Today, we’re excited to announce the latest update to Qik Video, Qik Premium for Android.  Now Android users can get more out of their Qik Video experience with unlimited video storage¹ and easy video management on their desktop. Are you an iPhone user?  You can already get Qik Premium by updating to the latest version of Qik Video from the App Store.

Free for the first 30 days and just $4.99/month thereafter², Qik Premium does everything Qik Video does – and more.  So you can still enjoy mobile video chat live with your Qik friends, record and share random (or planned) moments and stream video live.  Plus, you’ll enjoy:

Qik Desktop – all-new video management software

• Automatically sync videos via Qik to your computer, cord-free, and manage them with ease.  Drag-and-drop videos into different collections, share videos through your social networks or with your family and friends.

Anytime video mail

• Say it (and show it) so they can see it. Send and receive video mail anytime. (Qik Video users can receive video mail from their Qik Premium friends.)

Unlimited video downloads & storage

• Share videos now or later. Upgrade to Qik Premium and download as many videos as you like ¹.

Gallery (Android) and camera roll (iOS) uploads

• Keep all your mobile videos in one place.  Upload every mobile video recorded with your phone to your Qik account so you can share and manage them with ease.

HD and 3D video recording³

• Record and share videos in mobile HD and mobile 3Don select devices³.

Priority Support

• Know you’re covered with a dedicated e-mail address and fast response.

To get Qik Premium, download the latest version of Qik Video from the Android Market or the Apple App Store.  You can also upgrade directly from the Qik Video app and try Qik Premium for 30 days for free ².  Visit qik.com/info/premium (or m.qik.com from your mobile device) for details.

View the video here

Watch and share with me: www.qik.com/qiknews
Like me: www.facebook.com/qik
Follow me: www.twitter.com/qik

¹ This is subject to fair use policy as described at: http://qik.com/info/terms_of_service.
Note: You can cancel Qik Premium anytime during your free trial period. If you are enjoying Qik Premium, do nothing and your Premium membership will renew automatically at the monthly rate.
² Qik  Premium free 30-day trial offer valid until 10/15/2011.  Paypal, Visa or Mastercard required to subscribe and start trial.  After 30 days, your subscription will renew automatically at the monthly rate of $4.99/month ($5.74 including VAT where applicable). Payments will be charged monthly unless you cancel within 29 days of trial start date.  Cancel at anytime. Operator charges may apply. We recommend an unlimited mobile data plan or Wi-Fi connection.
³ HD (720p) and 3D recording available only on mobile Android devices supporting this functionality.

Massive numbers of people are using their mobile phones to capture special moments on video. It makes sense: mobile phones fit in your pocket, are always connected, and always with you. However, there hasn’t been an easy way to manage, synchronize, and share mobile videos with friends.

Welcome Qik Desktop! Qik Desktop is the first desktop application that lets you manage your Qik videos, automatically synchronize them to your computer, and share them with your friends or to social networks with a simple drag-and-drop action. It is the perfect companion to the Qik mobile video application.

Drag-and-Drop Sharing

Share video messages with your contacts on Gmail, Facebook and Yahoo just by dragging and dropping the video to their name. Post videos to your favorite social networks, like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, simply drag and drop them to the social network icons as seen below.

Automatically synchronize your online Qik videos to your computer – no wires, no hassle

Qik Desktop makes your life easy by automatically synchronizing videos from your phone(s) to your desktop and provides you maximum control. As you capture life’s precious moments with your phone, your videos will automatically be stored and waiting for you on your desktop to easily manage and share without having to plug in any cables – ever!

Collections – Organize your videos with ease

Qik Desktop is a window to all your videos stored online and on qik.com. It allows you to organize your videos into collections with a simple drag-and-drop feature. Your videos can even be stored in multiple collections.  So, you know that cool video that you recorded while bungee jumping in Hawaii?  Now it can now belong to both your “Hawaii” collection and “Extreme Sport” collection. All you need to do is simply drag-and-drop them to both collections and viola they are now a part of both.

Qik Desktop is available as part of a new suite of premium services, which also include unlimited* sending of video mails, unlimited* video storage, video downloads and priority support. You can try Qik Premium for free for 30 days** before signing up for the service at US$4.99 per month***.New users can download Qik by going to Qik.com and clicking signup or download Qik (for free) from the Apple App Store or Android Market. Qik Premium will be available to iPhone users first and then for the currently supported Android devices and other platforms.

Regular users can continue to use and love Qik’s core features such as: video recording, instant video sharing and 2-way video chat.

So what are you waiting for? Set your videos free with Qik.

Footnotes:

* This is subject to fair use policy as described at http://qik.com/info/terms_of_service
** You can cancel Qik Premium anytime during your free trial period. If you are enjoying Qik Premium, do nothing and your Premium membership will renew automatically at the monthly rate.
*** $5.74 including VAT where applicable.

Happy Qikking!

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.

• This promotion is exclusively available from the Ovi Store by Nokia
• Special promotional price ends March 31, 2010
• With this promotion, you also get free access to features that we’ll be adding to Qik Premium in the Ovi Store this year.

Build your mobile video library

Save your videos (MPEG-4) from qik.com to your computer, add them to your existing media collection, edit them, burn them into DVDs or create movies with your Qik videos.

Better playback experience

We apply our unique high quality transcoding to make your videos look even better. See the difference for yourself by clicking the “HQ” button in this video. You can even playback these high quality videos from your mobile phone.

Your videos are also optimized for faster playback on all types of network connections. Say if you are on a slower connection, switch to non-HQ and playback your videos faster.

Below is the screenshot of the first frame of the video between the two quality levels. Watch the difference around the number 700, the texture of the grass around it and the houses and trees in the back.

Non HQ (HQ button is grey'd)

HQ

Tip: to record high quality videos, we recommend using a phone with at least 3MP camera resolution. Also, checkout tips on shooting cell phone video and eight tips for shooting great videos with a cell phone camera.

Coming next to Qik Premium:

• Ability to upload and share videos recorded with your mobile phone’s native camera application

Qik Premium is now exclusively available from the Ovi Recommends Channel for a promotional price of only $4.99 / year, which is less than 2cents / day. You can also download this from the Ovi Store application on your Nokia phone by going to http://store.ovi.mobi/content/27434 on your Nokia phone. This promotional price also provides you with access to all the features that we’ll be adding to Qik Premium this coming year.