Image by FemmeNoir via Flickr
Hiya folks, sorry for my long absence, had a lot of personal family issues going on the past couple months, but that’s for another site and time.

On to the subject at hand; I have been using both Qik and Flixwagon over the past month and a half with my iPhone and I have some opinions about both of them, which I would like to share with you.

For those who don’t know about these sites/programs, lemme give you the low down Qik and Flixwagon are both live streaming video sites that allow users to broadcast live audio and video from anywhere in teh world, through their camera phone. These are both very fun and interesting sites, and have many useful features, functions, and an endless possibility for international newsmaking and breaking (Or just being an annoying twit.)

Have the latest scoop on a celebrity? Go live and beat the paps! See a breaking news story? Report on it before the press arrives! Bored and want to amuse your friends y familia, have your buddy film you doing something stupid and everyone will see it, laugh and enjoy your silly antics and then wonder about your self abusiveness.

One thing I really liked about them both is they have the ability to broadcast to only your friends or those on your contact list on the site. Also though, you can decide to broadacst to everyone or just make it private (Of course, anything you film can be seen and used by both sites though, for any purpose they deem necessary, so keep that in mind peeps, and always… *ALWAYS* read your TOS.) So if you don’t want Joe and Sissy Everyuser watching you do such norty things, set the video to contacts or private, and then share with only those you wish to see yours antics.

Lastly, the both have the ability to send the videos directly to YouTube, which I like a lot. This means less work for me as I don’t have to rip the videos using any number of FireFox plugins that do video ripping from website, and then re-upload them to Youtube.

So, which one does Teh James use and prefer? Honestly, it depends on the situation. For over all quality, I’d say Qik, but when their videos auto transfer over to YouTube, they lose a lot of quality. Flixwagon on the other hand, transfers flawlessly to Youtube, but doesn’t broadcast as quickly and doesn’t have as good a quality on their main site in my opinion.

Solution? Use both! If you have a jailbroken iPhone, they’re both free on either the Installer or Cydia apps. The Applestores’ closest competitor is Kyte, which will stream pictures you take live online. One thing that Kyte and Qik do have in common is that they both allow people to chat or comment live on your videos/pictures, and you can view them as they’re streamed live back on your iPhone. As far as I can tell at this time, Flixwagon unfortunately (or should I say fortunately) doesn’t.

Have a happy broadcasting your antics live day people!