Bambuser, a live mobile video streaming startup along the lines of Qik, has become something of an underground hit in the last couple of years because of its ability to stream video over poor mobile connections. That’s made it a favourite of emerging markets, in part because it supports over 200 different mobile devices, from cheap Nokias to the latest iPhone. During the Arab Spring last year it was used by protesters to document various uprisings across the region. The platform has lately been used to great effect by anti-government protesters in strife-torn Syria. But this morning the government blocked 3G and desktop Web access to the service.

Yesterday BBC News was carrying Bambuser’s live stream of black smoke billowing from a site in Homs, the scene of much of the uprising against the Syrian regime.

Android-toting Qik fans will have reason to smile today: the Skype-owned company has announced that their Premium service for Android devices has finally been fleshed out with new functionality and services for the discerning mobile videophile.

For $4.99/month, Qik Premium users are now treated to unlimited storage of video content on Qik.com, where basic users are limited to a scant 25. Video management from a PC is also in play with a desktop app that allows for wireless syncing. Owners of 3D capable smartphones are now in luck too, as Qik Premium now supports the sharing of recorded 3D content, in addition to HD quality video.

These new features are in addition to Qik Premium’s original toolkit, which already includes unlimited video mail and the ability to take pictures while recording video. Priority support is also available to Premium members, which means all of your app-related gripes will get their much-deserved attention. All said, Qik Premium is shaping up to be a compelling little package for videographers on the go.

Qik’s Premium service isn’t exactly new news (their premium efforts first went live in the Ovi Store, of all places), but the addition of nifty new capabilities are always welcome. Support for Premium service has been folded into the Qik application, so current users are only a quick update away.

Now, Qik is bringing the full featured Qik app to the Android Marketplace, the company tells us exclusively. The app, which you can download here, allows you to live stream video and now conduct live video chats with contacts over 3G, 4G or WiFi. And you can chat between Android 2.1-2.33 phones and any iOS4 devices, including the iPad 2 and iPhone 4.

The Android app automatically integrates with your phone’s contact list to show you who is available to chat live, and allows you to video chat using back camera (show what is happening around you) and/or front camera (show your face).

If you cannot connect with your friends live, you can also send video mail via threaded video mail conversations and you can send video mails to anyone, including friends who don’t have Qik, via email or SMS. The Android app has also added a few social features, and allows you to connect via Facebook and will notify you when your friends share video on the app. You can play these videos within the app and comment on content. Videos can also be shared through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and other sites.

The addition of a live video sharing and recording app in the Android Market is a big development for the company’s technology, says co-founder Bhaskar Roy. Previously, Qik optimized over all experience for specific devices and carriers, but now these capabilities are being brought to all Android handsets. While Roy declined to comment on how Qik would be integrating its technology with Skype, he did say that the companies are currently working with OEMs to figure out how to integrate the streaming video technologies with the hardware to consume less CPU and battery power.

Qik is offering Video Connect Plus app for iPhone/iOS for free this week (It’s normally $2.99).

Other apps that allow for live streaming on Android phones include Justin.TV, Ustream and others. But Qik says that its apps have been updated with more social features, including the ability to conduct live video chats, and share live video with friends on social networks.

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At last count, Qik, which enables mobile phones users to record and stream videos in realtime, has 5 million users.

It looks like Skype will be using Qik’s live video streaming technology (which “optimizes video transmission over wireless networks”). And the company says that the acquisition will “accelerate Skype’s leadership in video by adding recording, sharing and storing capabilities to Skype’s product portfolio.”

Skype today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Qik, a provider of mobile video software and services that enable individuals to capture, instantly share and preserve great moments on video from anywhere. Qik has 60 employees, and is headquartered in Redwood City, California and has an office in Moscow, Russia. The transaction is expected to close in January 2011. Terms of the acquisition will not be disclosed.

“Qik has worked very hard to solve complex problems that allow millions of people everyday to take advantage of sharing their lives with those people who are most important to them”
Qik was founded in 2006 and offers innovative and flexible solutions to capture and share video with anyone across mobile devices, the web, and desktop platforms. Videos can be shared in real time or stored so moments can be viewed later, allowing for video messaging, sharing and archiving. The Qik service is available on over 200 mobile phones across the Android, iPhone, Symbian, Blackberry and Windows Mobile platforms, and comes pre-loaded on a wide variety of mobile handsets through partnerships with leading handset manufacturers and carriers.

Both Skype and Qik have a common purpose of enriching communications and sharing with video, across any device. The acquisition of Qik helps accelerate Skype’s leadership in video by adding recording, sharing and storing capabilities to Skype’s product portfolio. Through this acquisition, Skype will also be able to leverage the engineering expertise that is behind Qik’s Smart Streaming™ technology, which optimizes video transmission over wireless networks.

“The Qik team has delivered exceptional video experiences for its mobile partners and millions of end users across a range of devices,” said Tony Bates, Skype’s Chief Executive Officer. “Skype’s software enables an estimated 25 percent of the world’s international long distance voice calling minutes1, and approximately 40 percent of those Skype-to-Skype calls are happening over video. Qik’s deep engineering capabilities and strong mobile relationships will be an impressive complementary fit with Skype.”

Together, Skype and Qik will focus on providing a richer, more integrated experience that will allow people globally to share experiences in real-time video across different platforms, as well as, store those moments so they can be viewed anytime later.

“Qik has worked very hard to solve complex problems that allow millions of people everyday to take advantage of sharing their lives with those people who are most important to them,” said Vijay Tella, Chief Executive Officer of Qik. “Joining Skype allows Qik’s team to unite with Skype’s talented team to develop new and innovative products for our customers and partners.”

Qik, which enables mobile phones users to record and stream videos in realtime, has secured a little over $6.3 million in funding, an SEC filing reveals.

We’ve asked Qik for more details on the financing, but are still awaiting a response. Investors listed in the filing are (previous backer) Quest Venture Partners and Russian investment firm Almaz Capital Partners.

Last we heard from Qik was back in September when they released some usage stats, revealing that it had attracted some 3.5 million users at the time, growing at a rate of nearly 500,000 users each month. If that growth rate was accurate and has remained steady, that means Qik has about 5.5 million users today.

Qik competes with companies like Kyte, Justin.tv, Ustream and Bambuser.

Update: actually, Qik on its blog says it has 5 million users.

Update 2: strangely timed, a source tells The Business Insider that Skype has acquired Qik for around $100 million.

Roy says that Qik curently has 3.5 million users, and is adding nearly 500,000 users each month. The application’s userbase has grown sixfold in the last year, and Roy expects that growth to continue. Much of it will stem from the fact that Qik is included as a default application on millions of devices, including the HTC EVO 4G and Nokia N97. Roy says based on current and upcoming partnerships, Qik will be preloaded on a whopping 75 million devices in the next year.

Qik is not the only player in this space. While live streaming companies Justin.tv and Ustream didn’t begin as mobile streaming services, they’ve launched applications for iPhone and Android that enable this functionality.

When you think about broadcasting live video over the Internet, being tethered to your computer isn’t so much fun. Broadcasting live from your mobile phone, now that starts to get interesting. Today, Justin.tv is joining the mobile party with an Android app for broadcasting live video (which will be available later today). A similar iPhone app is also in the works (it’s current iPhone app is view-only).

The Android app allows you to record video from your phone and broadcast it directly on Justin.tv. The company is serious about mobile. CEO Michael Seibel believes mobile apps can help solve some of the fundamental barriers holding back live video today.

Competitors Qik and Ustream already have mobile broadcasting apps for Android and the iPhone. Qik’s Android app is even built into the HTC EVO.

While Justin.tv may be a little late to the party, it comes bearing some new gifts. The Android app takes advantage of hardware video encoding, which drains the battery less. It also adjusts the bitrate at which the video is uploaded, depending on the strength of your wireless connection.

The app is designed to be a complete experience. You can download it, register for a Justin.tv account and start broadcasting without ever going to the website. It has three buttons: record, share, and chat. Once you hit record, you start broadcasting live. It lets you record in landscape mode as well as portrait.

You can share a link to your video with your friends on Facebook or Twitter, and when the the broadcast is over that link redirects to a saved archive version. Every video you shoot from your mobile phone is automatically saved. You can also chat with live viewers right from the mobile app as you are shooting your video. All of these features are unique to Justin.tv.

Below is a video demoing the new app with a very deep voice-over by founder Justin Kan (I think he’s been watching too many movie trailers):

Today, all anyone seems to be talking about is the new HTC EVO 4G, Sprint’s WiMax phone that runs Android which was just unveiled at CTIA. Not only will Qik work on the device, it will come built-in to each one.

This is potentially huge news for the service. With even the coolest services, it can be hard to convince users to download your app. But coming pre-installed is worth its weight in gold. And live video streaming seems like the perfect way to test out Sprint’s new 4G network, which is already deployed in a few cities, and will be in many more this year.

And it’s not just the network. This new device features an 8 megapixel autofocus camera capable of recording HD video. And yes, Qik is able to capture videos in HD with this device. And it even has a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera — something which plenty of vain Qik users will appreciate.

Watching live video on your iPhone is nothing new, but it is becoming increasingly easier to do. More than a year after Ustream launched its live video viewing iPhone app, and followed up with a video publishing app, along with Qik and Kyte, Justin.tv is entering the mobile game with its first iPhone app (which should be available shortly in the iTunes store).

Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel says they took their time with the app because they wanted to get it right. “We tried not to cut corners,” he says. All the live videos and channels available on the Website can be watched in the iPhone app. You can find videos by looking at the featured channels or by searching. Videos play horizontally in landscape mode, and text chat is built into the app. The chat text is laid across the bottom of the video and can be tapped on to make it disappear. And the audio works both with or without headphones, which apparently isn’t the case with all other iPhone video apps.

Video channels can be saved as favorites, and an upcoming update to the app will add push notifications to tell you whenever one of your favorite channels is on live. Videos can be shared via email.

Where the app falls short is that it is only for watching live videos, not streaming them from your iPhone’s video camera. The issue is that the iPhone API still doesn’t allow apps to access the camera directly. Instead, other “live streaming” video apps have to come up with workarounds, which often involve sending out a succession of camera screen captures at one to two frames per second. Seibel hopes the next iPhone OS 4.0 will allow for direct camera access which would make video uploads from the iPhone much more efficient.

If the iPhone OS 4.0 API makes live video streaming more practical, Justin.tv will include it as a feature in its app, along with the regular Twitter and Facebook broadcasting options. Check out the app and tell us in comments how it compares the other video livestreaming iPhone apps. Was it worth the wait, or is Justin.tv late to the game?

The free app is essentially a live streaming app and Twitter client rolled into one. TwitCasting Live splits the iPhone screen in half, allowing you to view your Twitter timeline, update your status, access the web etc. on the bottom half, while recording (broadcasting) video on the top.

When the recording begins, you can automatically tweet out a specific URL for the broadcast (“I’m live on Twitcasting!”) to your followers who just need to hit the link to watch the live stream on the web or even on their iPhones (iPhone users won’t hear sound though). The app comes in especially handy during events, for example. After the broadcast, you can choose to save and archive the recording on the TwitCasting website.

TwitCasting Live works with both the iPhone 3G and 3GS, under Wi-Fi or 3G. Results were OK during tests with my 3G under a Japanese 3G network (I live in Japan), but naturally performance is best when using the app with Wi-Fi and a 3GS.

Tokyo-based Twitcasting provider sidefeed claims video latency is as low as 0.3-2.0 seconds in most countries, adding 750 concurrent viewers are the maximum the app can handle at the moment (although this number will be boosted to “a couple of thousands of viewers” next week).

Launched in Japan first, the English version made its formal debut during a demo event from TechCrunch Japan last week. Sidefeed says they have accommodated over 50,000 live broadcasts (80% over 3G) in the first four weeks and that they’re currently thinking about an Android port.

Vodafone UK customers will now be able to record and share videos from their mobile phone via Qik by texting ‘Qik’ to 97886 (free) to receive a link to the relevant app for their handset (standard data charges apply). Vodafone is the number two mobile network in the UK, behind O2 and ahead of Orange.

Once loaded, videos generated on Qik can be posted to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and users will be able to send video messages privately via SMS and email, or upload videos to blogging platforms like WordPress, Tumblr and Blogger.

It remains to be seen how many customers will actually take up Qik however. However, live streaming video from a mobile has yet to take off here and it may well a deal like this to kick off mainstream take-up.

YLE, which has never been shy of experimenting with social media, wants to better understand how its audience are using consumer-facing services such as Bambuser to break the ‘monopoly’ of traditional media, and to connect with viewers in new ways. The broadcaster is running a pilot in which several teams of journalists will be using the mobile video streaming service as a way to “document everyday work life” as well as to file live reports.

“We think it is important that we know how to use the tools that are available to consumers. In that way we my also understand how people might best share their videos and stories with us and the rest of the world”, says Tuija Aalto, Head of New Media Development at YLE.

The service, which enables live video streaming from a PC or mobile phone (Symbian, Android and iPhone), is free to use for personal use and by not-for-profits but charges for commercial use.

Along with Qik, Bambuser also competes with Tel-Aviv, Israel-based Flixwagon and San Francisco’s Kyte. Bambuser, however, claims that it has lower latency compared to its competitors.

So as to keep the video stream as real-time as possible, the Bambuser mobile app drops frames dynamically, while at the same time storing a full frame-rate version locally on the handset. Any dropped frames or audio that can’t get through during the live broadcast are uploaded immediately afterwards for archived viewing. Although, as we’ve noted in the past, comparing like for like is nearly impossible given the flaky nature of 3G networks.

That said, whatever Bambuser’s technical merits, it certainly doesn’t have the mindshare of Qik. Or the distribution for the matter – Qik recently began being bundled on select Nokia handsets.

Granted, 15 frames per second is still only half that of the iPhone 3GS rate, but the resulting videos will be far less jerky. And it may make the app the fastest recorder on the market —  Qik cofounder Bhaskar Roy says that the fastest competing app only gets to 10 FPS.

Users will also be interested in the updated app’s new video filters, which include a Black & White mode, B&W with red highlighting, a filter that reverses red and blue, and a mirroring mode. The app also adds digital zoom, audio boosting and live brightness control. Roy says that the new filters are applied to video on the fly, so users don’t have to wait for post processing (he says you can also apply multiple filters at the same time). However, these filters do degrade the speed of the video capture back down into the 7-10 FPS range.

Note that Qik also offers a Live Recorder app, which allows users to broadcast their videos live to the web from their phones. There are also quite a few competing apps out there, like Ustream’s Live Broadcaster (which also does local recording).

Qik has, of course, made its name building live streaming apps that allow users to broadcast their video directly from their phones to the web. Their live streaming app, which is called Qik Live, was released less than a week ago.

You’re not exactly going to be grabbing high quality video with the the Qik VideoCamera, but it could be worse. The first application to enable video recording on the older iPhones was iVideoCamera, which captures a mere three frames per second at a 160×213 resolution. Qik claims to record at 7FPS and 352×288, which is obviously a big step up. But it still pales in comparison to the iPhone 3GS’s 30FPS and VGA (640×480) resolution.

Just to recap, Qik now has three applications available on the App Store. First, is Qik for 3GS, which was the company’s ‘workaround’ for Apple’s ban on video — it was for 3GS users only, and would upload videos after recordings were completed. Second is the live streaming app released last week that lets users broadcast from any model iPhone directly to the web. Today’s release is Qik’s third on the app store.

Also see Ustream’s Live Broadcaster (covered here) which offers both live streaming and local recording in the same app.

Here’s a demo the Qik app’s video quality, recorded using an iPhone 3G:

Apparently, the way these streaming apps work is using a restricted API (a screen capture API) to get around the fact that Apple doesn’t grant them access to the video APIs for live capture and streaming. But Apple has suggested that it will no longer enforce protecting this API and in the future should open more that allow for live video streaming.

Also interesting will be AT&T’s reaction to this and other apps like it. Though they’re unlikely to say anything in defiance of Apple, they can’t like the idea of live streaming video apps being approved en masse. AT&T has indicated in recent weeks that that massive use of data on the iPhone was an issue that was leading to data degradation.

Note: While Qik has had an iPhone app available in the App Store for a while, it previously did not allow you to live stream from your phone. This new version will. There was also previously an ad-hoc version of the app, but that method of distribution was very limited. Again, look for the new version shortly.

Update: I’m told that the latest live streaming version of the app will be called “Qik Live” when it’s available in the store. The old “Qik for iPhone 3GS” will remain available too.

Bambuser, a mobile streaming startup in the same space as Qik and Ustream, has announced that their live streaming iPhone application has been approved by Apple. The news comes only a few days after Ustream’s live video streaming app was approved, ending a 18 month long drought of broadcasting apps on the App Store. The Bambuser application lets anyone use their iPhone to broadcast live video directly to the web. You can get it on the App Store here. [iTunes link]

The release of these apps is a big deal — for a year and a half since the App Store’s launch, Apple consistently rejected any application that allowed users to broadcast video from their iPhones. The exact reason for this ban is uncertain, but has been attributed to (very valid) concerns over AT&T’s ability to handle their heavy bandwidth consumption.

Bambuser is directly competitive with Qik and Ustream (through Ustream also offers more robust streaming for events, too). We last covered Bambuser last December, when the site got a major overhaul. The service now supports live broadcasting from the iPhone, Symbian, Android, and Windows Mobile, spanning 200 devices. It also offers support for video streaming through desktop web browsers.

Now that Bambuser and Ustream have their live streaming apps available, it’s strange that Qik is still MIA. Qik was really the pioneer in mobile broadcasting, and they’ve definitely got a functional iPhone app (I’ve been using it on my iPhone for well over a year using an ad-hoc build). Presumably they’ve hit a snag in the Apple approval process.

I’ve actually had the Qik live-streaming app on my iPhone for a while, thanks to the magic of ad-hoc distribution. Unfortunately, Apple’s policies restrict the number of copies Qik can send this way, so the application remained mostly a proof-of-concept for most people. Given how quickly Qik submitted the app to the store, we expect the official build that will likely get approved to be the same one we have been using, which we reviewed here. It’s solid, but the video quality leaves a little to be desired compared to some competing video apps (none of which did live streaming).

Like Ustream, Qik did release a version of its app that allowed users to upload videos — but not live videos, until now.

Following Ustream and Qik, you can probably expect other companies like 12seconds to get into the iPhone live streaming game as well. Once all these apps are available, the question is how much will people use them? Services like Qik in particular seemed hot among some of the tech elite last year, but this year have seemed to have large cooled off. Perhaps that’s because people have been ditching their Nokia phones (it seemed like everyone was using the N95 with Qik for a while) in favor of devices like the iPhone. Now that these apps are allowed on the iPhone, will we see a resurgence of links to live streams on Twitter again?

Below find some examples of Qik videos I shot with my iPhone 3GS using the ad-hoc version of the app.

http://qik.com/swfs/qikPlayer4.swf

http://qik.com/swfs/qikPlayer4.swf

http://qik.com/swfs/qikPlayer4.swf

The Ustream Live Broadcaster has just gone live in the App Store tonight and yes, it allows you to stream live video from the iPhone to the web. And yes, it even works over a 3G connection. And yes, it’s awesome.

While one of the key features of the iPhone 3GS was video recording capabilities, that was limited to recordings that were captured on your device and could be uploaded to the web after they were done recording. With the Ustream Live Broadcaster, you can easily record videos right to the web, and allow others to watch them as they’re being recorded. These videos can also be archived so that people can watch them later, if they choose.

Settings within the app also make it easy to automatically tweet out when you go live, as well as to do things like share the videos on Facebook and YouTube. The live broadcast can also send out your location, if you’re into that sort of thing. The app also allows for chatting with viewers, and yes/no polling.

Ustream has long promised that it would be the first to allow for live video streaming on the iPhone, and it looks like they’ve finally come through — though almost a year after we first wrote about it. They’ve had an iPhone app out for a while, but it hasn’t had live capabilities until now. Qik has had a live-streaming app, but it was only an ad-hoc app, meaning it wasn’t available in the App Store.

This Ustream app’s approval follows the approval of another live video streaming app, Knocking, after the developers emailed Steve Jobs personally about its rejection. But that app only does one-to-one streaming, this does one-to-many — full-on broadcast.

Find the Ustream Live Broadcaster in the App Store here for free.

I know online streaming video isn’t inherently obvious to everyone in the world, but it should be inherently obvious to a television station executive whose title is Director of New Media & Operations.

And even if it isn’t, Qik has a video, using cartoons, at the top of their home page showing how to use the service.

We’ve removed the name and location of the affiliate to protect this poor guy’s job. But please everyone, we’re not a Q&A service for every aspiring new media director who has no clue what his job is all about.

Here’s the email exchange:

From: Michael Arrington
Date: December 3, 2009 6:40:23 AM PST
To: [removed to protect the lazy]
Subject: Fwd: ABC News needs help

Dear [removed],

I’d start off by going to http://qik.com/ and then hitting “play” on the flash video at the top of the site, which describes how the service works using cartoons. Then, if you want to proceed, click the large “Sign Up!” button on the bottom right of that page.

Mike

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: [removed]
Date: Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 6:19 PM
Subject: ABC News needs help
To: tips@techcrunch.com

Hello,

I’m the Director of Operation for ABC News in [removed]. Could someone contact me to discuss how we may be able to use Qik in our news operation.

Sincerely,

[removed]

Director of New Media & Operations

Past Winners Of The Email Of The Week Award:
No, Don’t Sue Facebook. Yes, Do Get A New Boyfriend
Email Of The Week: CarAndDriver Launches Bold Online Link Farm Strategy
Email Of The Week: Journalism School Language Police

We like to keep an eye on the adoption of mobile video broadcasting applications around these parts. It’s a mighty competitive space, with Qik, Kyte, Flixwagon, Ustream and a number of others all taking a stab at what is essentially the same idea. While the idea as a whole has yet to really take off as something that everyone does, its one that just about everyone seems to appreciate once it’s explained to them. Therein lies the challenge: how do you tell people that such services exist?

One approach is to get it on the handsets right out of the box. If it’s hard to get them to come to you, why not go to them?

The only one of the lot we’ve seen do this so far is Qik, who managed to convince Nokia to pre-install Qik on all of their S60-based phones beginning in July. Today, they’ve announced a new factory-loading partner: Samsung.

After what Qik says was “months of rigorous testing and certifications”, Samsung is now pre-loading the application onto Omnia II handsets at the factory. Samsung managed to sell many millions of the first Omnia worldwide – if the sequel is anywhere near as successful, Qik ought to see a pretty good amount of growth in the coming weeks.