unfortunately there’s still no word on when Qik will finally makes its way to the iPhone (it runs well under jailbroken phones, but isn’t yet available through the app store). At this point this isn’t because of technical difficulties (Qik has a version working for distribution through the iPhone’s ad-hoc beta service) – it’s a question of whether Apple will allow the app on its store. There haven’t yet been any applications that support video using the iPhone’s built-in camera, but it’s unclear if Apple has a broad ban on such apps or if it simply hasn’t come across any video applications that passed muster.
It’s about time!
Wonderful!:) Thanks for highlighting this
I’ll have a video with the Qik team up later tonight that will demo the Blackberry app and you’ll get to meet the developer behind it.
Play me too with QIK- Should of been first!
Great stuff! So, where is the video hosted? Is it on sites such as Yahoo! live or Qik’s portal?
It’s on Qik’s portal (you’re given a user account that you can manage to set each video’s privacy). You can also embed each video wherever you’d like.
“it’s unclear if Apple has a broad ban on such apps or if it simply hasn’t come across any video applications that passed muster.”
Just want to point out that, as co-founder Bhaskar noted on our blog last week, we’ve yet to submit Qik to Apple for App Store approval.
Thanks! The real scenario is consumer via phones such as iPhone. Given Apple’s recalcitrance on including video apps, its not surprising that they will hinder inclusion into their app store. They need to really to be more inclusive or some other platform will eat their lunch …
{seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/9C9war0h98_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:” ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/H1veakUEQu”}}}
Unfortunately the Bold doesn’t come standard with an SD card. Yet another disappointing aspect to an insanely expensive phone with huge potential but very limited use so far. (Not a comment on Qik but worth mentioning).
Go Qik! We’ve been to the Qik offices this summer to record a Smibs.tv episode. The guys are really nice. I wish them the best of luck – especially with getting on the app store. I want qik on my iPhone but don’t want to jailbreak.
This is amazing. Surely gonna use this on my Blackberry!
My video of the Qik team that built the Blackberry app is up: http://scobleiz...for-live-video/
Sadly for us living in slow edge world , video streaming from mobile is still a dream
http://www.confiz.com
your offshore development partner
Good post
Well done, Qik.
When it come to China?
try Flixwagon or Next2Friends- they already have support in China along with lots of users.
We do have support for China and have users there using the service. As an example check: http://qik.com/charlesfrith
Great news QIK is finally getting the BB out , but this really is too slow for a company that claim to be a true innovator. How come Next2Friends got there first?
I really like QIK but they have to keep their eye on the ball- the botched app store announcement was really a mess!
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While at Mobile Internet World in Boston last week (#miw was the Twitter hash tag), I tweeted about the meeting with Rich Miner and Developer Advocate Justin Mattson.
The result of that meeting and my short talk with Justin was that he didn’t even know what Qik was and therefore couldn’t say if or when it would be on the G-1.
Here’s that tweet from Oct. 23…
Asked about Qik for the Gphone and was told by Justin Mattson (devel advocate Google) the he wasn’t familiar with Qik. WOW!! #miw Boston.
You can follow me on Twitter @jeffcutler – I’ll be covering CES 09 in Vegas and hope to delve more into mobile apps for all devices.
**Lastly, I use Qik on my jailbroken iPhone. It’s cool but takes FOREVER to buffer as I’m usually using it on Edge.
I love qik! I’ve never been a fan of kyte or flixwagon and with a name like next2friends, can’t say I’m too enthused to even try it out.
Yeah, I’m with you on the name, but I gotta say, I tried Qik, it completely bombed for me, I saw some people mentioning Next2Friends, I tried it and it worked from the get go. Whatever you want to call it, it just worked. So I’m over the name thing.
I think Qik messed this one up. Check out this string of comments from their blog:
http://qik.com/...kberry#comments
Clearly they weren’t ready for prime time.
Just a note, I am happily streaming from my BlackBerry with Next2Friends, no problems, smooth as butter.
I’m a bit disappointed with Qik as of late, first the stupid NON-announcement of them coming to the iPhone, now this. Get it together guys!
What about bambuser?
I tested it… Seems it’s just an upload.
All of my Qik videos here:
http://qik.com/socialjulio
are with a G1, not jailbroken iPhone.
I guess the trafficult is the problem…Video Streaming will eat lots of trafficult.
Qik is a good live vdeo streaming app, I have used it for a long time. it works well
Think I can switch to Blackberry indeed !
Wonderful stuffs…
Cheers !
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