After waiting a while for a beta account (to no joy), I was happy to discover at the weekend that QIK.com has been opened to the public (and has had a bit of a facelift since v1 of the site).

I’ve been following a number of bloggers via QIK over the last couple of months and have to say that I’m extremely impressed with what’s been delivered. At the core of things, QIK installs as an application on your mobile phone (I’m using the Nokia N95 8GB) and allows you to stream video direct from your handset.

For this it is recommended that you have either

• an unlimited data plan with your mobile provider
• or a WiFi internet access point

given the large nature of streaming video content.

Further to that, you can also tie in with online networks like Blogger, Twitter, Pownce, YouTube, Seesmic and others to cross-post your QIK videos, with Twitter being used to alert your followers that you’re currently streaming and invite them into the conversation.

QIK also supports comments on archived videos as well as live chat on streaming videos, so the longer you stream, the higher the chances of getting into a conversation or being able to to-and-fro on points of your video. They’ve also just been nominated as one of the best mobile application companies at VentureBeat’s MobileBeat 2008 awards. It also turns out you can run QIK from your iPhone.

At present I’m testing the service on a home/office WiFi node though an unlimited data plan would certainly make things more flexible for me as a potential long-term user. I’m also exploring options on using mobile video streaming to enhance the work I do with bands, gigs and the theatre. Let’s see how that goes.

Sign up for free and give it a try yourself at QIK.com or keep an eye on my profile here.

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