Qik - Apple iPhone Application Review

Qik is a company on the web aimed at bringing live streaming video media online for everyone to see. All you have to do is install the software and connect it to your account by signing up, for free. Having streaming video capabilities on your phone is very impressive and intriguing to me so I knew I had to try this out, especially if it’s available for the iPhone!
Are you wondering if your phone is supported? Here is Qik’s supported phones list.

Why I like it:

Live streaming video to the Internet
Simple controls on the iPhone
Sharing capabilities
Saves video for later use
Easy to use

What’s not so good:

Quality is limited
Ton’s of pointless videos on Qik
Microphone is not so great on the iPhone

There are two things you need to get started:

Jailbroken iPhone
Qik account

If you don’t know if your iPhone is jailbroken then you probably don’t have a jailbroken iPhone. To learn more about jailbreaking your iPhone please see my previous article, .

Qik.com

Qik’s website interface is very simple. The home page shows the latest live video from whoever is streaming. You can get a hint of the worldwide spread this site has by looking at other Qik videos. Popular videos are listed at the bottom with a link to more hot videos and on the bottom right are a group of top Qikkers, those who Qik a lot.

Once you sign in, you’ll be forwarded to your profile page where you can see your latest Qik video on the main video screen and a list of previous video’s you’ve made. What I like about this site is that they make it very possible to share your video in every possible way. There’s html code to embed your LIVE Qik channel and embed links for every single video. Can’t forget about the permalink that you can share via email, IM, social network, etc as well.

It’s very similar to Youtube and the likes where you can follow people, tag videos, add video titles and descriptions. It’s very possible to add your social network to your profile such as iTunes, Twitter, Youtube, Blogger, etc.

iPhone Application

At first glance, the interface for the iPhone looked simple. After it says connected on the top left, you hit the record button and you’ve already begun streaming. The bottom half of the screen allows you to type out to your fans, sort of like a twitter interface. Tapping on the upper half of the screen will bring up other options such as:

muting audio
turning chat off
making your video public or private
editing video details
sharing video
stream alert

The application is really simple to use and once you’re connected just hit record and when you’re done just hit stop. Your video can be seen live online and after you are done streaming it will save it to your account for later use. It’s as simple as that.

Qik looks very promising in that you can use this however you would like. We’ve been in the world of blogging as a “breaking news” type media but it’s slowly moving its way over to live streaming video with your mobile devices. I have no doubts that Qik will just grow in users and become another mainstream site for everyone to use. I’ll be experimenting with it more and hopefully it can find a permanent place on this site. If you have a Qik account let me know so I can follow you!

Here is a sample video:

Share and Enjoy: