Qik, simply put is software that lets you stream video live from your cell phone to the web. Qik allows anyone with a supported mobile device to broadcast live video to the web with relative ease. Last month, Qik became available for my windows mobile phone, the HTC Tilt Aka Kaiser. I have tested it for more than a month now, and I’m extremely pleased with it’s stability. It’s a solid piece of software, considering we are talking about mobile/smart phone video quality. Obviously the video quality is only as good as the phone you stream it from. I was a little disappointed at not achieving the picture perfect quality that you would get using any of the Nokia N Series phones. HTC makes great phones, but the video and photo capabilities are sub par compared to Nokia. Apple and HTC needs to implement the same, if not better camera/hardware that Nokia has on their phones.
This software has become a necessary and important application. In fact, I will not buy a future smart-phone if it does not support Qik. If i were to get even more picky, I would also say that if the phone does not stream high quality video like a Nokia N Series phone, I would not buy it. Then I would be foolish, because I have just stopped myself from purchasing an iPhone or Android phone, both of which I’m looking at as replacement for my current phone. I have seen Qik videos shot from jail-broken iPhone’s. The quality is comparable to my phone, but I am not impressed. I would not buy Android in it’s current state, because HTC manufactures the phone, and I’m sure it has the same imaging, video, hardware as my current phone, based on the hardware reviews I have read.
Motorola and other manufacturers are starting to develop Android based phones. This is great for consumers, because in the current mobile market, we lack selection. Pretty graphical interfaces, touch screens and applications are nice, but we need more emphasis and development on the hardware that powers these devices. What good is all the eye candy if we don’t have the hardware to support it, or supports it minimally at best? We could talk about batteries and a whole slew of others issues, but my rant is primarily about the imaging and video capabilities of mobile devices. How many pictures and videos of terrible quality have you viewed taken by mobile devices? Some phones get it right, but most fail. I’m noticing a trend where people are increasingly using their mobile devices as replacements for cameras and camcorders. Our mobile devices should have at least the same or comparable video and imaging quality as a camera or camcorder. Is this asking for to much?
Taking a look at Qik:
The Qik application is very simple and easy to use. When launching Qik, you are presented with two soft keys, stream and options. Clicking stream will instantly begin streaming live video to the Qik site, where viewers can watch it live, if you have your stream set to public.
Options:
Clicking the options key will allow you to do four things.
- Mute the audio on recording.
- Stream info: you can add a title as well as a description for your video.
- Privacy: select whether your stream is public or private.
- Settings, see screen shot below.
Settings:
Settings allow you to choose between Max Quality or Minimum Delay. I have found that both settings on my phone produce the same quality of videos. I can’t tell the difference, so I keep it set on Max Quality. Audio start mode keeps your audio set to “on” by default. Access point by default should be left at Automatic. Capture resolution is set at 240X320, there is no option to change it. Qik documentation states you can also zoom, but I am unable to. This could be a phone limitation, not Qik.
Qik also integrates seamlessly with microblogging platforms such as Twitter, Pownce and Tumblr. It also integrates with video sharing sites such as, YouTube, Seesmic, and Justin.tv. Last but not least, your online Qik account gives you access to all of your videos. You can change the privacy settings, delete, rename, and download the videos. Embed code is also provided for each video. You are also provided with an RSS feed for all your videos.
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Here is my attempt at Qik streaming : http://is.gd/create.php I used my Nokia N80. Not a great quality video, but has it value for a sketch recording and quick info recording.
Here is my attempt at Qik streaming : http://is.gd/create.php I used my Nokia N80. Not a great quality video, but has it value for a sketch recording and quick info recording.