Well, it's official! And it's news that I've been waiting to hear. A few hours ago, Michael Fortson of Qik sent out a Tweet saying only, "Stand by :)" and then followed up an hour later with another tweet that said "And we're now on iPhone 3G :) http://tinyurl.com/56mohs"
The link takes you to the Qik blog where the official announcement that says,
"As most of us have been out enjoying the sun, Qik's developers have been working day and night to bring you the world’s first live video streaming application for the Apple iPhone 3G! From the wonderful feedback we get from our fans, we know how eager you all are to get streaming on the iPhone and therefore we have decided to launch straight into public beta"
He included this short video demonstration along with instructions on how to install the application and get started Qikking. He also noted that it is a beta release and that they will be adding regular updates in the coming days and weeks.
I've had the opportunity to enjoy Qik the last month using a loaner Nokia N95 from Nokia WOM/World but had to kiss it goodbye the other day since the trial period was up. I liked it for it's video applications but I wasn't sold on it and I've been researching what device I should purchase to get back on Qik. I've been on the fence about upgrading to the iPhone 3G due to the lack of video support but this announcement just about seals the deal for me. Kudos to Qik and thank you for making this amazing technology and service available to the masses!
UPDATE: According to Scoble and CenterNetworks and other sources there are a few issues to keep in mind:1) This will only work on jailbroken iPhone devices.
2) The issue of iPhone 3G battery life draining quickly by streaming on 3G network.
3) The quality isn't expected to be as good on the iPhone since it uses software compression, where on Nokia phones there’s hardware support for that.
4) The camera isn’t as good as the Nokia camera, particularly in low light.
So if you are interested in jailbreaking your iPhone 2.0 to run Qik, here's Lifehacker's instructions on how to do it using the PwnageTool:
