John Ham, the cofounder and CEO of live video streaming site Ustream, stopped by this afternoon to show me their newest stuff – a yet-to-be-released application that lets users watch live streams from the service on their iPhone. I took a brief video of the product and embedded it below, along with the more official video from Ustream.
The application will let users watch any Ustream channel, live, directly from their iPhone. And not only that, users will also see and be able to participate in the live chat around the video as well.
The timing on the application is near perfect with the Obama inauguration coming up on January 20. If you have the application installed you’ll be able to watch it live from anywhere, even if you aren’t in front of your TV or computer.
The world is changing before our eyes.
If you’d like to try out the application before it officially launches, we have a handful of invitations to give away. Just follow the directions below.
Instructions for preview:
1) Plug the iPhone into your computer
2) Wait for the iPhone info to appear in iTunes
3) click on the words “Serial Number” to cause it to change to “Identifier”
4) double-click the identifier number (the long string of characters) and then press cmd-C (Mac) or ctrl-C (Windows) to copy it
5) email that identifier to iphone@ustream.tv so we can build a custom version for that phone using the iPhone SDK









So is this only for mac users?
it’s only for iPhone users.
what about ipod touch users?
http://www.zenbylunch.com
should be fine.
James, you can gather your identifier the same way on a PC, just follow the instructions, and ctrl-c instead of cmd+c. It’s all in iTunes.
I NEED IT!
I don’t waste my time.
Worthless
Regards
Chris Martin
http://www.aboutonlinetips.com
You’re obviously a moron.
oh, and your website sucks.
It’s less worthless than iFart, let me tell ya…
Your an obvious, obnoxious SEO troll.
No need to connect your iPhone to your computer.
The App “Ad Hoc Helper” (available for free in the AppStore) will open a new email message with your UDID information in the body.
Mark -
Excellent tip! Many thanks.
- best
ustream iphone app coming soon…
… ustream business model coming later/tba.
I don’t have an iPhone, but I’d quite like a mashup with a Ustream (or similar) feed of the inauguration on one side and a live Twitter feed on the right. Kind of like the CNN Facebook app, but an order of magnitude more interesting.
I would rather watch paint dry.
Watching Obama is like watching paint dry. Hes full of fumes, and will need someone to cover it all up after a few years.
OMG! This is amazing!
Wow. Kickass.
Congrats Ustream- I can’t wait to get my hands on this.
OMG….Sweeet! this is the future….Ustream rocks
Michael is right about the future being here. The iphone alone is an amazing achievement, but being able to see anyone or anything, anywhere is even more amazing.
Mobile has developed so quickly. Can’t wait to get my hands on this….thanks for the news!!
Sue ~ KY
Obviously I’m biased, but this app is sweet. Period.
Yeah, it’s very cool App indeed.
You mean I can watch the puppies anywhere? This is freaking amazing!!
Great work UStream. You had a nice app before but this is a much bigger deal.
However, the Obama rally is something that I could find on TV and thus a sweet mobile Sling Player could do the same thing.
The question will be whether people will will want to watch traditional UStream content (Puppy Cam) on their mobile – not just the stuff they could find on TV. I think they will, especially with an app like this.
This means that you can watch the drunken exploits of the Tuesday Night Tanked Show, every Tuesday night at 9PM EST–ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD RIGHT IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND! (Burp)
who invited who. nice to see reality tv from the inner sanctum, need more. great app and cant wait to use it.
i just got an ipone over the weekend and for me so far the killer app is an internet connection.
Yesterday sprint launched NextMail Locator for direct connect gps services. there is an apex to all this anytime, anywhere innovation and it is here now.
PresidentLocator.com – 1st come, 1st serve.
who needs all this on a phone?!
http://www.cashcratescam.com
Great news for a Friday! Can’t wait to get the app
This isn’t yet an app. It’s a developer shamelessly abusing the Apple SDK and development process to extend an internal beta onto your individual phone.
Ustream and apps like it face serious challenges in getting approved by Apple, which routinely rejects apps that use “excessive” bandwidth. We know, it happened to us. We had to build a duplicate set of lower bitrate content just to get approved.
Sounds like some is jealous…
Jealous? No, not really. Just knee-jerk annoyed that Ustream (or Arrington) is failing to properly represent this “app”.
@Kevin – my company is a streaming music service. We were rejected by Apple with our default 64k endoded MP3’s, and built a duplicate 32k set for 3G streaming.
I can’t see video streamers getting approval unless they are WiFi only or already huge in the marketplace (e.g. Youtube or Hulu).
@Gresh – what company are you with?
@Gresh Have you seen the app? I suspect not, so I wouldn’t talk with such strong “authority”.
Sounds more like whining to me..
Someone that is!!!
Ustream could be useful. Right now I am using ORB to stream my recorded tv and live tv to my iphone and I am really loving it.
Wow. This is huge. Is it in the app store?
HA Witte
My brother and I have been listing various ways to watch the inauguration online at our website, lyvegyde (http://www.lyvegyde.com). We just added this to our list, but does anyone know when UStream’s coverage will actually start? Hopefully the iPhone “app” will work on inauguration day!
@HA Witte: Yes, OrbLive by Orb is in the App Store since November. Streaming Live TV is possible if you have a tuner in your Windows PC and, as a matter of fact, ALL your content is accessible: Videos (Webcams!), Photos, Music. All that over Edge, 3G or Wifi, where ever you are… The full App is $9.99, you can try their free version (OrbLive Free) that exposes only a minimum amount of content. http://lifehack...e-or-ipod-touch
Orb is more like a peer-to-peer it seems. Doesn’t do anything for webcasters. Can someone correct me if I’m wrong about this?
Orb is limited to Windows platform only – not very useful as such.
@Leon2Paris
Thanks for the Spam
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dailybail
I’m assuming this requires a jailbroken iPhone?
Some idiots on here. This is a huge development. Mike is right – the world is changing. Rock on, Ustream. Look forward to it.
This is just an attempt to get press – the app is not approved on the app store and the content is crap with Ustream.
Orb live will be streaming the inauguration on the iPhone !!! WOW what news.
Obamagasm GOOOOOOO. Excuse me while I clean up.
Pirillo loves it
http://www.yout...h?v=oSOkZbsmazQ
Very Cool!!! You have mail!
Chris Pirillo demos the app – http://www.yout...h?v=oSOkZbsmazQ
Given their track record, anyone who wants to watch the inauguration should watch it on TV.
Anyone who wants to spend a frustrating hour trying to get yet another Ustream offering to work and then find the quality piss poor, give it a go.
Nice.. another anonymous post from a hater
Why not post your email, name?
Wow, that is some pretty cool stuff dude!
http://www.Ulti...e-Anonymity.com
Live streaming of iphone video doesn’t require a client. Try with iphone/itouch over 3G or wifi:
http://research...ks.com/cnn.html
Username: wired
password: wiredpwb
email info@pixel8networks.com
Mmmm… All I’m getting in the player is a black screen with a CNN logo in the lower right hand corner.
iPhone 3G over Wifi.
Sorry, stream is off during the weekend. Will come back on during weekday as it mirrors the CNN live broadcast available for laptops.
Wow…really excited about the possibility of watching live soccer games streamed to my iPhone…for now.
Any details about maximum bitrate for this app over 3G?
It’s wifi only, EXCEPT that I have a fix posted here:
http://digg.com...l_3G_workaround
You can also follow the inauguration live on Twitter!!
http://twitter..../obamauguration
Yeah. I like to attend obama inauguration
http://randomtv.com/
So why would anyone want to watch that monkey get inaugurated? He will destroy this country if someone if allowed.
Good on ustream and Apple for getting it out by the innaug, but BlogTV has been rtsp://-ing for over 9 months, a couple of weeks ago Logitech Mobile Video (soon with chat), not to mention qik.com.
Technologically speaking, this is not new (and since Flash is not yet implemented on andyting that starts with the little ‘i’, obviously rtsp is being used here)
So the inauguration is one day away… unfortunately still no app in my inbox
I went through the whole process to get the app installed and it does n’t even work! What a waste of time.
But thanks to this post I tried Orb Live (approved on the App Store) and it works a charm. It is super easy to install. I will be watching the Inauguration on CNN on my iPhone now!
Thanks!
Watch Barack Obama’s Inauguration Live Streaming Online – January 20 – Inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden are due to be sworn in and deliver inauguration speeches next Tuesday in Washington, D.C. Catch Barack Obama Inauguration Day live at
http://www.iweb...ng-video-online
The app is up for download in App Store as I write this comment. I am all set for the inauguration during my class tomorrow! thank you apple, thank you ustream.
The app is available in the app store. I put it on my iphone. It works pretty good. I was kinda bummed to see only wifi.
I started a stream and saw myself on the iphone and was rotf lmao. It was sooo cool.
Mike is right, the future is now.
I use Ustream app in Japan. It amazing. Really future of internet and mobile.
Japan has more wifi than US. almost same as cell.
Anyone think of good use cases? I think I use for security camera or baby camera?
Maybe live sports?