Not to be outdone by Qik, live streaming video service Ustream have released an iPhone application. It allows you to stream live to the internet, right from your iPhone.
The app works as advertised, offering a options like high and low quality video, ability to easily mute and record the broadcast. You can configure the app to auto-tweet with a custom message when you broadcast, you can find this option at the bottom of the preferences page.
Whilst the Ustream app doesn’t have the ability to watch live chat (like Qik), it does let you run a simple poll of your audience. The idea here is that the live streamer would ask their audience for feedback, users select Yes or No, then Poll results are then emailed to the email account you have registered with Ustream. It’s a nice feature but can certainly be expanded to offer multiple choice responses.
The downside to all this is that once again it requires a jailbroken iPhone to install. This means a very limited set of iPhone users will ever get to use the application. That is of course unless Apple lighten up a bit and start allowing video streaming apps into the official app store.
Check out my first Ustream broadcast from the iPhone.
Overall
The benefits for consumers is clear, having competition in the live streaming video application should spur development from Qik. Let’s hope for a back and forward feature battle between Qik and Ustream.
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