Written on August 5, 2008 – 8:47 am
Joop Dorresteijn, Contributing editor
Every week we publish an interview with a start-up. We ask five questions, hoping the answers will give you inspiration and new views.
This time we’re interviewing Diego Fernández Domínguez, the co-founder of ipoki.com. Ipoki lets you get the most of your GPS by connecting you with others to share geolocation information. Ipoki lets you share your current location with others in real-time. Also, you can see where your friends are and track them on Google Maps and Google Earth. Ipoki lets you keep track of your routes and use it to geolocate photos in flickr automatically. Invite your friends to see where you are and find and follow them across the world.
How did you come up with the idea of your Ipoki?
“We started to work on Ipoki when the firsts GPS-enabled mobile-phones were put on the market. We notice that there were some services on the market about geolocation without its democratic internet version (open and free).
First, we started creating some location based services like put and get alerts fro users around specific places, but then we realize that we need to add social features to our services if we want to make it really massive, opened and easy for every possible internet user.
So, we decided to create a social network based on location sharing. People share photos, videos and a lot of things over the internet and we think that it would be very interesting to share your location in real-time with accuracy, like some pay-services plus social features.
Finally, we have added new services to our social network like integrations with Twitter, Flickr or Facebook.” (more…)
I hope you like that post!
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Written on July 21, 2008 – 10:19 am
Joop Dorresteijn, Contributing editor
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.
Written on July 18, 2008 – 10:59 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Ever stayed at home while trying to follow a conference? If it’s a popular gig; tweets, live videos, blog articles, and pictures keep popping up. Hard to keep track of and most of it is not so interesting too. No wonder there’s a start-up that tries to structure this whole live coverage experience. I’ve written about them before, as Canada-based CoveritLive is definitely the best live blogging tool around.
New technologies for traditional journalists
Not only is this service easy to use, CoveritLive also builds bridges between traditional and new media. By making live reporting extremely accessible, CoveritLive has tempted several traditional journalists to embrace new technologies. I hope these journalists are now ready for another one: low quality live video coverage.
Qik, Mogulus, and uStream integration
CoveritLive president Keith McSpurren has just mailed his users that they can now integrate videos from Qik, Mogulus and uStream into their CoveritLive live blogs. YouTube integration was already possible, but we all know how long it takes for YouTube to process a video. So for those moments that need super fast reporting - like the NBA drafts or the recent E3 conference (both covered by CiL users) - reporters can grab their fancy phones and push the record button. See the support center for a video introduction.
One step futher
I love the way CoveritLive makes these new reporting technologies accessible. It’s another step for journalists who used to be afraid of the digital revolution, buy a Nokia N95 and surprise your editor in chief with live coverage. If he’s skeptical, tell him CoveritLive live blogs have been seen by just under two million readers in the past thirty days.
Written on May 17, 2008 – 6:30 pm
Steven Carrol, Next Web WebTipr France
Despite being a tech geek I have not used a mobile phone more that about 10 times in my entire life (shock horror). They just never really interested me but I guess it says more about my social ineptness than it does about mobile phones.
But an odd correlation, I had the same feeling about computers as they went through the Microsoft business tools era (Word, Excel, Quickbooks et cetera), as a developer back then computers just didn’t get me going, so I spent the nineties in electronics making audio products.
Mobile live stream battle on SXSW 2008: Scoble vs. Pistachio
Despite being an early hacker on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum at about age 14, computers really only got interesting for me with the arrival of the Internet, then when broadband arrived I got ‘really excited’.
But in the last few months something has changed the landscape so dramatically in the mobile market that I see a paradigm shift similar to the above where an entirely new species of mobile device evolves which is much more attractive than has been previously seen. Obviously I’m not alone having these thoughts, as we sit here thousands of others are having the same realizations, not least those emanating from Adobe’s crystal ball.
So after teasing Sarah Lacy I’m checking out the comments of Arrington’s interview with Lacy which was streamed live through a mobile via Qik and looking through, there’s loads of trolls getting into a twist about the quality of the stream. Being a bit of an expert in the sound department, immediately I see obvious errors and solution.
(more…)
Written on March 25, 2008 – 9:50 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Every week we publish an interview with a start-up. We ask five questions, hoping the answers will give you inspiration and new views. Well, actually six questions, since we also ask the start-up to who he or she is passing the mic to.
As I’ve promised you last week, I will interview the start-ups who participated in the start-up rally of PLUGG 2008. This time I’m interviewing Joonas Pekkanen from Floobs. That’s a Finnish start-up which enables anyone to setup their own live internet and mobile TV Channel. The advantage of this streaming video service, compared to competitors like Qik, is that it’s Java-based. So theoretically, the Java client is easily exported to a large number of mobile devices. Our WebTipr from Finland, Timo Paloheimo, has written a good overview of this promising start-up. Here’s their own story.
How did you come up with the idea of Floobs?
“We had been discussing different ideas with my co-founder Kai Lemmetty since the end of summer 2006. By winter we found ourselves discussing more and more often on the subject of live video and its possibilities. One evening we just suddenly realized that everyone will be carrying a video production tools in their pockets in the form of smart phones very soon. In the end of January we set-up the company and started working on the first draft of the business plan, recruiting key people and looking for seed funding. Our idea is to allow anyone to set-up their own live mobile Internet TV channels – streaming live content from mobile phones, web cams, DV cameras and mixing that with pre-recorded content.” (more…)
Written on March 13, 2008 – 12:34 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
In the beginning of December I celebrated ‘a revolution in mobile video‘. I was talking about Qik.com. The popular service that allows you to stream live from your phone. And oh, they’re also having a love affair with Robert Scoble. If you’ve visited a tech or web conference lately, chances are high that Scoble dragged you in front of his N95 to ask some questions. It also happened to us.
Yet there’s one problem with Qik. They seem to be a bit lazy since they still only support Nokia phones. Sure, the FAQ says ‘We are continuously adding support for phones’, yet all those people out there without a Nokia can still only dream about using Qik.
But now there’s the Swedish start-up Bambuser! I won’t call it another revolution, but it sure looks like a good Qik-alternative. Just like Qik, it differs from other services like Seesmic and Kyte with the good usability. It’s a little like the Twitter philosophy: leave out the unnecessary extras. So that’s great news for Sony Ericsson and Samsung adapts, you can all start your own video shows now too.
Written on January 13, 2008 – 4:35 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Although some people have just started to get used to the idea micro-blogging, a new revolution is already on its way. In everyday life, it’s still hard to explain why you would let a group of followers know what you’re doing. It even used to be in the tech industry, yet the advantages are evident now. Haven’t discovered them yet? Read some tips and make sure to hurry up, the next big thing is here.
First there was text, and Twitter was just Twitter: some sort of platform for your text messages. A new way of staying in touch with your professional and personal network. Then, all kinds of applications started to pop up. Developers connected photo blogging with micro-blogging, and services like Mobypicture have been offering easy ways to Twitter your photos.
Now, it seems like video will be the next thing on Twitter and other micro-blogging services. Several start-ups are focusing on live video streaming and ways of posting videos on Twitter.
Twiddeo is Twitter + Video. Login with your Twitter name and pass to start uploading videos. You can also send them by email or from your mobile phone. Twiddeo isn’t very popular yet, considering that the last video was uploaded 15 hours ago. Maybe it’s because they’re not offering live video streaming?
Something the previously discussed Qik, social network Next2Friends, Kyte and Seesmic do (or will) offer. People don’t have the time for editing a video, they just want to share a special or interesting moment.
They can do that by pressing only one button, and all of their followers can watch the new video. Sounds easy, right? And that’s exactly why more and more people with the right phone, will post those videos. Why describing your new car in 140 characters, if you can just walk around it with a camera in your hand?
Hopefully data traffic will get more affordable and Wifi coverage will be improved. If that happens, my guess is that all the text posts that describe a visual phenomenon will eventually be replaced by a streaming video.
[WebTipr: David Petherick, United Kingdom]
Written on December 17, 2007 – 9:55 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
The next revolution in mobile video is here! Qik makes it possible to broadcast live from your Nokia phone. Robert Scoble discovered this new way of video sharing and is raving about it on his blog: “Holy s**t. I can stream live video to you now from anywhere at anytime.” This is how he drives his car.
Besides filming during driving, Qik makes a lot of other interesting activities possible. Just imagine the influence this will have on citizen journalism. Instead of endlessly uploading the video, the new reporters can broadcast their news right-a-way.
And what will this mean for YouTube? If the larger audience will pick up this service, chances are high that almost all video content from camera phones will be published on Qik instead of YouTube.
Since I don’t own the right phone I haven’t been able to test it yet. I hereby challenge you, the Next Web visitor, to come up with an interesting live stream in the comments.
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