For those of you coveting all the new video cameras on the market but bemoaning your budgets, consider the newest trend in digital video: Mobilecasting! If you have a camera in your phone and a desire to broadcast breaking news or other events, it's easy to live-stream content to any number of websites. Better yet? Aside from the cost of your phone and any data charges you're paying, mobilecasting is free!
Here are a number of sites and services to try:
Qik is a service available to individuals and businesses that enables you to broadcast directly to Qik, MySpace, Orkut and other websites. It's already a featured application on Nokia phones and works just as well on Symbian devices. If you follow Robert Scoble, who has his own regular web-based broadcast show about technology, you can see his Qiks here.
Kyte's service also enables you to mobilecast using a variety of phones. You can start your own channel and invite others to both watch and respond to what you post. Even better, you can start using Kyte instantly by scanning the QR code available on the site with your mobile handset! (What the heck is a QR code? Read this for more.)
Flixwagon is a popular mobilecasting service used by MTV and others, and it's available for Nokias and other phones. Qik and Flixwagon both work on iPhones, but you need to "jailbreak" them first. Unless you're experienced or don't mind forking out hundreds of dollars for a new phone if you make a mistake, I don't recommend jailbreaking. If you want more info, see this story.
If you start broadcasting successfully, let us know! Share your tips and ideas in the comments section below.
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Follow me on Twitter! Amy Webb is a digital media consultant and head of Webbmedia Group, LLC. Find more multimedia tips and ideas at her blog, http://www.mydigimedia.com. Webbmedia Group is a vendor-neutral company. Any opinions expressed about products or services are formed after testing, research and interviews. Neither Amy Webb nor Webbmedia Group or its employees receives any financial or other benefits from vendors.