iPhone App Review: Qik Live

Name: Qik Live (iTunes)
Written By: Qik.com
Category: Photography
Price: Free

Size: 3.3 MB
Requirements: iPhone
Version: 4.40
Rate: 4 out of 5 Stars

It’s been a long wait, but now it’s finally available in the iTunes app store! Qik Live debuted on December 24th, 2009 – just in time to capture those special holiday moments! Qik Live is a live video streaming app that allows you to share pieces of everyday life experiences with your friends and family as they happen via your cellphone / iPhone.

Creating a video is quite easy. If you’re a first time Qik user, a short registration page will show up when you launch the app. It’ll ask you to create a new username, password, and if you want your location to show when you stream. The latter option can be changed when you start streaming or in the settings options.

Once you fill out the form, you’re ready to start streaming live video! Click on the red button at the bottom and your video is live! You can also record an offline video if you like. And the video will be uploaded when your toggle the online button. The Qik app has two parts to it. The top display is what’s being recorded in your video. The bottom display is where your live audience can chat with you.

To change the video options, tap on the video display. Options include Mute, Toggle chat, Set permissions (Public or Private video), Edit video details, Share Video, and Send email.

In the “Share Video” option, you can post your video onto various social networks including Facebook, Twitter, 12seconds.tv, Brightcove, YouTube, Tumblr, or your contacts. To activate these social networks, you must first log onto Qik.com and add in the credentials. The newest share option is the ability to “add contact.” You can select contacts from your addressbook and an email will be sent to your friends/families telling them where the link to your Qik video is.

More options are available when you log into the Qik.com website. You can update your settings and add additional social network options to your account. For example, you can set your account to send an automatic tweet when you start streaming, or have your video uploaded to 12seconds, or YouTube by default.

The user interface is beautifully done and the app is very user-friendly. The are a few minor improvements that I’d like to see on the Qik Live iPhone app though. I would love a landscape mode where the chat overlays the video and the record button is on the side. Holding the iPhone sideways seems more natural to me because it’s similar to holding a camera.

In addition to the mobile app on various mobile platforms, Qik also comes to the desktop called Qik-in-Touch. Qik-in-Touch is a desktop air app that will notify people of when live videos happen. It’s very fun to see what your family and friends are up to, the moment it happens, right on your desktop!

Although Qik Live is new to the iTunes App Store, it has been supported on various phones. See the supported phones page for more information.

Some things to remember before using Qik are:

1. Recording videos with the app uses up a lot of battery power.
2. Set your privacy settings accordingly.
3. You can connect with your audience and talk to them over Qik.
4. There are multiple ways of using Qik – have fun, be creative, and enjoy!

Overall, Qik is a great app that lets you experience what your friends and family are doing no matter where you are. That way you never miss an important moment again. Qik Live for the iPhone is freely available in the iTunes App Store.

Screenshots

Qik Announces iPhone Support

Michael Fortson, a Qik developer, announced earlier today that Qik is now has support for the iPhone, bringing the full Qik experience to legions of iPhone fans the world over.

Michael Fortson demonstrates Qik on the iPhone.

That’s just amazing! That also means there will be a lot more Qikkers soon! I love this piece of software because it just brings you a step closer to your friends and family.

And I can’t forget to mention that I just love the new and improve Qik website. It looks beautiful! Here’s my Qik Profile. Unfortunately, there won’t be any updates for a while.. not until Qik is completely working on all Windows CE phones. I’m back to my T-Mobile Shadow.

Sources: TechCrunch, Michael Fortson

Qik Expands on Windows Mobile

I really enjoyed using my Nokia N95 trial phone. After sending it back, the feature I missed the most was the camera and being able to use Qik. Relearning how to use my T-mobile Shadow was hard, even though it had significantly less features than the Nokia N95.

But just my luck, TechCrunch announced today that Qik is expanding to Windows Mobile Platform! I don’t know if it’ll work on my phone, but it would be very nice to see my friends start using Qik!

Read more

Demo of Nokia N95 and Qik

I did a demo of the Nokia N95 8GB and Qik today at a web meeting. The librarians and web developers loved it. I showed them how to chat and with their site visitors over the phone. :)

Qik Follow Feature

I’ve been using Qik on my Nokia N95 for two weeks now, and I throughly enjoy this software.

The support team is very fast at responding to problems and questions. And as if being able to stream your life isn’t amazing enough, watching others stream theirs is incredible. I’ve been able to attend Google Campfire One with Robert Scoble and Michael Arrington virtually. It’s pretty neat to see two different camera angles of the same event too. I felt like I was there.

Qik has been working on a few new features. The one I really love is the ability to follow people! It’s a great feature, especially since I love going to these geek meetings virtually, or see when my friends are online and streaming. That’s my friend, Bhaskar. ;) (Say hi Bhaskar!)

Here is everyone I follow so far. But I have no followers. If you would like to add me, I’m at qik.com/daynah

Streaming with Qik

Thanks to Steve Garfield, I was able to get a Qik account before my New York trip! Now Cali can see NY through my eyes. ;)

Qik is very easy to use, and it’s so amazing! I downloaded the software to my Nokia N95 and was ready to go. I tested it a few times yesterday. There seems to be a lot of lag when I have the images set to Normal or High quality. There’s less lag on Low, but everything is pixelated. Sigh. I think it’s the connection of my provider. I do love the chat feature on this. All the messages typed from the website appears on the phone! I’ll be testing it again soon. You can see live videos later at qik.com/daynah

Qik Questions

I’ve been very interested in video and real-time streaming media lately. And I forgot to mention that I asked Cali a few questions about Qik a while ago. She was so nice and responded so quickly.

I asked:

Is there any way to comment on the Qik website without having a camera/phone with Qik capabilities? I tried to sign up, but it wants to send the application to my phone. Also, how do Qik & Qik Devices work? Do you have to buy a data plan that’s separate from your iphone?

and this was her response.

Thanks Cali for clearing up my Qik questions for me!