2. 12cast: After much anticipation, 12seconds.tv released their video application for the iPhone 3GS. The app allows users to create a short 12 second video clip and from here they can share the video's short URL with their friends through Twitter.

3. Twitvid and Posterous: Both Twitvid and Posterous allow users to create videos on their mobile phones and email them to be uploaded to the site. With Twitvid, friends receive a DM message with a link to the newest video. ReadWriteWeb recently covered Twitvid in a round up of Twitter video apps. Meanwhile, with Posterous, your files are instantly converted and embedded as a flash player on your site.

4.Livecast Bambuser and Flixwagon: Livecast, Bambuser and Flixwagon are all similar services that allow users to stream videos live to their channels, blogs and Facebook accounts. Depending on your community preference you can upload vlogs, short films and vignettes.

5. Qik: Qik allows users to stream live videos to their channels, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Justin.tv accounts. One nice feature of the Qik video for Android is that users can trim their clips via their phones before uploading them. ReadWriteWeb named Qik one of the top 100 products of 2008.

6.Kyte: While it doesn't support live streaming, Kyte's iPhone 3GS app allows users to record video and upload it to their channels in an extremely easy manner. The service also offers branded mobile sites for big name celebrities.

We know we're only skimming the surface. If your favorite app isn't listed above, let us know about it in the comments.

SHARED TRAVEL PLANNING: Both Tripit and Dopplr are fantastic tools for keeping track of itineraries and sharing travel plans with friends. Meanwhile Gliider is a great tool for saving large blocks of trip-related text and syncing them to offline folders.

gliider from jared richardson on Vimeo.

DIRECTIONS: TeleNav provides GPS services for a number of mobile devices including the iPhone. The tool offers voice driving directions, spoken address recognition, rerouting for accidents and traffic jams, and locates wireless hotspots, the lowest gas prices, parking lots and ATMs. TomTom for iPhone is also expected to be a great tool as the docking station doubles as a charger.

FOOD: Many of us are familiar finding food with the Yelp and Urbanspoon iPhone apps; however, if you want an authentic road trip experience you might want to consult Roadfood. This site lays claim to the "most memorable local eateries along the highways and back roads of America." We get heart palpitations just looking at the heaping plates of pulled pork, burgers and ribs. Meanwhile, if you're looking to picnic with something more healthy and sustainable, Local Harvest's farmer's market finder coupled with the Locavore iPhone app offer users the chance to find local in-season produce. Locallectual offers a similar tool with their iLocavore app.

VIDEOS & PHOTOS: One way to get images up quickly is to stream them directly from your camera. Eye-Fi uses a wireless connection to upload photos and videos directly to your Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Picassa accounts. If you want to live stream sans touch ups or editing, Eye-Fi is an extremely useful cordless solution. Other mobile streaming video and image options include Qik, Flixwagon, Stickam, Justin.tv and Kyte Producer.

GEO-TAGGING: AroundShare is a mobile application that allows users to publish photos to Google Maps. Meanwhile, Flickr's users can also organize their videos and photos on a map via the site's geo-tagging features. As for geo-based discovery, Flickr mobile utilizes the locational features of the Android and iPhone and allows members to explore public photos from nearby sites.

TRACKING:Google Latitude lets users share their location on a map in real time from their phones or computers. Maps can be embedded in public websites and road trippers appear as moving dots on the map. Imagine your best friend surprising you with Thai food just as you pull up to your hotel. Services like Brightkite and Loopt also broadcast your location; however, these services are based on push notifications rather than real time tracking.

TELLING THE STORY: The Whuffaoke group is using Dipity to aggregate their media. The service allows users to upload their Tweets, blog posts and photo sets to a map, time line and flip book interface. The nice thing about this tool is that it can either be embedded (as seen here) or shared via Facebook, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit or Digg. Other tools to aggregate road trip-related media include JS-Kit's Echo, Disqus or an embedded hashtag feed.

Qik isn't a huge company, so the presentation being held in what looked like Qik's main lobby with Robert Scoble popping in around the edges isn't too surprising. However, they made a couple of unfortunate choices during the presentation. First, using a cell phone (perhaps using Qik Roam technology?) as the primary camera meant the video was shaky and not perfectly in focus, and audio was mediocre at best. Second, the feed did not have a title on it, so visitors hitting the Qik front page only knew that a live presentation was happening - not what was happening or how far along it was. Finally, the video was horribly choppy, obviously suffering from an intermittent connection, which left the viewer waiting interminably for a few seconds of video here and there. The chat accompanying the video (which apparently is not saved after the live session concludes) was similarly full of confused and unhappy viewers.

Of course, after the event ended, the Qik software completed its job of filling in the missing pieces and the finished videos can be viewed here, now more or less unbroken. And, as we said above, the ability to have a SIM card that would allow us to use our phone's data capability and Qik video-streaming abilities anywhere in the world without additional roaming or other surcharges sounds like a pretty good deal! We've all heard of the poor guy who was stuck with the $3,000 phone bill.

On second thought, perhaps it was the fact that Scoble and MG Siegler were also streaming the event using Qik that caused the problems? We might never know.

12seconds.tv is branching out of the little leagues and partnering with mobile livestreaming heavy hitters Qik and Flixwagon. The videos on Qik and Flixwagon can be pretty long, which means longer loading times for viewers. Now users won't have to worry about wasting time loading videos that they could've skipped. If you're a user of either service, the first 12 seconds of any video you record will be posted to your 12seconds.tv account. This move makes 12seconds.tv somewhat of a video aggregator. The service would be a great way to provide your network of friends with previews of your latest interview or wacky stunts that you record via Qik and Flixwagon.

More Mobile Options

The new partnerships also pushes 12seconds.tv into a wider mobile arena and expands the services current recording options, which was previously limited to a user's webcam or emailing a video to the service from your mobile phone if your device supported video messaging. Now you can do it all with a push of a button from the Qik and Flixwagon mobile apps.

Earlier this month, Qik announced that it had added support for consumer-focused phones - generally falling outside the "smart phone" category - like the Nokia and Sony handsets. Now, Qik is making its way on to the handset that most business users carry: the BlackBerry. Well, some of them, at least.

This makes Qik available on the most popular handsets in the world - leaving it even more conspicuously absent from the Apple iPhone. (iPhone owners interested in using Qik are currently forced to jailbreak their iPhones to use the service.) The new Android phone, the G1, is also currently missing out on Qik support.

But today, a few lucky BlackBerry users get to test Qik functionality for themselves. Those BlackBerry who carry the supported handsets and are interested in testing the alpha software can visit Qik to download the application.

Live Streaming Goes Mainstream

The real news here is that mobile live streaming will now be available to a far wider audience than ever before. Qik is clearly positioning as a mass market product as well, while some of its competitors like Kyte have specifically shied away from going after this market and, so far, only support high-end Nokia S60 phones.

Now that Qik is becoming available to a larger and more diverse audience, it will be interesting to see if we will also see new ways of using it, as well as new controversies around the privacy and copyright implications of live streaming. Hopefully, Qik's competitors, including Kyte and Flixwagon will soon follow suit and release their software for mainstream phones as well.

If you are wondering about the video quality of these live streams, here is a demo from Qik:

For those brave few that have jailbroken their iPhone, here's a way to video record from your iPhone using Qik without broadcasting those hilarious but embarrassing moments to the world.

There are two ways to go about video recording from your iPhone. The first is to set your current Qik profile to private by clicking on the 'Group Settings' option on your profile page located under your latest video. In doing so, you get all the features of Qik including the abilities to record, download, and share your videos with friends. However, your entire Qik profile will be private and unavailable to the public, including any previous videos you may have streamed. If you have two phones from which you can use Qik, simply register the number for one phone as a private profile, while keeping your other phone profile set to public.

Option #2

If you'll be at a computer as soon as the video hits Qik, then you easily switch individual videos from public to private on your profile page. To so, find the video in your recent Qik stream located at the bottom of your profile page. You should see an option that says "public", right next to the "delete" link. Click the "public" link and you'll be provided with the option to switch your video to private.

We Wish This Were Easier

You can simply download your videos for later viewing. These workarounds may seem simple, but you have to admit that you wish these extra steps weren't necessary. While it seems Apple won't be integrating video recording functionality into the iPhone anytime soon, it would be nice if Qik could take the initiative to make things easier for iPhone users by adding the option to make a video private right from their app like Flixwagon does. In the meantime, we hope these tips could help you get a great feature that's sadly missing from the iPhone.

We'd like to warn all of our readers that jailbreaking your iPhone is not illegal, however it does void your warranty with Apple.

Today on the Qik Blog, Qik announced support for jailbroken iPhones running the 2.0 iPhone OS firmware. According to their post, users can expect regular updates to come through the pipeline as the days wear on. While the settings for Qik are minimal and unsatisfying at the moment, the interface for the Qik app is awesome. Unlike the Qik app for the Motorola Q, you cannot set tittles and descriptions via the Qik app on the iPhone.

Qik developers recommend using 3G or WIFI when livestreaming from the Qik app. Unfortunately, EDGE is just too slow.

Flixwagon Launches on the iPhone

While Flixwagon's registration and setup is a lot easier than Qik's, I'm not a fan of the interface. Where Qik takes advantage of the iPhone's entire screen estate, Flixwagon ops for a square box. After doing a quick test of the app, video quality is pretty decent and certainly on par with video quality from my Motorola Q9c on Qik.You can also edit titles and descriptions directly from the app.

Start Livestreaming From Your iPhone

We'd like to warn all of our readers that jailbreaking your iPhone is not illegal, however it does void your warranty with Apple.

To get Qik and Flixwagon on your jailbroken iPhone you first need to jailbreak your iPhone. Their are two programs available for jailbreaking your iPhone:

• Pwnage for Mac users


• WinPwn for Windows users

Qik received a nice share of coverage today from First Congressman John Culberson when he used Qik to interview House Republican lawmakers and gain some insight on the discussion about rising energy costs and gas prices. The livestream was embedded on the CSPAN homepage with plenty of comments and discussions going on in the video's chat. You can view the video here.

Social Media and the Government

First Congressman John Culberson actually has a nice selection of livestreams from various political personnel. Culberson also has a Twitter account, where he is active with a host of followers and followings. However, the question at hand is whether or not parts of the government tinkering with social media is a good thing. Let us know your thoughts in the comments area!

Besides a few other relatively minor upgrades, Qik now supports more granular permissions and the grouping of videos. Qik has also released an update to its video player, which, next to some cosmetic updates, now includes the option to chat with other users from within the player.

Qik also announced some new distribution partners, including Facebook, MySpace, and Orkut. Also, as we reported last week, CoverItLive not allows for embedding Qik videos into its live blogging application.

Live streaming now also works on the Verizon and Spring networks, whereas it was previously restricted to the AT&T and T-Mobile GSM networks.

Competitors and the iPhone

Qik's main competitors are Kyte and Flixwagon. Both of these services, however, are currently only available for phones running Nokia's S60 operating system, while Qik also works on Windows Mobile phones.

None of these applications work on the iPhone, yet (thanks to the lack of a video camera) - though Qik has shown a demo of its product that works on a jailbroken 1st generation iPhone. Kyte also has an application for the iPhone, but it can only be used to share photos.

While most live video streaming services like Justin.tv or Stickam have focused mostly on streaming from webcams (and Kyte also allows for this), Qik is fully focused on mobile video. This is clearly a growing market, especially as more consumers start considering video on mobile phones as a basic utility. With its broad range of supported phones, Qik is well-positioned against its competition.

Qik already has a number of high-profile users, with Robert Scoble, Kevin Rose, and Jason Calacanis regularly using the service to stream interviews or other events live to their followers.

Now if only its users wouldn't flood Twitter regularly by announcing that they are "streaming live now, come chat!"

It goes without saying that one of the most popular AIR applications is the Twitter client, Twhirl. Although it never got a write-up by any top blogs, it seems that everyone discovered this app on their own anyway. One of the best things about Twhirl is that it can be used to connect to multiple Twitter accounts. This is very useful for those that keep a Twitter account for personal use and a separate one for a business or service that they run. The Twhirl app demonstrates how AIR apps bring the web to the desktop, as it can dock in the system tray, just like a real desktop application does. You can search Twitter users, view their timelines, and choose to follow or unfollow them as you like. You can also search the public timeline in a feature that is powered by another web service, terraminds. Twhirl automatically fetches your friends' status updates, direct messages, and replies, while color-coding different types of messages. You'll receive both visual and audible notifications of tweets, with new messages displaying in a preview pop-up. Within Twhirl, you can easily post links via the URL-shortening feature provided by snurl.com. The app is skinnable and comes with multiple color schemes built-in that you can choose from. Overall, Twhirl is one of the best Twitter clients, and one of the best AIR apps, too. Download it here.

Google Analytics

For web site owners, measuring traffic and visitor stats are crucial tasks to managing the site and improving performance. With the Google Analytics AIR application, those who use Google's free analytics software can now view those stats without needing to log in using a web browser. This robust application allows for multiple profiles from different Analytics accounts. Within the app, all the visitors, traffic, and content reports are available, just as they are online. A tabbed interface allows you to easily switch between the various reports. Within each area, you can drilldown into the data to view things like goal values and data segmentation. The app provides animated, interactive graphs, making viewing the data just as useful, if not more so, than when you view it online. You can also quickly swich between the interactive reports to viewing them in a PDF format instead. These reports can then be saved or printed, just like any online PDF. Alternately, reports can be exported to PDF, Excel, or XML formats. Download it here.

RichFLV

RichFLV is an AIR app that lets you edit Flash Video (FLV) files. The app reads FLV metadata - while importing the video, the app outputs the number and types of tags found for video, sound, keyframe (Keyframe Tags), and data (DataTags). With RichFLV, you can read, edit, modify, or delete cuepoints and cut FLV files. You can also use the app as a conversion tool, and convert the FLV files to SWF (Shockwave Flash) format. The sound in the FLV can be converted to an MP3, as well. Although serving a niche audience, this popular app has already been downloaded 654 times from the AIR Marketplace. Download it here.

AgileAgenda

AgileAgenda is a project scheduling utility which lets project managers enter data about tasks. The app, an Adobe AIR Derby Best in Show winner, dynamically adjusts to the changing conditions of a project. It knows today's date and it will automatically adjust tasks that are or aren't complete based on that. Tasks can be moved, extended, or split as needed. A light table lets you view the tasks, reassign them, change their priority, or change the durations. And like most project scheduling utilities, a GANTT view is available as well. Your data can either be stored locally, or even better, on AgileAgenda's web service. AgileAgenda supports data sharing via XML or PDF exports and/or a web-based view on their web service. Download it here.

AOL Top 100 Videos

For some fun with AIR, check out the AOL Top 100 Videos application. This desktop widget lets you view the latest music videos, related artist videos, and special features provided by AOL. The music videos are sorted into various genres, like "Rock & Alternative," "Hip Hop," "Pop," "Country," "Latin," and there is also a category for the "Most Watched" videos. The Top 100 app offers three different views - a Standard View, which is just a normal window, a Full Screen View, and a cool, sidebar-like Docked View. You can bookmark your favorite videos and via the related info sections, you can purchase the album, download ring tones and more, while reading up on your favorite artists. Download it here.

Xdrive Lite

Xdrive Lite is a new AIR app that was just launched today, but it certainly has potential to be one of the better apps. With the AIR client app, Xdrive users can upload files and folders to the online Xdrive web storage service right from the desktop. When logged into the Xdrive Lite app, everything in your Xdrive folder is shown within the app in the upper portion of the window, and below this is a local browser. Uploading files and folders is as easy as dragging and dropping them from one pane to the other. A Transfers section allows you to view the progress of the uploads and downloads. The app can also be used to share files with your friends through email, or by grabbing the embed code or file link. Download it here.

That's just a brief look at some of the apps Adobe AIR currently offers, though I am sure there are many more that you might find just as good or even better [update: go2web20 followed up with more apps]. Do you agree with our list? In the comments, let us know who would be in your favorites!

(Note: some of these apps still require the beta version of AIR to run).

Inspired by the site Pulse of PDX, an aggregation of Twitter messages from users in the tech-rich town of Portland, Oregon (where I live) - these Pulse sites provide a model that could be used to create a central location for live discussions on any topic.

There's a bio page where you can learn about who is included on the site. Participants at launch include people like Ross Turk, Community Manager at SourceForge, Amanda McPherson, the Marketing Director at The Linux Foundation, Greg Stein, the Founding developer of Subversion, and many other people who are vendors, analysts and reporters on Open Source. Does that sound like a site worth checking out? I think it does.

These sites also have a mobile version and an RSS feed. It's a great way to check in on the day to day of the Open Source community.

What community would you like to see the Pulse of? News reporters, political campaigners and graphic designers come to mind for me.

"Tonight we are launching a full post rss reader in the new Yahoo Mail beta. If you are in the beta, you’ll automatically get the new features.

RSS in mail makes perfect sense for a few reasons: 1) people already spend a lot of time in their Mail experience, why shouldn’t personally relevant content be there too 2) While you read RSS you are probably gonna want to forward good stuff you find 3) Hundreds of millions of users use Yahoo Mail, so if we want to reach the masses, we need to go where they are."

That third point is the biggie - millions more people use Yahoo! Mail than use the MyYahoo portal. And most of them probably haven't been directly exposed to RSS feeds yet.

I'll analyze this news fully tomorrow, but for now check out TechCrunch and Podtech.net for all the initial details.