I have really been looking forward to Qik on the iPhone, but this news today is really depressing. There are so many great developers out there and to see an app that would change the way so many of us communicate only be avalible on jailbroken iPhones just makes me sad.
A while back, Qik announced that they would be creating a video broadcast client for the iPhone. When they first announced it, Qik was only available in a limited beta to jailbroken phones. However, Qik has announced that all jailbroken 1.1.4 iPhones will be able to get the client through Installer.app. Since Apple hasn’t yet allowed streaming video using the iPhone’s camera, jailbreaking is the only way to use Qik.
Qik, as you may already know, is a way to broadcast live, streaming video from a mobile device. While they are not offering an App Store version of their client, you can download it via Installer.app by adding “http://qik.com/iphone1″ to your sources list. If you are using iPhone 2.0 software, you might be able to downgrade to 1.1.4, however, the risks outweigh any advantages you might get.
There seems to be a growing field of jailbreak applications as Apple continues to disallow some SDK-built apps. Even though we have the official SDK, there are still too many limitations for some apps and their users.
Qik launches on Installer.app – The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)