Qik Gets Legit On the iPhone, Loses Core Feature

Darrell Etherington — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:00:44 +0000

It seems like just yesterday Kevin Rose was teasing us all with tantalizing tweets about an upcoming Qik iPhone application that would allow you to stream live video from your device to the web. Of course, that was before the iPhone 3GS, which brought actual video recording capabilities. Somehow, in those heady, optimistic days, it still seemed possible that the Qik app might make it into the App Store.

Time passed, we grew older, experienced the harsh disappointment of a fickle and dubiously motivated App Store approval process, and Qik came to jailbroken phones, as do all of the good apps that actually do things iPhone owners would like to be able to do with the devices we overpaid for. There seemed to be little hope of ever seeing Qik in the App Store. But look, that’s exactly where it is (iTunes link), as of today.

Cause for celebration? Could be, but I’d say reserved celebration at best, because while Qik is indeed in the App Store, and it does indeed allow you to record video and post it to the service with your iPhone 3GS (stick to the jailbreak version, 3G owners), it doesn’t let you actually stream live video, which is sort of the point of Qik in the first place, isn’t it? I mean, I can already post videos directly from the camera app to YouTube, and personally, I don’t need to worry about using another recorded video web service.

Also, you have to have a Wi-Fi connection to even upload your videos at all, which all but eradicates any remaining interest I may have had in the app. To be fair, this is probably another example of the AT&T monkey on Apple’s shoulder steering policy, but it doesn’t make the pill any easier to swallow. The FCC can’t drive a wedge between these two soon enough, as far as I’m concerned.

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QiK Brings Video to iPhone (Legitimately)

Olly Farshi — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 23:13:58 +0000

It finally looks like video-recording is arriving on the iPhone, courtesy of QiK’s new app. The omission of a video-record feature for the iPhone has long been a major source of derision. The device is fully capable of supporting video, it simply comes down to either an oversight or ill-considered design decision regarding features on Apple’s part (and considering the Cupertino campus’s eye for detail, the latter is much more likely).

Qik, featured over at sister-site NewTeeVee.com back in June, is one of several video apps that owners of jailbroken iPhone’s have had access to for some time now. The interesting thing about QiK is that it streams live to the web — it means whatever you’re doing, where ever you may be, you can now broadcast live to the masses direct from your iPhone.

Fountain of Apple rumors, Kevin Rose, claims that QiK is very close to arriving at the App Store. “This is not a hacked or jailbroken version, this is the real deal. It’s not out in the App Store yet, but I hear it’s coming very soon.” Bringing serious substance to his rumor mongering, Rose actually broadcast the news live using the official QiK app itself.

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Qik Gets Legit On the iPhone, Loses Core Feature

QiK Brings Video to iPhone (Legitimately)