The first off the bat is the mobile video broadcasting service Qik, who will later tonight be announcing beta support for the increased resolution. Not only is Qik the first to reach such the new resolution on the Droid, but they’re also proudly claiming to be the first of all the mobile streaming services (amongst competitors such as Ustream, Kyte, and Flixwagon) to support such a high resolution in general.

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Alongside the new API, Qik is also allowing select mobile phones to stream live video directly from the web (previously you’ve been restricted to watching archived clips from mobile devices). Unfortunately the iPhone doesn’t support live mobile viewing at this point (you can still only watch archived clips), but Qik will be supporting Nokia and Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphones. This is especially cool because you’ll be able to receive immediate push notifications on supported phones, and immediately jump into the phone’s mobile browser to start watching the video.

You can see an example of what the API can do here, which shows a list of the latest Qik videos being posted on Qik, updated in real-time. Qik is also releasing an open-source Adobe AIR app that will offer similar functionality. Developers that are interested in joining the private beta can request access by contacting api@qik.com.

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Camtweet looks kind of like what the various photo and video sharing sites that are tied to Twitter currently look like, except it has a big live video box in the center. Below that is the place where you chat to others who are watching in your Camtweet (or Justin.tv — the videos will reside on both) room. And these messages are tweeted out with a link to bring people back to the room. Then when they login with their Twitter credentials and chat with you on the page, their messages are tweeted out too.

The interface is dead simple, and it seems like a good idea if Justin.tv can get some big name Twitter users to use it. We’ll start seeing tweets flying around with links back to hot Camtweet live video chats, which some users may not like, but should mean huge traffic for Camtweet.

The closest thing to this so far has been Qik which does live video from mobile devices and can easily be set up to auto-tweet out when recordings start. The difference is that first of all this is meant for live video from the desktop, not a mobile device, and second, is the aforementioned huge potential for streams to go viral since chat is run through Twitter (with links back to Camtweet) as well. And Qik is being slightly held back by the fact that Apple and/or AT&T will not allow its app (or any other app the sends out live video from the iPhone) into the App Store.

As I mentioned, all of this video will also reside back on Justin.tv’s main site, where it will be archived as well.

Here’s a video of the demo of Camtweet from the Real-Time Stream Event:

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So how does the iPhone 3GS version of Qik compare to the one that worked on the iPhone 3G? Overall, video quality-wise, I would say the iPhone 3GS version of Qik and the iPhone 3G version look about the same. This is despite the 3GS having a nicer camera (3.2 megapixels versus 2). And even though the iPhone 3G didn’t have video camera capabilities, Qik was able to build its own encoders to use the regular camera for video capture. The iPhone 3GS of course, can do video, and it has APIs that give developers access to it. But it would seem that Qik is still limiting the quality of the video that gets streamed, to ensure better live performance.

But where the new version of Qik shines is when you get in close to something. That’s because it uses the new camera’s auto-focus feature to maintain quality up close (check out the third video below). This is a very welcome feature.

The entire app itself seems to run faster as well, no doubt thanks to the iPhone 3GS being a much faster device than the iPhone 3G was. And it can do a few other neat tricks, such as shut the camera down when Qik is open but you haven’t been streaming anything for a while (you simply tap the screen to activate it again). Another curious option appears to suggest that you can allow the app to run in the background (when the Qik app is closed). I tried that out, but couldn’t get it to work. Perhaps that feature is coming later to take advantage of the fact that Qik cannot put this app in the App Store, so it doesn’t have to play by the App Store’s rules.

The iPhone 3GS does get pretty hot when live streaming, but it did while streaming from the iPhone 3G as well, in my experience.

The bottom line is that Apple/AT&T need to allow these live-streaming apps in the store eventually. Video is the killer feature of the iPhone 3GS and live video is a key part of the market. Though I don’t think you’ll hear too many people complaining for the time being because uploads to YouTube, and using the new Kyte app are so fast (and better quality), but eventually, live video streaming from the device will be demanded.

Qik also recently released a version of its app that will work on the older iPhone 3G with the new 3.0 software that is jailbroken.

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We’re not quite clear on all of the details yet, but an early Alpha version of Qik’s Android application has become available.

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With all of the collaboration going on between Qik and Nokia over the past few months, it seemed like it wouldn’t be too long before Nokia went ahead and put the live mobile video broadcasting service onto handsets right out of the box. Sure, enough: Beginning with this morning’s release of the North American N97, Qik will come preloaded onto all Nokia S60-based phones.

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Many of these services have turned to outside networks to get the word out, enabling users to automatically share their content out to their already established circle of friends. Just recently, for example, both Qik and FlixWagon added support for Nokia’s Share on Ovi service. That’s all well and good for reaching the geek crowds – but what about everyone else?

This evening, Qik is announcing that they are the first to roll out Facebook Connect support, which could potentially introduce the concept to a massive new group of people.

As they’re leveraging Facebook Connect, they’re able to post videos directly to your video collection or wall without requiring the user to install additional Facebook apps. It’s as simple as could be for the user looking to share, but not without its faults: due to a limitation of the Facebook Connect API, videos can’t be streamed live directly onto Facebook, only posted after the fact. As an alternative, however, users can opt to publish a status update which links directly to their live video whenever they’re streaming.

The update is being rolled out immediately. As it’s a user profile setting, no updates are needed to the handset software. To get things going, users just log into Qik, pop into the “Edit Networks” screen, and authorize Qik as you would any Facebook Connect service.

Over time, however, all handsets will see updates which improve upon the new functionality. Available immediately is an update for non-touch Windows Mobile smartphones which allows users to pick-and-choose which videos they want pushed to Facebook. On other handsets, for the time being, Facebook will be updated with all Qik videos set as “public”.

This is a huge move for Qik and, as I’d imagine that all of the competition is already hard at work at rolling in Facebook Connect support as well, a huge move for the concept as a whole. Facebook is amongst a small handful of social networks that have really breached the main stream. Integrate a product properly, and you’ll be pitching your wares to one of the few online audiences that isn’t almost entirely geeks.

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We’re here at Qik’s office in Redwood City, California, where Qik is holding a special event to make a new product announcement. Mary Coughlan, the deputy Prime Minister of Ireland, is here to make the announcement.

Qik is announcing a long term partnership with Pat Phelan’s company Cubic Telecom to create QikRoam. QikRoam is a special SIM card you can order today from the QikRoam website that allows users to travel abroad using Qik without having to worry about excessive roaming charges. The card supports 134 countries worldwide, and advertises 60-80% savings on roaming and data charges through deals Cubic Telecom has forged with many partners worldwide.

While this is a good deal for users that have to stream video, it can still turn expensive fast. Depending on where you are, you can expect to spend $100 in QikRoam credit to upload 45 minutes of video. Of course, uploading the same amount of data would be many times more expensive using standard roaming plans.

QikRoam will have two packages available. One is $34 dollars which includes $20 of calling credit, the other is $67.50, which includes $54 in calling credit. The service uses a white-labeled version of Cubic Telecom’s MAXRoam product (which we’ve covered before), so you can use them interchangeably.

In honor of the new product, Qik is holding a special promo: for users who buy Qik Roam cards in the next month, Qik is going to choose a random winner who will get a paid trip to Ireland.

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Live video startup Ustream is making a big push into mobile. Today it is launching a mobile business division, as well as a new set of mobile video broadcasting apps (which can be found here, after login). Right now, the apps work on a wide variety of Nokia phones, including the N95, and on the iPhone, but only jailbroken ones. Alas, the company is still waiting for approval from Apple to release the app through iTunes. Meanwhile, its view-only iPhone app for watching live video streams is approaching one million downloads.

The broadcasting app, however, is what we are excited about. It includes integrated chat, audience polling, and GPS mapping. The polling lets broadcasters ask their audience what they want to see or what actions they should take in a live broadcast situation. Another key feature: mobile video broadcasters can send out a message via Twitter or Facebook to their audience to tell them when they are about to start streaming live. (See video below). Under the hood, Ustream has developed its own low-latency streaming technology which reduces the amount of transcoding that needs to be done on the server as well as the amount of buffering that needs to be done on the phone.

Ustream wants to bring its large audience for live streaming videos on the Web (it claims 15 million monthly uniques across both its site and embedded players) over to mobile phones. In the mobile video streaming race, it is fighting for position with Qik and Kyte (their official iPhone apps don’t allow for broadcasting yet either, although Qik has one for jailbroken iPhones). But this is a battle for the hearts and minds of tomorrows mobile video streamers. Taking a page from Kyte, Ustream is getting celebrities and rappers like Lil Wayne to broadcast using Ustream.

Below is a promo video showing UStream’s new mobile app on an iPhone:

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The video is actually just of his wife’s head and part of the surgery room. It doesn’t show any of the actual surgery or even the baby. You can find the video on Qik here, but here’s the embedded clip:

Leaving aside the fact that Branch ignored the advice of the attending nurse, who asked him to turn it off (many hospitals prohibit any video taping in surgery rooms for malpractice reasons), doesn’t this make you cringe just a little bit? There’s no question that everyone has the right to determine how far he or she wants to go in sharing their private lives on the internet, but I imagine a lot of people will deem live streaming a child’s birth inappropriate. Are there no private moments left anymore?

Personally, I think the video doesn’t cross a line at all, although I can hardly think of anything more private and intimate than a child’s birth that could be streamed on the web. That said, thanks to Allan, who is a Rails developer, for letting us know and all the best for his family!

What do you think? Acceptable or opening up Pandora’s box?

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Under the partnership, Qik users (or anyone who makes use of the Qik-themed signup page) will get a free month of Boingo’s Mobile service (which usually goes for just shy of 8 bucks), allowing them to hook their mobile handsets up to any of Boingo’s roughly 80,000 hotspots around the world. Boingo’s already got WiFi spots in a number of airports, McDonalds, Starbucks, and a laundry list of other major chains, so their offerings go together with Qik quite well. If you’re considering making use of the deal, know that a credit card is required and that it’ll auto-renew at the end of the month; such terms are commonplace now, but as someone who tends to forget to cancel trials I don’t want, I figured it was worth a mention.

Boingo has been offering an identical deal directly for some time, but this partnership highlights the potential money model for Qik and its competing services. By passively pointing out compatible companion services to their users, they’re able to bring in revenue without forcing pre-stream blurps or other sorts of advertisements down the user’s throat. We’ve confirmed that this is a revenue sharing deal between Qik and Boingo, though we’re not sure what sort of cut they’re getting. Qik will be promoting the deal with a community blog post, a listing on a partner page which will go live later today, and by featuring it on the user profile editing page (which every new user sees at least once), but won’t be advertising the deal within the Qik mobile application.

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The cutbacks continue, even at seemingly healthy startups. Social recommendation engine Strands let exactly 10 percent, or 14 people go (7 in the U.S. and 7 in Spain), the company confirms. Strands has raised a total of $55 million, still employs 125 people, and is hiring for other positions. It also just announced a mobile version for Nokia S60 phones.

Qik, which lets you stream live video from your cell phone, also laid off about 10 percent of its employees, which in its case amounted to five people. We got a tip that the reason for the layoffs is because the startup could not raise a $10 to $15 million round, but a spokesperson says that is not true and that we should stay tuned. We hope its not true because we love Qik. The company so far has raised only $4 million, but its investors include Marc Benioff and Marc Andreessen.

Also this week, Akamai is laying off 110 people (7 percent), KLA-Tencor is cutting 900 (15 percent), four people lost their jobs at Engine Yard (Update: originally mis-reported as 66 percent–it’s only 4 percent), and 7 at PC Magazine, which is ceasing its print edition.

We’ve added all of these to the Layoff Tracker, which is now up to 77,151 layoffs across 225 technology companies big and small.

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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.

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Also, you better order that Mophie Juice Pack now because this is going to suck the life out of your iPhone 3G faster than a paparrazo’s shutter when Lohan slips a nip.

[Update]: We’ve been informed that the folks at Qik had yet to submit this app to Apple as of last week, so this may not be “coming soon” as Rose says. It would be the first video application to appear on the App Store.

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Qik has announced that its video streaming software will come pre-installed on Nokia’s just-launched 5800 XpressMusic touchscreen phone – the first deal of its kind for the still-young startup. The deal marks a big win for Qik, as it will expose the company to a wide audience while removing its biggest barrier to entry (many mobile phone users are reluctant to download and install new software).

Qik allows users to stream live video recordings directly from their phones over Wi-Fi or high-speed data networks, effectively turning the phone into a “mobile television studio”. These videos can be viewed live on Qik’s homepage or in embeddable players scattered across the web (all videos are archived for future reference). The software is available for a variety of phone models (you can see the full list here), including jailbroken versions for the iPhone, though Apple has yet to allow any video apps on the App Store.

The deal may help give Qik a leg up on its competitors Kyte and FlixWagon, neither of which come preinstalled on any phones.

Update: Now we’re being told that Qik is actually part of the “Downloads!” folder on the phone. This basically means that it’s displayed as a featured shortcut that will download the client in a few seconds (you won’t have to manually find it), but the client won’t be there until you hit the icon the first time.

Here’s a video demoing the process:

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Hot on the heels of its competitor Qik, mobile video service Flixwagon has released an application for the iPhone 3G that allows users to stream live video from their cell phones. Qik released a similar application for the iPhone 3G yesterday. Unfortunately, like the Qik app, this will only work on jailbroken (hacked) iPhones, which severely limits the potential user base.

Here are the instructions if you’d like to install it:

-On Cydia, make sure you refresh all ‘Sources’ under the ‘Changes’ tab, and then Install Flixwagon from “Sections/Multimedia”.
-On installer 4: make sure you refresh ‘Sources’, and then install Flixwagon via “Categories/Multimedia”. The app is also available via Community resources like iSpazio.

Apple’s ban on applications using the iPhone’s camera is just one of the seemingly arbitrary restrictions the company is placing on developers. What makes the restriction especially annoying is the fact that the camera is actually designed to capture video. Some users speculate that the lack of a sanctioned video app may be because of Apple’s concerns with the iPhone’s already lackluster battery life, while others believe that the phone’s developers don’t have it very high on their priority list.
Update: A developer I’ve spoken to says that the camera buffer is simply a part of the phone developers are not given access to yet, but that this likely has more to do with creating a sandboxed environment than Apple explicitly forbidding video apps.

Either way, the fact that Apple is rejecting applications that have significant demand and no malicious qualities has frustrated users and developers alike. Apple’s lack of communication and hazy Terms of Service may cause the App Store to stagnate, as developers become wary of creating something truly innovative only to have it rejected.

Notably absent from the race to get streaming video to the iPhone is Kyte, a direct competitor to Qik and Flixwagon. Kyte may be trying to avoid any disagreements with Apple, as it already it has an Apple approved application available in the App Store (which can only handle images, not video).

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Qik, the startup that allows users to stream live mobile video from their cell phones, has released an application that allows users to use the service from their 3G iPhones. Unfortunately, the application isn’t available through Apple’s sanctioned App Store, so users will need to jailbreak (hack) their iPhones to use it. And because Apple has yet to enable video capture on the iPhone, we probably won’t be seeing a “legit” application any time soon.

Last week Qik released support for iPhones running the old (1.1.4) firmware, which was made obsolete by the 2.0 software that was released in July and gives users access to Apple’s App Store. This new release also supports the older iPhone, but users won’t be able to stream over the slow EDGE network.

The following instructions are included in the company’s blog post:

You can get Qikking with the iPhone 3G (and earlier models running iPhone OS 2.0!) by doing the following:

1. If you have not already, you’ll need to sign up at http://qik.com/sign_up and receive an SMS from us to activate the application.
2. Launch Cydia.
3. Go to the “Sections” tab at the bottom and scroll down to “Multimedia.”
4. Under Multimedia, you will find Qik. Tap on it then select “Install” at the top right, then in the same spot tap “Confirm.”
5. Now you will see Qik get installed. You may hit the “Return to Cydia” button at the bottom or just quit Cydia when it is done installing.
6. You’ll now notice a “Qik” icon on your home screen – Go ahead and launch it.
7. As long as your initial signup SMS/text message is still in your inbox for the first launch, your account will be linked to your device.
8. Make sure you have 3G service or are on WiFi (edge is not sufficient enough to stream video) before you begin broadcasting.
9. Hit record and enjoy Qik!

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Qik has released its mobile video streaming application for jailbroken iPhones to the public. The service allows users to broadcast video live from their phones using Wi-Fi or the EDGE network which can be viewed on Qik’s site or through its embeddable player. Unfortunately, the application is only compatible with phones running the 1.1.4 firmware, which has been obsolete for nearly a month since the introduction of the Apple App Store. If you’ve got a phone running the old version, you can download the app after signing up here.

Users running the 2.0 version of the software will need to wait for Qik to release a compatible version, which the company expects to do in the near future. Unfortunately, it’s likely that the application won’t be available through the official App Store, as Apple still hasn’t enabled video capture using the phone’s integrated camera. Until Apple changes its mind, you’ll need to jailbreak your phone – something that the vast majority of iPhone users are reluctant to do.

If you’re feeling really adventurous, you can try downgrading your phone to the 1.1.4 firmware using the instructions here, but we haven’t tested them and there’s a good chance that you’ll fail miserably (don’t try this if you have an iPhone 3G).

Qik has offered a private beta service for months, but only recently launched to the public. Besides the iPhone, the service supports a number of other phones, including models offered by Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung (you can see the full list here).

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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.

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Well-known blogger Robert Scoble, who once said that he would “only use HD camcorders”, has become one of the new services’ most vocal supporters. Last month he predicted that Kyte would eventually overtake the competition, based on its interface and devices that support playback.

What he neglected to analyze was the audio and video quality of each service, which are obviously key components of media streaming. So we’ve decided to put them to the test. We’ve recruited Sarah Austin of Pop17.com, who has helped us record the same interview four times (once with each service). The questions may get a little repetitive, but at least the videos are easy on the eyes.

We’ve done everything we can to make the tests as consistent as possible. Each video was shot using the respective app’s highest quality setting on the same Nokia N95 smartphone. And we’ve used the same location, lighting, and Wi-Fi access point for each test.

Qik

Qik began testing in November 2007 with support for a limited number of Nokia smartphones. In March the site annouced a partnership with popular lifecasting site Justin.TV. The number of phones supported remains limited, but the site has recently announced support for the Windows Mobile platform (though only on a select number of phones so far), and the release of a version for jailbroken (hacked) iPhones. Qik has raised about $4 million in funding.

Video:
Audio:
Player:

Kyte

Kyte opened its media distribution channels in April 2007, but it wasn’t until almost a year later that it launched its streaming video service. Kyte has managed to recruit a number of big-name celebrities like 50 Cent, who prominently features the player on his homepage. Of the services tested, Kyte has by far the most funding, having raised a total of over $23 million.

Video:
Audio:
Player:

Flixwagon

Israel-based Flixwagon launched in a limited private alpha in January, and opened its doors to the public earlier this month. Like Qik, the company has also released a version for the iPhone, but it too is for hacked phones only. Flixwagon only has around $1 million in funding, and is reportedly seeking a second round.

Video:
Audio:
Player:

Livecast
Livecast (formerly known as ComView) supports Windows Mobile 5/6 and Symbian S60 phones. We began this experiment with the intention of comparing four services, but unfortunately, we couldn’t get Livecast to work. We successfully got the video to upload to the site, but Livecast’s video player is little more than an embedded .mov or .wmv file that never played. We managed to download a video file that worked locally, but that sort of defeats the point, doesn’t it?

Conclusions
We’re going to ignore Livecast for this comparison, because we couldn’t get its player to work at all.

In terms of video quality, Qik and Kyte are clearly a step above FlixWagon, with Kyte barely edging out Qik for the top position. FlixWagon seems to be using more compression on its videos, giving some shots a pixelated look that is especially obvious when there’s movement on camera. Kyte also seems to do this too to a lesser extent, but it’s nowhere near as bad.

Audio is another close call, but we think that Kyte takes the top spot here, too. Qik’s audio comes through clearly, though the volume is a little faint, while Kyte seems to have the ideal mix of loudness and clarity. FlixWagon comes in last – its audio has a very tinny quality that leads to an irritating staticy sound.

Preference in the embeddable players will largely come down to a matter of taste. Qik’s player has the best styling, but it lacks the embedded chat features that are found on Kyte (Qik has a chat button in the player, but it doesn’t seem to do anything). Again, FlixWagon falls short in this area – it’s overly simplistic player is neither stylish nor feature-rich.

What none of these services can offer is native, Apple-approved support for the iPhone, which is easily the most user-friendly smartphone on the market. The first app that can do this (if it’s even possible), will likely become the standard in mobile broadcasting.

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Robert has been one of the earliest adopters of cell phone video, which offers the ability to stream live to the Internet, with the primary tradeoff being relatively poor video quality. He’s extensively tested all of the major emerging services in this area, including Kyte, Qik and Flixwagon, among others.

This is a post I didn’t want to write. Why? For the last six months I’ve been using Qik’s live video service off of my cell phone. I’m the top user there, with most views, most videos, and all that. I’ve used that service to take videos inside the first production Tesla, Annie Leibovitz as she showed us around her latest photos of famous people, Google press conferences, Ansel Adams’ son at the top of Glacier Point in Yosemite, Bono at the World Economic Forum, and more than 700 other videos as well.

Qik has done something remarkable: it put a TV studio in my pocket. I can get live video onto the Internet faster than I can make a phone call (Qik takes two clicks to start streaming, a phone call takes 12 clicks on my phone’s keypad). Even better, while doing a video you can watch live and you can send text chat messages to my phone while I am filming. While we were racing around Santa Monica in Elon Musk’s new Tesla (he’s the chairman of the board and was giving us a killer demo) we had hundreds of people watching my cell phone along with Jason Calacanis’ phone, which was shooting the same view from his Corvette alongside. As Elon was driving we had hundreds of people asking questions about the new Tesla. This was interactivity the world had never seen.

At the same time a company in Israel, FlixWagon, has been competing with Qik. I liked FlixWagon too. The quality on their video was slightly better than Qik’s although I went with Qik because they had a better live experience, at least on my phone. Other cell phone videographers, though, like Sarah Meyers loved Flixwagon. When I visited Israel recently I interviewed the Flixwagon guys and they are whip smart and really nice too.

Which gets me to why this is the post I never wanted to write. I have been treated absolutely wonderfully by the Qik team. They call me often, make sure I’m having a great experience, and have fixed many of the problems I have been having as I push their service into places it simply wasn’t really designed for. My interview with Annie Liebovitz, for instance, was done in a museum that had absolutely no wifi or cell phone service. So, I used up every bit of memory on my phone and gingerly carried my cell phone back outside where it started sending information again. I’ve had AT&T’s 3G service die right in the middle of many of my interviews (most troublingly right in the middle of an interview with Sun Microsystems’ CEO Jonathan Schwartz) and Qik got on those problems quickly.

Anyway, back to the fight between Kyte, Qik, and Flixwagon over your cell phone video experience. Last year I was Kyte’s top user too. Why did I switch to Qik? Because I saw that cell phone video would let me extend my brand into places no other video network was letting me get to. I was the only one doing cell phone videos from the World Economic Forum, for instance, something that got me a lot of attention and followers. I told Kyte’s CEO, Daniel Graf, tons of times over the past seven months to get video streaming into his product. At first he resisted, thinking it wasn’t that big a deal, but on Friday I finally tested it out on my cell phone and was impressed enough to give Kyte a second look.

That led me to this post. Here’s why I think Kyte will dominate over Qik and Flixwagon:

1. The distribution system that Kyte has built is much better than either Qik or Flixwagon. Translation: the embeddable player that Kyte.tv has is much better than Qik or Flixwagon, more on that in a second.
2. The chat room that Kyte has built is much better than Qik or Flixwagon and can be participated in from other cell phones, something that Qik and Flixwagon can’t do.
3. The ability to mix videos from your webcam, live videos streaming from your web cam, recorded videos from camcorders, or from places like YouTube, along with both recorded and streamed videos from your cell phone goes way beyond what Qik and Flixwagon have done today.
4. Kyte.tv can play videos on an iPhone today. Neither Qik or Flixwagon can do that.
5. Kyte.tv can play videos on a Nokia today. Both from your recordings and other people’s. Neither Qik or Flixwagon can do that.
6. Kyte.tv is partially funded and supported by Nokia. That might not sound like a big deal, but it is. Nokia is using Kyte’s service internally too, and I’m sure Nokia is giving Kyte better engineering support than it’s giving Qik or Flixwagon.
7. Kyte.tv is way ahead of Qik and Kyte in getting real mainstream celebrities like 50 cent on its service, which means its growth is way stronger.

Why do I say that Kyte’s distribution system is stronger? Well, the Kyte.tv player has some significant advantages over the Qik one.

1. When embedded it can be set to play the latest video, or a specific video. Qik can only play the specific video you embedded in (I hear they are changing this, but even if they do the second part makes this not as useful). Flixwagon’s gadget lets you show your blog’s readers other videos you’ve done, but not the chat.
2. The chat room is always the same. This makes interactivity much quicker on the Kyte.tv video player. Many of my Qik videos don’t have any comments, or only have one or two. This makes those videos seem lame. Compare to Kyte, though, where everyone talks about you all day long, and it is a better place. Plus Kyte’s chat is much nicer and can contain video and audio comments (Qik can only have text comments) and Kyte’s can come from Facebook or other Nokia phones. Major win for Kyte here. I love participating in Kyte’s chat room from my cell phone because I can leave audio comments. I’ve gotten in some interesting conversations done with nothing but audio from other people. Audio is a lot easier to do from your cell phone than text or even video, particularly if you have a crappy cell phone camera or you don’t want to look like a dork out in public holding the cell phone up to take video of you.

3. I like the Kyte player on Facebook better than anything that Qik or Flixwagon has done yet. Kyte’s can be branded to yourself and you can make your own customized Facebook app for your own Facebook profile. So, TechCrunch can have its own Kyte app, which is much better for branding purposes.

Add all these together and I don’t see how Qik or Flixwagon can beat Kyte anymore in the cell phone video game. What do you think?

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Not to be outdone by competitor Flixwagon, Qik has just released its own demonstration of live video streaming from the iPhone (see below).

The demo comes just hours after Flixwagon made a similar announcement. However, Qik is one-upping Flixwagon by promising to release its software next week, not further off in July. It will presumably work only with jailbroken iPhones as well, at least until the app store rolls around.

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Seven months after we first saw video on the iPhone in action, Flixwagon appears to have beaten its better-known rival Qik to the punch by getting its streaming video service to work on unlocked iPhones (or at least by demonstrating to the public first that it has done so).

Qik is undoubtedly looking to support the iPhone but has so far been rather noncommittal. Perhaps it was waiting to see whether the new generation iPhone would have native support for video so the company wouldn’t have to hack its still camera functionality (which Flixwagon must have done since neither the current nor forthcoming model records video).

Don’t expect to see Flixwagon iPhone support rolled out to alpha testers until early July, perhaps when the official app store goes live on the 11th. If you’re interested in broadcasting from your iPhone or any other device, you can email Flixwagon at techcrunch@flixwagon.com and they’ll give you priority access to the service.

See the video below for a demonstration of Flixwagon on the iPhone. All iPhone broadcasts can also be found here.

Update: Qik has counter-punched by promising to release its iPhone support next week.

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Tomorrow Qik, the popular webcasting service that streams video from your phone, will announce support for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile platform. Actual support for phones will be rolled out in the coming months. To get things started, the site has launched an invite-only alpha for the Motorola Q and Samsung BlackJack. We’ve got invites for the first 50 TechCrunch readers who email techcrunch@qik.com.

Qik is an ultra-simple video broadcasting system that uses a cell phone’s camera to record video, which is streamed live to Qik’s servers. Viewers can watch the live streams from embedded players or from Qik’s site, and all content is archived for future reference. The service has turned into an essential tool for many people, even some unlikely ones – Robert Scoble, who declared that he was “only using HD camcorders” back in 2006 recently has become an an avid (and decidedly non-HD) Qik user: He recently used the service for an important interview with Twitter’s founders, defending himself by saying that he would have never been able to get the interview in the first place had he been dragging around his HD camcorder.

Up until now Qik has only been available on Nokia smartphones based on the S60 platform. Qik says that they plan to gradually introduce support for all Windows Mobile phones (presumably with a camera and high speed data plans), though they haven’t offered a timeline for this. The Windows Mobile platform represents an absolutely massive increase in the potential userbase for Qik – Microsoft expects to sell 20 million licenses in 2008 alone.

We’ve grown to love Qik at TechCrunch: the service is ridiculously easy to use, and quality is usually surprisingly good for video that has been streamed over a cellular network. We used the service earlier today to live-stream an interview with Gmail project manager Todd Jackson, and earlier this month we used it to stream Bill Gates’s keynote at Advance08.

Qik has a number of competitors in this space, including Flixwagon and Kyte.

Greg Kumparak from MobileCrunch had a chance to sit down with Qik to talk about the partnership – Check out MobileCrunch for the interview transcript.

Update: Mike just interviewed Qik’s co-founder Bhaskar Roy using the service. Check out the embedded Qik video to get a sneak peek at the software running on a Samsung BlackJack.

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