Hey HTC EVO 4G Qikkers – Thanks to all of you for sending us your great feedback. We are glad to see you video chatting away. We are currently seeing more than 25,000 video chats happening per day with an average of 4 minutes / video chat session.We know that many of you have hit issues and so we are excited to roll out this new release (version 3.54), which has a number of bug fixes including the following:
Connectivity issues improved: In certain network conditions, there were issues where it would take a long time to get connected and initiate a chat session. We have made changes to the way the connection is established to make it significantly faster than before.
Better performance in low network conditions: When the network bandwidth fluctuated below a certain threshold, sometimes the video would not flow both ways. With this update we now adapt to these conditions faster and more gracefully, enabling the 2-way video to perform much better.
SMS verification no longer necessary: With this update, we no longer send you an SMS to verify your phone number. So, if you have been waiting for your SMS to come through – you don’t have to wait anymore. Just update your client to this version and you’ll be all set.
Video chats are not automatically archived for playback: With this update your Qik Video Chats are no longer automatically archived to your account on http://qik.com, and we will be adding additional user controls for this much-requested feature in subsequent releases.
So, go on ahead – download “Qik for HTC EVO 4G” this version from the Android Market, give it try and keep sending us your feedback at support@qik.com.
Some of us got our iPhone 4s yesterday and with that we found a few issues with the way our app works on the new iPhone . There are 2 applications that are available on the App Store today:
Qik Live: This is our free application that enables you to record and stream video live from your iPhone to your account on qik.com, your favorite social networks like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and to any blogs.
Qik Video Camera Pro: This is our paid application that builds upon Qik Live and enhances your iPhone to become a powerful video camera with capabilities enabling you to easily record, share, and stream live from your iPhone. Additionally with this app, you have various controls like being able to change the brightness, zoom, pause videos, apply special video effects and more.
The status of these applications on iPhone 4 and iOS 4 are as follows:
Qik Live and Qik Video Camera Pro on iPhone 3GS running iOS 4: If you have an iPhone 3GS, 3G that you upgraded to iOS 4, you should not see any change in the way these application works.
Qik Live and Qik Video Camera Pro on iPhone 4: You may find your videos being recorded with a blue tint. We are looking into this and planning on getting an update out as soon as possible.
Apart from the above, earlier this year we had 2 additional apps that are no longer available – Qik for 3GS, that lets you record and upload videos to social networks, and Qik Video Camera that lets you record videos locally and apply special effects to them. These applications are not supported on the iOS 4 or iPhone 4.
If you have any questions, please let us know at support@qik.com.
UPDATE : August 4, 2010
An update is now available in the App Store that fixes the above issue. So, go ahead download the update from iTunes and give it a try.
Wherever you are in the world, be awed by Tata Young as she Qiks Live right from Bangkok to share more on her latest Web launch on 24th June, 2AM PST.
Fans from Bangkok or parts of Asia, the live stream of Tata is happening on 24th June 2010, 4PM GMT.
Catch Tata Live on Qik as she streams from the event and chat with your favorite celebrity via Qik’s live chat and take it away with the questions you have!
Tata Young, Asia’s Queen of Pop, has sold more than 14 million albums and continues to be the symbol of energy and change in Asian Music Industry. Her latest album “Ready for Love” takes a new release to Europe and the rest of the world!
Call it old fashioned, I am still in love with my all time favorite Tata Young tune, “Dhoom Dhoom.” Get on your dancing shoes!!
We wanted to provide an update on the latest status of our new Qik Video app for the Sprint HTC EVO 4G. During the past week we have been completely heads down to make sure that we get the app into your hands and are glad that ”Qik for HTC EVO 4G” (version 3.51) is available in the Android Market. We encourage all HTC EVO 4G users interested in Qik’s Video Chat and Video Mail capabilities to download the latest version and give us your feedback.
Qik is bringing great innovation to mobile video by allowing users to connect with friends and family by video from almost anywhere. This implies working across all network conditions (Mobile, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, LTE) which vary significantly. We’ve heard you loud and clear the past week on the following issues and are working to address them by next week:
Removing the SMS verification challenges
To be able to video chat with others in the address book, one step is to make sure that your phone number is verified. Further, in a number of cases, we wake up the client on the other side using SMS. What we are finding is that often people have blocked receiving SMS from short-codes. We are now taking steps to work around this issue so that you don’t have to go through the SMS verification process.
Better performance in low bandwidth conditions
We are working to optimize our application to adjust for the variability of the wireless networks. Occasionally we experience some hiccups when the network speeds fluctuate below a certain threshold.
If you are experiencing any issues, please let us know at support@qik.com. In the meantime, we will post news of updates here, as well as in the near future will automatically deliver these updates whenever you open the Qik Video app on your mobile phone.
When we were preparing for the launch of Qik on the Sprint HTC EVO 4G, we had anticipated significant growth as the device was just so great along with the 4G network. But even the significant growth assumptions were not enough and we are seeing some unprecedented number of new users joining and Qikking. It truly is beyond what we had imagined.
Earlier in the day we ran into a snag with Qik for HTC EVO 4G not being visible in the Android Market from the HTC EVO 4G devices – even though it was published to the market. Hats off to our great partner Google. Their Android team jumped in, found the issue and came up with a workaround that enabled us to at least get the new Qik Video client out to our users.
We had an unprecedented 20X the amount of workload on our servers. As a result, you were seeing issues connecting to our service on and off. So, our team is now out provisioning more capacity and we expect to have this in control shortly. We feel bad that not all of you got a chance to experience the new Qik Video today and truly appreciate your patience. Rest assured we are not going to rest till this is humming and you are able to video chat with your friends and loved ones.
Update July 8: If you’ve just gotten your Sprint HTC EVO 4G and are looking for Qik’s Video Chat capabilities, please download Qik for HTC EVO 4G app from the Android Market.
Our salute goes to our great partners:
Sprint for firstly bringing such an amazing device to the market and then working with us through these initial glitches
Google for jumping in right away and helping us resolve the issues associated with Qik not being visible on the Android Market on HTC EVO 4G.
If you have any questions – we are always here and can be reached via support@qik.com.
Today we are introducing an exciting new version of Qik Video, which will be available on the new Sprint HTC EVO 4G. Qik Video brings a powerful set of video capabilities to your mobile phone so you can share and experience events as they happen, even if you can’t be there. With Qik, you can attend a meeting across the country and feel like you are truly there, watch your child’s performance LIVE on your mobile phone, or pick up a video mail message from a friend who wants to share an exciting adventure.
You can download the new Qik for the Sprint HTC EVO 4G directly from the Android Market. Keep reading for an exciting launch offer of the new Qik Video.
Here’s what’s included in the all new Qik:
New! Mobile video chat without boundaries
Video chatting with Qik is amazingly simple. Just start Video Chat from the Qik app, select the person from your phone address book and that’s it! If the person you are inviting has the Qik app on their phone, their phone rings and with a single click both of you are video chatting away. If the other person does not have the Qik app on their phone, they’ll receive an SMS with a link to watch the video live on their mobile browser.
Cool tips:
You can toggle between the front and back camera within the same session. So, with a single tap, you can go from showing your face to showing the world around you.
Every video is also automatically archived as a private video on your Qik account. Its like having your video chat history at your finger tips.
From the list of contacts to call you can even search for someone’s Qik username to connect to them directly.
New! Send video mail to anyone – right from your phone
Sometimes you just want to leave a video message for someone and have the peace of mind that they’ll be able to view the message no matter what device or phone network they are on. If the person you are sending to is a Qik user – they’ll see the message in their inbox and their activity feed. If they are not a Qik user, they’ll receive an SMS with a link to the video mail.
Qik video camera – record, share, go live
This is the Qik functionality you are used to. This enables you to record, share and go live to your favorite social networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace), video sites (e.g. YouTube, Livestream, Brightcove, VMIX), blogs (e.g. Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, Tumblr, Posterous) and very soon to your favorite IMs. Click the big “Record” button in the main screen to get into this mode. Then once you are in the viewfinder – click the big red button to start streaming live to your friends anywhere!
Cool tip: You don’t have to always go live! You can record to your local device memory just by clicking the indicator button on the top-left corner.
New! My Videos – all your mobile videos in a single place
Go to “My Videos” in the Qik app to view both the local videos taken with your phone as well as your Qik videos in a single place. From here you can upload your local videos to Qik and even share any of the videos to your favorite social network or via email and SMS.
New features for all Android Qikkers
Today we also released an updated version of Qik in the Android Market for all the non Sprint HTC EVO 4G users that provides a number of new features including Video Mail and My Videos. For now, you’ll need to get the Sprint HTC EVO 4G to take advantage of Video Chat
Launch offer for the new Qik Video!
For all the Qikkers on Android, we have a special offer for you to experience all the features for free till July 15 after which the various Premium options will be available for a subscription of $4.99 / month.
Here are a few more details on the Premium options that will be available:
So go ahead and give the all new Qik Video a try and let us know what you think via email, Twitter, Facebook.
We know that many of you have hit issues and so we are excited to roll out this new release (version 3.54), which has a number of bug fixes including the following:
