Qik Live Streaming App is Now Available from the iPhone App Store

Just two weeks ago, Qik submitted their Qik Live app to the iPhone App store in hopes of finally getting the popular live mobile streaming application approved. Their wish came true just in time for the holidays when the app was finally approved and appeared in the App Store. Over the past few weeks, Apple has approved live video streaming apps on the iPhone in accordance to Apple’s screen capture API, with Knocking's Live mobile to mobile live video sharing application, Ustream's Live Broadcaster and Bambuser's iPhone app. Qik had been available on jailbroken iPhones for over a year, since but not as a legitimate iPhone app due to the structure of AT&T's terms of service which in fine print forbid live video streaming.

Then in July 2009, Apple launched HTTP Live Streaming standard in iPhone 3.0, which opened up the platform for streaming applications to iPhone or desktop computers, using an ordinary Web server. HTTP Live Streaming bundles RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocol) traffic into HTTP packets to get through most firewalls. Unlike progressive download, it streams live video by essentially breaking the overall stream into small HTTP-based file downloads, with alternate clips at various data rates to adjust to varying network bandwidth conditions. Earlier this month, Apple stated that HTTP Live Streaming is now required for for all applications which deliver streaming video. The current implementation supports H.264 Baseline Level 3.0 and AAC and MP3 stereo audio with data rates as low as 100 Kbps and as high as 1.6 Mbps to iPhone.

It was over two years ago that Qik first appeared as a private alpha in December 2007 and out

of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Visivo Communications. It became a popular live mobile streaming application for a growing list of 130+ supported handsets (including Android, iPhones (original, 3G, and 3GS - previously jailbroken only), BlackBerry, Nokia Symbian, many Windows Mobile devices, and J2ME devices. Qik launched into public beta on July 21, 2008 and now comes pre-loaded on the Nokia N97, Samsung Omnia II and other mobile devices. The new iPhone app, called Qik Live (version 4.40), works on all the iPhones (iPhone 2g, iPhone 3g, and iPhone 3gs) and on all networks (3G and WiFi) and is available from the App Store. Qik also just released a desktop app for live video sharing called, Qik-in-Touch, which is currently in private beta.

I conducted this "Qik" test of the new iPhone app on a iPhone 3G with a Nokia N95 using the newest version 1.0.25 of Qik in the following videos. While it's not a great testing environment, and may not be a fair comparison given the N95's Carl Zeiss lens and native video capability, I tried to match the subject matter and quality settings between the two devices. There is a significant difference in quality with the video frame rate and audio, with the Nokia handling both much better. There's a slight difference in color depth with the iPhone colors looking deeper. I listed the video profile below each video.

Nokia N95 video settings
Video codec: H.264, 320 x 240, Million
Audio: AAC, Mono, 44.100 kHz
Frames per second: 30 FPS 14.88 FPS (average)
Data rate: 333.45 kbits/s





iPhone 3G video settings
Video codec: H.264, 320 x 240, Million
Audio: AAC, Mono, 44.100 kHz
Frames per second: 3-12 FPS (average)
Data rate: 301.96 kbits/s

The iPhone frame rate is much lower and looks close to 3 frames per second. The audio has a narrowband quality and seems to be more compressed than the Nokia, and there's a considerable amount of latency between the audio and video, which causes a lip synch issue.

Now that Apple has opened up the floodgates to live streaming, expect to see a tremendous focus on mobile video applications over the next year. Both Qik and Ustream have already announced higher quality streams and recording capabilities, and continue to hone and integrate their products into other platforms as the currents of the live streaming grows stronger.

Follow Qik on Twitter

Friend Qik on Facebook

See my original Qik post from December 2007: It Looks Like the Revolution Will Be Televised

Skype Comes to the iPhone, Voice and Text Chat App

By now you may have heard the big news eariler this week that Skype released Skype for iPhone which is an iPhone app that enables you to make free Skype-to-Skype calls from any WiFi zone. You can sign in to Skype via 3G, WiFi, GPRS or Edge and see who is online but calls only work on WiFi. iPod Touch equipped with a microphone can also take advantage of the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calling.

You can make free Skype-to-Skype calls and low cost calls to landlines and mobile phones – and participate in conference calls – from any WiFi zone. You can also IM all you want, and participate in group chats too, whenever you have network connectivity, whether it's WiFi, 3G, EDGE or GPRS.

The next version of iPhone 3.0 supports calls over 3G as this video demonstrates. Om Malik has been covering Skype on his blog for some time and his review of Skype for iPhone: Awesome. While there are a few issues that many say will be worked out in 3.0, Om says, "For those of you that use Skype on a daily basis and own an iPhone, this could very quickly become the simplest way to make long-distance calls. And I’m predicting a big upsurge in Skype as an “IM client” with this release. To Skype developers who worked on this product, I have two words: Great work!" Read Om's full post here as well as Phil Glockner's post Skype for iPhone: It's Real and It's Spectacular - ReadWriteWeb.

In less than two days after its release, Skype for iPhone was downloaded more than one million times – around six downloads every second. I downloaded the app on my iPhone and and easily logged into one of my Skype accounts and was making a VoIP call through my WiFi connection in minutes. All my contacts downloaded and I was able to see their status just I could on the Skype desktop client. I was able to text chat as well (without those fun emoticons) and the only thing really missing was video, which is not supported on the iPhone as of yet. The audio quality was very clear and while the latency of text chat was not real-time it was low.

Kurt Thywissen, lead engineer on the Skype for iPhone project, explains how the application works in this video.

Skype for iPhone
Uploaded by SkypeConversations

Skype is clearly the most mainstream video and VoIP application doing well financially generating $551 million in revenue last year reporting a profit each quarter for the past two years. Skype averages 350,000 new users a day making it the fastest growing internet company after just five year. Bernard Lunn noted on ReadWriteWeb that Skype May Be The Biggest Winner From The Web 2.0 Era and highlighted 10 reasons he says that Skype has a shot at becoming the largest player in what is now a $2 trillion market.

Goin' mobile, Keep me moving

On the Skype Blog Scott Durchslag outlined how Skype is "mobilizing" with a complete range of rich Skype software for mobile devices powered by every single one of the world’s six major mobile operating systems – Android, BlackBerry, iPhone OS, Java, Symbian and Windows Mobile.

Some of their mobile range includes:

• Skype for iPhone
• Lite version of Skype
• Skype for Windows Phones
• Partnership with Nokia

You can read the full post here.

Skype rival JaJah had recently done this with the iPod touch turning it into an iPhone over WiFi with their white-label solution and many have recoginsed Nimbuzz as another VoIP alternative with their own iPhone app. Nimbuzz combines instant messaging, (geo) presence, and VoIP across popular communities across popular communities, including Skype, Windows Live Messenger (MSN), Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, GoogleTalk, AIM, and social networks including Facebook and MySpace. The free application is available on the mobile, PC and web, for instant messaging, location.

Regarding Skype's valuation Olga Kharif of BusinessWeek asked as the Internet phone service makes its iPhone debut, can mobile phones add enough value to fatten up eBay's lackluster division for sale? She said, "Wireless versions of Skype are only one facet of unit President Josh Silverman's plan to spur growth. The company plans eventually to launch its service everywhere users may log on to the Internet, including phones, televisions, cars, and their work PCs, says Chief Operating Officer Scott Durchslag, "I see [Skype] as a Ferrari that's only firing some of its cylinders."

Related:

• Download Skype for iPhone
• Yes, Skype really is mobilizing - Skype Blogs
• Two questions about Skype for iPhone - Skype Blogs
• Review: Skype for iPhone. Verdict: Awesome.
• Skype for iPhone: It's Real and It's Spectacular - ReadWriteWeb
• Skype for iPhone: It's official | CTIA show - CNET Reviews
• Skype May Be The Biggest Winner From The Web 2.0 Era - ReadWriteWeb
• EBay Wants to Put Skype in Your Pocket - BusinessWeek
  

Update: 4/5/09

Ustream Viewing Application Now Available in the Apple App Store, Works Only on Wi-Fi

Ustream delivered on their word that they would have their new live mobile streaming application ready for viewing the inauguration. Their new iPhone Viewing Application is now available in the Apple App Store.

The one drawback is that the viewer currently only works only with Wi-Fi, which is contrary to their claim that your can watch Ustream anywhere "regardless of where you are at and what you are doing, you can choose to be in the moment with others in a shared live experience around a live event. If you are out-on-the-town and know that a guest speaker at a major conference is “going live” and want to watch live and be-in-the-crowd."

According to John Ham, Ustream Founder, "The Ustream iPhone Viewing Application was pending approval from Apple and was approved in time for the inauguration. Now any iPhone owner can watch the inauguration from their iPhone. Presently, the Ustream iPhone Viewing Application is WiFi only to ensure the highest quality broadcast on the iPhone, but stay tuned for developments."

They may have scaled back the application to Wi-fi only to comply with ATT's terms of service and keep the live video traffic off of the ATT 3G network. But doesn't anywhere mean anywhere? Even the graphic I used in this post from the Ustream blog says "anywhere" and not "anywhere there is Wi-fi." So technically this application allows you to view live and on-demand Ustream content similar to Joost's iPhone app.

I haven't tested the Ustream app myself, but I've read several reviews which have been favorable. Here's a few posts from people who have tested the app:

• Just in time for the Obama inauguration, Ustream’s iPhone app launches » VentureBeat
• Ustream iPhone app makes App Store in time for inaugural address | Feeds | ZDNet.com
• Ustream’s Live Viewing App Hits the App Store » Apple Universe Podcast
• Ustream viewer makes it to app store just in time - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

Gallery: Ustream Screen shots

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• Ustream Live Video Viewer iPhone Application on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The application can be downloaded at this iTunes link:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=301520250&mt=8

Ustream.tv on Non-Jailbroken iPhone! Ustream Gears Up to Stream Obama Inauguration on Soon-to-be Released iPhone App

Ustream has been working on an iPhone application to enable viewing of live streaming content from Ustream.tv to the 3G iPhone. MobileCrunch posted a video and a photo of the app last month and now the application is almost ready for prime time. Ustream worked closely with President-elect Obama throughout his campaign, and yesterday John Ham, Ustream Founder announced that with the new app you will be able to watch the historic Inauguration LIVE on Ustream with chat.

As Michael Arrington of Techcrunch says, "The world is changing before our eyes" since this would be the the first live streaming application available in the iPhone App store if and when it's approved by Apple. He had an exclusive demonstration of the soon-to-be released application by Ustream's John Ham featured in the video below.

If you’d like to try out the application before it officially launches, Techcrunch has 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.

Chris Pirillo who also uses Ustream for his daily live streams recorded this demo. He says,"I’m relatively pissed that TechCrunch got an exclusive scoop (and yes, it was exclusive) on the upcoming Ustream application for the iPhone, all things considered. Still, I’m happy to say that pretty soon you’ll be able to watch me - and any other person who uses Ustream - on your iPhone or iPod Touch. The app is very much real. Why would you want to watch? Think about it this way: it’s much more interactive than traditional television."


Watch Me Live on Your iPhone
Description: http://live.pirillo.com/ - Now you can watch me, and other live video feeds, no matter where you go! So long as you have a connection to the Internet, you can pull up our feed and participate vicariously with the community.


While Joost has an iPhone app that lets you watch their library of 46,000 videos it is limited to wi-fi network access and Ustream's application let you watch live stream anywhere is also limited to wi-fi. (See updated post)

Arrington followed up with this additional post, Ustream May Be First To Broadcast Video From Unhacked iPhone, which featured another demonstration of different Ustream application that lets users record and produce live mobile broadcasts from an iPhone. This is the first live streaming application to run on a non-jailbroken iPhone and is pending approval by Apple. Ustream is anticipating it will be approved and available in the iPhone app store soon. Both Qik and Flixwagon already have iPhone live streaming applications for jailbroken iPhones.

GOSHone Presents: The First Music Video Shot Entirely On An iPhone 3G

This comes by way of Dan Fellini from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (thanks to Vanessa) and claims to be the world's first music video shot entirely on an iPhone.

It was produced by GOSHone a computer nerd and "mad scientist with computers, gadgets, and musical equipment and stuff," who Dan Fellini says, "used his jailbroken iPhone and a copy of Cycorder to produce what I can only describe as a little slice of wonderful. I can't verify with any certainty that this is, in fact, the "world's first," but I'm going to go with it." (more...)



Aside from any criticism you might have about the originality of the song or his rapping abilities it is an impressive example of creativity using a popular mobile device that was not designed with any native video apps.

Not be Outdone, Flixwagon Now Also Available on iPhone 2.0.1 and 3G

Flixwagon announced yesterday that their live mobile broadcasting application is now available for iPhone 3G and for original iPhones running firmware 2.0.1. On their blog Ken Zamkow says,

"After being first to broadcast from iPhones back in June, and first to launch our public iPhone app for 1.1.4 in July, we're now releasing our app for iPhone 3G and original iPhone 2.0.x. This means we now support all iPhone models and firmware!"

As with Qik, your iPhone will need to be jailbroken with either Cydia or Installer. They have detailed instructions on how to install Flixwagon on their blog and more information on iSpazio. This is an Alpha release and they say that once the iPhone SDK supports native video they'll release an official application on the iPhone app store. They also note that, "We don't encourage 'opening' or 'jailbreaking' iPhones, nor switching back to older firmware, and users do so at their own risk."



Flixwagon also made big news partnering with MTV this past weekend on "Jonas Brothers: Live & Mobile" in a "First-Of-Its-Kind Nonstop Blogging Event" to deliver 6 million video streams to Jonas Brothers fans exceeding previous their records totaling 60,000 hours of content viewed and 281,000 page views.

On the Flixwagon blog Ken Zamkow says,

"Throughout the 36-hour event, a number of MTV bloggers and reporters made live videos directly to the MTV site and TV studio using mobile phones running the Flixwagon application... Even the brothers themselves carried one of the phones and made several live videos throughout the event... Apart from the successful event itself, what we’re also extremely happy about is that we were able to show again how the Flixwagon platform can scale and be customized to fit different types of live broadcasts, in terms of number of concurrent broadcasters, web video streams, and streaming from mobile phones to internet and/or television."

The Viacom press release also noted that,"This combination of mobile broadcasting technology and as-it-happens coverage is reminiscent of News and Docs' series "Diary," but with a live and direct twist."

Qik Announces First Live Streaming Application for iPhone 3G

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!

For more information:

• Qik announces iPhone 3G support! by Michael » QIK
• Twitter / michaelf
• Michael's profile » QIK
• YouTube - QikChannel's Channel

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:

• http://lifehacker.com/398906/jailbreak-iphone-20-with-pwnagetool

iPhone 3G - Will it Blend?

This one was too good to pass up. Cringe or enjoy...





From: Blendtec

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Added: July 11, 2008 (More info)

Tom use his new iPhone 3G to stay organized. Watch what happens when he tries to blend his old iPhone.

iPhone Mania Sweeps the Globe

The tech geeks are out in full force blogging, Twittering, singing songs, having online discussions, live streaming, camping out overnight waiting in line and doing everything they can to pass the time until the release of the new iPhone 3G.

It's not just the device that will be released in a few short hours in the US but all the new applications from the App Store like the Facebook application that people are loving.

I've been tuning into Leo Laporte's 24 hour iPhone live stream and thinking about how I can get one of these babies in my hands. I want one but I'll have to wait for now. So in the immortal words of Mike Myers' character Wayne,"You will be mine, oh yes, you will be mine..."


In the meantime, here's Duncan Riley unboxing a white 3G iPhone.



iPhone 3G unboxing from Duncan Riley on Vimeo.