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.