Under the presumption that the video above didn’t use any 3G/WiFi vs EDGE trickery, Ustream.tv is apparently working on a mobile streaming application with some pretty phenomenal efficiency. No, the world probably doesn’t need another mobile streaming app / service combo – the big three, Qik, Flixwagon and Kyte, do a pretty good job of filling the need. Ustream.tv must have missed that memo however, because it is supposedly in the process of pushing its own solution out to market and from the looks of the demo video above, it might make a bit of a splash. We’ve pretty much tossed out the idea of mobile streaming in our congested area of the northeast; AT&T’s 3G is just too hammered and slow to even attempt it. Last time we tried Qik in fact, we built up a delay of over one minute (in about 90 seconds of recording) and just gave up. By moving the bulk of the transcoding process to the hardware however, Ustream.tv has supposedly reduced the amount of bandwidth needed for streaming video significantly. The only other info available for the time being is that the app is reportedly capable of streaming from the front or rear camera of handsets equipped with both, and that it does not support viewer-originated text chat like its competitors do. Lack of viewer chat is a bit of a bummer but then again, what’s the point if your viewers are commenting on something that you streamed three minutes earlier? Consider our interest piqued.

[Via adonismobile]

Read

The mobile video broadcasting space is home to a pretty interesting fight right now. Ok, maybe fight isn’t the best choice of words, or perhaps it is. There are a few big boys when it comes to live interactive video feeds streaming from a mobile handset and they are continuously trying to outdo each other. Qik has the buzz generated by many high-profile celwebrity users, Kyte is the new kid on the block entering the space with an already-substantial user base from their existing web service, and Flixwagon is the well-funded video quality leader with an exciting feature set. With the latter, things just got a whole lot more interesting as Flixwagon has just announced a new client version that brings with it a host of functionality that its competitors will surely be interested in. Take a look:

• Share on Twitter and YouTube directly from phone: you can share individual videos on twitter and YouTube directly  from your device, as well as customize the message or titles. All you need to do is add your Twitter or YouTube account details on Flixwagon.com, and then you can customize posts directly from your phone.
• Detailed sharing from device: on your device you can now easily choose which specific groups (friends, family, etc.) can access your video. Make sure you set up your contacts, groups, and alerts first on flixwagon.com and you can start sharing flix with them on the fly.
• Digital zoom-in and zoom-out.
• Post messages back to chat. You can send IM messages back to the video chat room, making chats around your video 2-way. This is especially useful when you want to respond to your viewers’ comments without interrupting the video or audio in the broadcast.
• Change title: you can now change the video title directly from the phone while broadcasting.  This is great when the ‘right’ headline comes to you while you broadcast (and can help more viewers discover your broadcast while you’re still broadcasting live).
• Choose between delay or video quality: in the preferences section you can determine whether your broadcasts will be optimized for the shortest delay, or highest video quality.

Whew! The two things of particular interest to us are digital zoom and the ability to chat while broadcasting. There are plenty of times while streaming event coverage, observation etc where typing a response to an on-screen comment is much more appropriate than speaking a response. Flixwagon also announced a few tweaks to the website such as RSS feeds that help round off this round of improvements. Definitely worth looking into.

Read

The title sort of says it all, no? Qik isn’t far behind in the streaming video game and their client looks to support all the features of Qik we all know and love. You know, like comments showing up, the superior video quality, and excellent networking. It’s not quick out just yet though with only an alpha application being demoed on video. We’d guess that it would be released in the App Store shortly after launch, however.

Read

After Flixwagon is installed on the phone, users can broadcast videos from it to the Flixwagon website with one click. Videos can be watched live or stored for future viewing. Also, they can be embedded in blogs via our flixee widget or uploaded to the user’s YouTube account. Users can also easily determine which of their contacts to share each video with.

We’re guessing this would be a pretty painful process over an EDGE connection, but Wi-Fi should do just fine until the arrival of the new 3G-equipped handsets. For the time being, the software is only available for those that dare go down the Jailbreaking route, but Flixwagon assures us that they’re working on developing an above-the-board version to release with the App-store when it launches next month. 

Read