Qik opens public beta and announces new features

Qik enables users to go live by streaming anytime, anywhere, right from your phone. The service has opened its public beta program. The streaming service has also announced a couple of new features on their site today, including groups, events and an embeddable player.

New features:

• Facebook integration – Next to Myspace and Orkut, Qik’s Facebook integration enables users to stream their live video right into their profile.
• Groups and events – With support for groups, users can select who can upload or view videos. The privacy options include allowance to public groups, restricted groups and private view.
  Another cool new feature is the support for special events, which enables the user to create temporary groups and agegrate all footage from a single event.
• Distribution – Qik supports over 30 mobile phones and with multiple networks, T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.

Qik began their service in late 2007, and supported only a limited number of mobile phones back then. Currently, the list of supported phones is (slowly) getting longer, including some Windows mobile devices and soon the jailbroken iPhone can be added to the list. Qik has raised about $4 million in funding. There are JAVA alternatives to Qik that allows streaming from more mobile phones, including Bambuser and Floobs. (read more)