Qik enters Public Beta

Jul21
by bhaskar

22 comments | Permalink

Can't express how excited we are to be have reached this stage where Qik is now transitioning from an Invitation-only Alpha to Public Beta with additional features, integrations and additional handset support.

Even though we are announcing public beta today, July 21 2008, from today till end f July we'll be trickling in various features. All I can say is "see what happens" these remaining days of July :)


What does this mean?
- No more waiting for approval: YAY!!! Users who have a supported device can signup and start streaming right away. They no longer have to wait for us to be the gatekeepers.
- Anyone with a data plan can signup: Don't have a supported phone - no worries. You can still signup to participate in the community - comment on videos, participate in groups/events, mark videos as favorite, create their own profile, etc. Then when we rollout support for your phone - they can start streaming with a click.
- Invite your friends to join: You can now invite your friends to join Qik.



Key New Features:
- Groups: You can now create groups / micro-communities that they can then stream to. Details here.
- Events: Create your own events - from small family events to large corporate events - and invite others to join those events. Details here.
- New Player: A better looking player that contains the ability to (a) view the thumbnails of all the videos of the user and play directly from there (b) chat from within the player that shows up as overlay on the player.
- Reduced Latency: Our guys did some more magic over the July 4th weekend and now we have now got the latency down to 1/2 to 3 second. Details here.
- Playback on phones using resident media RSS readers:You can now subscribe to Qiks from your favorite RSS reader on your phone or the Nokia Podcasting application on your Nokia smartphone. Then subscribe to your favorite Qikkers and get their feeds directly to the phone and play the videos directly from the these readers.
- Signup from mobile device:You can now sign up even from your mobile phone. Just go to qik.com from the browser on your phone and follow the instructions on next steps.



New Distribution Partners:
- Go live on Facebook: Go live on your Facebook profile and enable people to chat with you directly from there. The Facebook application can be found here.
- Go live on Myspace: To go live on Myspace, just cut/paste your channel embed code and you can go live on Myspace.
- Go live on Orkut: Cut/paste your channel embed code to your scrapbook on Orkut to go live on Orkut.
- Develop your own integrations:We also have some partners integrating Qik into their application using oEmbed and Media RSS from the Qik homepage and the profile pages. Example of recent integrations - (a) CoverItLive: the live blogging service now has live video blogging with Qik. Details here. (b) iPoki: A location based service now shows location of Qiks and Qikkers. Details here.



More Handsets on More Networks:
We now support additional Symbian and Windows Mobile phones on both GSM (like AT&T, T-Mobile) and CDMA networks (like Verizon, Sprint). Go to http://qik.com/sign_up to get details on all the phones supported. Do check back often as we'll be announcing support for more phones in the coming months.


We are always here listening and ready to help. If you have any questions or feedback please contact support@qik.com.


Comments

  • Qikker44632 Jul 21

    FYI: the link you provide above goes to http://qk.com/sign_up and not the page you want it to point to.

  • Qikker09293 Jul 21

    fyi - alot of the pages in your site are not working. About us, FAQ, Contact Us, etc...

  • eco2oh Jul 21

    congrats guys qik is a really significant set forward for the global knowledge ecosystem!

  • ArthurB1955 Jul 21

    I've said it before and I will say it again..You guys are ahead of the curve and onto something BIG!!! Nobody cares about streaming from a laptop...We want to be able to stream and video from the device that we use the most which is our cell phones...

  • ArthurB1955 Jul 21

    Qik...Have you guys talked to or know about a company called VMdirect ?? This is a Streaming media company...They are publicly traded and people pay $9.95 per month for retail account. Hey, I worked with them as Associate and paid $2000 to be an Executive

  • sindrefj Jul 22

    This is great, but the Facebook application does not work at all. Guessing it got something to do with the Facebook redesign.

  • Klessblog Jul 22

    Hi Bhaksar just a "Qik" note to say congratulations and share my blog post on the Qik public beta http://snurl.com/32tfk

  • bhaskar Jul 22

    @sindrefj - can you give the facebook app a try again?

  • bhaskar Jul 22

    Thank you all for your great wishes. Also, the links in the page should be fine now.

  • Farbod Jul 22

    Not sure how that is suppose to be any better. My phone is supported and I've been having problem to even activate the account in alpha stage. Not even a respond back to any of my emails either..very disappointed!!

  • thenokiablog Jul 23

    I can't install the facebook app at all. Loops and loops

  • ArthurB1955 Jul 24

    Hi Qik this is Arthur. I would like to agree with Qikker53429...I really like to receive response back from the company when I send e-mails.

  • ArthurB1955 Jul 24

    Important for Qik to begin these GOOD customer support things because it is only going to get bigger.

  • ArthurB1955 Jul 24

    Here in the states the stores don't have the 3G IPhone but that did not stop me from forking over my money yesterday to order via FULFILLMENT...Hopefully soon.

  • ArthurB1955 Jul 24

    Does anyone know why Apps such as MxTube, MMS   Video Recorder are not in Apple Apps store ??? -

  • ArthurB1955 Jul 24

    Is more money made selling these Apps and adding them to "JailBreak" Iphones or sell in Apps store   share with Apple.

  • ArthurB1955 Jul 24

    Mr. bhaskar any ideas on WHY Apple did not add MMS or Video to IPhone yet ?? Or will this be BIG announcement down road ?

  • ArthurB1955 Jul 24

    Mr.Bhaskar. What is the definition of the following: As it relates to new product and testing Beta Alpa

  • ArthurB1955 Jul 25

    Ok so Iphone 2G has been added to ALPHA and is now available. I entered my phone number at the Site and received the text message telling me Request Received! How long does this take??

  • ArthurB1955 Jul 28

    Mr. Bhaskar can I go ahead and begin testing/using the Qik program for Iphone 2.0 that is in Alpha ??

  • ArthurB1955 Jul 28

    Looks like FlixWagon has beaten Qik to the punch..They have just added instructions on how to add Flixwagon for Iphones on Open or Jailbroke phone...When is Qik going to be ready???

  • toosyenlalget Oct 01

    Hello Nice site! Bye

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