Qik, whose service lets you stream live from your smartphone to the Web, has opened its beta program to the public. With support for 30+ Symbian and Windows Mobile handsets, Qik integrates with a number of Web sites to enable true real-time sharing of video streams captured with a smartphone.

Along with the public beta, the company announced a slew of service enhancements, including:

* Half-second to three-second latency, depending on the carrier network.

* A Groups feature that lets you share videos with private, public and restricted groups.

* Self-service event pages so you can create your own events and invite guests to participate or view the video.

* An enhanced embeddable player that brings a new look, a new chat feature and the ability to view thumbnails of other Qik videos.

* Integration with the Facebook, MySpace and Orkut social networks.

The service already integrates with live video streaming providers Mogulus and Justin.tv; Twitter, Pownce, Blogger, YouTube, WorldTV, live blogging service CoverItLive and location-based service iPoki.

As tough as it may seem to believe with all the hype over the new iPhone, there are still millions and millions of cell phones running on pre-3G networks that can still handle video. Those of us with older, less sophisticated handsets often feel neglected. We can watch video on our phones; we just can't stream it very well, so don't forget about us.

Start-up Azuki Systems has a goal of driving the mainstream adoption of mobile video for the rest of us. To do so, it's taken the concept of video snack bits to a new, smaller level with its MediaMash Platform.

MobileContentToday.com spoke with Azuki co-founder and VP of marketing John Tremblay about his company's unique approach to making mobile video accessible to the masses. According to Tremblay, unless you have an iPhone, most of today's mobile video experiences are "flat." Azuki wants to change this.

To learn more about Azuki and its MediaMash platform, click continued.

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IKEA and new media production company SXM have announced IKEA's first branded entertainment initiative: a new scripted Web series called "Easy To Assemble," created by and starring Illeana Douglas (of Goodfellas and Ghost World fame) and co-starring an "assortment of celebrity cameos." The videos will be available online and on mobile phones.

There's no word yet on what carriers the videos will be available on, or what services you need to have activated in order to view them. We imagine that information will be released at some point soon. Regardless, the two companies will release one new episode per week starting in September, to cover IKEA's new fall products. Now you'll be able to get emergency ideas on where to put that new POÄNG chair no matter where you are.

UltraSlo.com, an Internet entertainment company that produces slow-motion video clips of just about any subject imaginable, is making its content available to the mobile community through a partnership with Thumbplay.

"They say content is king; well, it is, if you get to where your viewers are," noted UltraSlo founder and Emmy-winning cinematographer Alan Teitel. "As such, with its massive reach, Thumbplay makes an ideal distribution partner."

A number of UltraSlo mobile videos are already up on the Thumbplay Web site. The company is planning "a very aggressive shooting schedule for Q3 and Q4," so expect a slew of new content to be added over the coming months.

Meanwhile, check out this really cool slo-mo video of a bulb bursting into pieces.

Verizon has inked a wide-reaching, multiplatform distribution deal with NBC Universal that gives the telco the rights to NBCU's Olympic coverage on TV, broadband and wireless.

During the games, Verizon Wireless customers can catch daily highlights, breaking news, scores and results and feature reports on V CAST video.

That's nothing compared to what AT&T wireless customers will get, though, probably because AT&T is an official sponsor of the US Olympic team.

Anyway, folks who don't want to watch on TV or online will have 24x7 access to NBC's Olympic coverage via the new NBC Olympics Mobile Web site - great for the iPhone - and, for a limited group, the AT&T Mobile TV service. Specific mobile coverage includes live competition footage on the NBC Olympics 2Go channel. Unfortunately, it's only available on a few handsets in 58 markets.

(Image credit: Clipart.com)

MediaPost is reporting that more than half (55%) of those 29 and under would be willing to send a text message to request a mobile video that looked interesting, according to an Avot Media survey of 400 mobile customers. (Avot Media is a mobile video provider, so take everything they say about this with a huge grain of salt.)

The study found that about one-third would be willing to watch "American Idol" performances and instructional how-to videos, while 36% would watch movie trailers, the report said. "Among their biggest concerns about mobile video were image quality, download time and video freezing or stuttering."

Avot, meanwhile, is busy testing service that lets mobile users view instructional videos about in-store products by entering an SMS short code to obtain a link. So far the company is testing it in various Home Depot stores in Florida, as we reported back in May.

Veveo has added two new music channels to its vTap mobile video service, Pocket-lint reports. The free UK Festivals and UK Alternative Festivals channels deliver the latest festival-related video content, including coverage of this year's O2 Wireless, T in the Park and Reading/Leeds festivals. The Alternative Festivals channel will stream content relating to the up-and-coming artists at such festivals as Green Man and Latitude.

The channels will also feature videos of the festivals' headlining acts.

Music fans can tune into the channels on their phones at m.vtap.com/feeds/uk_festivals or m.vtap.com/feeds/Alternative_Festivals or watch online at www.vtap.com/feeds/uk_festivals or www.vtap.com/feeds/Alternative_Festivals.

AT&T has been named an official partner of the USA Basketball Men's Senior National Team. This means that the telco gets to offer exclusive wireless, online and video-on-demand content plus USA Basketball-themed marketing swag.

Viewers can keep up with the team on their AT&T 3G wireless handsets, online through the AT&T blue room or on TV if they have the AT&T U-verse service. Content includes team selection, interviews, training camp and other video as the team prepares for the Olympic Games in Beijing.

(Image credit: Clipart.com)

Not that many people really cared at the time, but back in December, MovieBeam, the high-definition streaming movie rental service—one with a limited selection and terribly restrictive DRM that precluded mobile use, unlike its competitors Vongo and now Apple—had called it quits. Investors stepped into the rubble to basically pick up all the pieces, and that was that.

That's no longer the end of the story. Engadget reports that the new owner is Indian conglomerate The Valuable Group, headed by Sanjay Gaikwad, "who apparently thinks serving up a remarkably limited assortment of heavily compressed movies on demand is an idea that deserves to fail all over the world, instead of just in the U.S."

So in addition to the $100 million that Disney had already burned through in trying to get MovieBeam to catch on, Gaikwad plans to spend at least that much again over the next two years to relaunch the service in North America, the U.K. and other overseas markets, according to the report. Wow, we can't wait.

The Creative Zen X-Fi inches closer to release, Engadget reports, with full pricing details hitting e-tailer Web sites: 8GB ($149.99), 16GB ($199.99) and 32GB ($279.99). That's going to provide some serious heat for the mobile video-capable Apple iPod Nano series. But that's been said about Creative before, so it's hard to say if they'll be successful.

In this case, we're expecting at least some buyers to defect to Creative, because the X-Fi reportedly comes with Wi-Fi capability (hence the name). Or, rather, at least the 16GB and 32GB models will; according to the report, the 8GB iteration doesn't seem to include built-in Wi-Fi based on the current header at Buy.com, but it's still too early to tell.