A few weeks back I posted my initial impressions of the almost immediate impact of qik on the mobile blogging space. For the first time, video blogging via a mobile device was not only easy – it was a pleasure. In the interim, the blogosphere has been bombarded with a number of similar tools – including the iPhone video-blogging product, Kyte, and the stubborn audio-only concept, Audio Boo.

As a self-professed sucker for all things new (as my two hours in queue at the Apple Store on the morning of the iPhone 3GS release can attest), I have been frantically experimenting with a number of these new realtime/media blogging engines and can report that they are indeed a mixed bag. Sadly, a Google search for Entropy Digital will more likely point you a number of my new ‘media blogging channels’ rather than this site, leading me to collate my thoughts into the quick summary and breakdown below:

The ‘King Daddy’ of mobile video blogging, the qik application is not only avaialable on a raft of handsets (Symbian, Java, Windows Mobile, and soon Android) but should you jailbreak your iPhone, there’s even a nifty Apple version. To date, qik leads the pack in terms of live video and ‘episodic’ video blogging with an extremely easy-to-learn user interface and video upload facility. From a business development standpoint, qik has made some astute decisions, with deals already in the bag with the likes of facebook and several other social networks soon to be announced.

In short, they were first to the party, have an extremely easy method of turning your handset into a full-fledged mobile webcam, have ported their app to a number of devices, and are making the right moves in terms of distribution – a tough act to follow at this point. Unless of course you’re YouTube…

If qik is the ‘King Daddy’ of mobile video blogging, old Grandpappy YouTube is set to the close the gap – and qik’ly. Since the iPhone 3GS release, the number of mobile video uploads for YouTube has increased over 400% as the new iPhone provides an even easier upload method than qik – ie, no additional app required. With the ability to quickly compress and upload (even over 3G), the in-built function of the 3GS is tailor-made for video blogging. The only catch? Well, YouTube for all its ease and integration with the iPhone 3GS, ain’t all that smooth for other handsets. Sure you can always e-mail your videos from other devices, but the ease of a qik-style platform makes it – for lack of a better phrase – more ‘fun’ to upoad via their custom mobile interface.

Another strike against the YouTube mobile video blogging platform is the lack of a truly integrated social networking feature – allowing a new upload to be immediately broadcast via Twitter, facebook, etc. In an age when ‘sharing’ is almost synonymous with Twitter, this is an omission that needs to remedied quickly. Services like qik, Audio Boo, and Kyte make this much more seamless, with devoted user ‘channels’ that can further be embedded and hosted on a user’s Web site. Sure YouTube has had this for years, but it lacks the ‘edge’ and polish the younger upstarts are providing.

Speaking of ‘upstart’, one of the newest entrants into the iPhone media blogging space, Kyte, is raising some serious eyebrows, and for good reason:

Well well well. In a trend that is sure to continue, application and platform providers targeting major content and media companies are rapidly shifting their focus to the consumer space – and in a hurry. The first to to evolve, Kyte, has now re-branded itself as a full ‘mobile broadcast platform’. Sure they still sell their iPhone framework to third parties (such as music labels and film studios) to power their iPhone apps at minimal cost – but the emphasis these days is clearly on the everyday video blogger looking for a fast and simple platform to broadcast mobile vids (or as Kyte dubs them – Shows) on the go.

And I have to say – they’ve done an excellent job. The Kyte Producer application for the new iPhone 3GS was the first of its kind out of the gate – and you have to commend Kyte for reading the signals and producing a video blogging app for the new iPhone well before the competition. In fact, as qik for iPhone is limited to jailbroken iPhones for the time being (as the fear of live video streaming has Apple and its Operator partner in hysterics) Kyte is set to become the default video blogging platform for the 3GS (perhaps only slightly behind the native YouTube option).

So can Kyte compete with the existing YouTube integration with the 3GS? Early reports have concluded that video capture, editing and upload using the Kyte Producer App is actually faster than the native upload on the iPhone itself. After using Kyte Producer for the past several days I absolutely agree. This baby moves. Not only that, the video quality of mobile videos shot via the 3GS actually look better on the Kyte Channel than on YouTube – an obvious nod to compression and playback standards Kyte is employing.

From a business development standpoint, Kyte has been qik-like in its recent announcements – with additional funding from Nokia and Swisscom and Holtzbrinck Ventures grabbing headlines.

While the Kyte Producer app is not available on handsets beyond the iPhone at present, its broad reach impact will be somewhat limited. Still, with the iPhone footpirnt and its proven ability to reshape social media, dominance on the Apple platform is certainly not a bad thing. And with no signs of Apple allowing live streaming (and thus the qik application) into the App Store in the near future, Kyte’s early arrival could prove crucial.

And so we end our media blogging tool review with perhaps the ‘cutest’ and most endangered of the mobile blogging trend setters, Audio Boo. Another opportunist entry in the iPhone category, Audio Boo focuses simply on audio blogging, providing an admittingly excellent interface for the recording and upload of audio ‘boos’ which are quickly added to a Twitter-like channel stream and broadcast to the community of your choice. It’s tidy, it’s fast, and it works very, very well.

The downside – iPhone firmware 3.0. Thanks to the addition of the new native ‘voice memos’ app in the new 3.0 platform, Audio Boo’s days are likely numbered. Sure it’s still cool to quickly upload to the blogosphere, and listening to the odd ‘boo’ from fellow ‘boo’ers’ has its novelty – but the ability to send your own ‘boos’ to the location of your choice via the native iPhone app cannot be ignored. Worse, given Audio Boo’s ability to garner massive support prior to the iPhone 3.0 firmware release (due to the banning of video services like qik and the absence of a video capture feature on the 1G and 2G iPhones), the future looks somewhat less bright for the fledgling audio blogging tool who will likely see its value massively diminished by the newer, glitzier video blogging options.

While Audio Boo can certainly maintain its relevance in a few niche markets – namely journalists and ‘undercover’ bloggers who prefer not to announce their video recordings – it will remain to be seen if an audio-only blogging product is sustainable as newer and more advanced video tools emerge.

:::

So that’s it – a quick round the blogosphere look at all the new mobile media blogging tools emerging for iPhone and other mobile platforms. It is important to point out that while two of the above (Kyte, Audio Boo) are only available for iPhone, qik and YouTube (in particular) retain a decided advanatge in total handset coverage wordwide. Regardless, the iPhone – as always – remains the default media and consumer darling and will no doubt be a major factor in the success or failure of any new mobile media blogging platforms.

And the race has only just begun.

As you can probably see if you glance to the sidebar to your right, I’ve been spending a great deal of time (perhaps too much) creating new channels, downloading new media production apps, and posting audio and video recordings – much to the ongoing annoyance of friends and family. Sadly for them, I only see that trend increasing in the months to come. Well, at least until a clear mobile media blogging platform emerges as my personal ‘default’.

Till then, keep searching for Entropy Digital blogging ‘channels’…there are sure to be plenty…

While we were all less than enthusiastic by the emergence of the new iPhone 3G S last week (the ‘S’ is for speed in case you missed it), the developer and content world is still all a-flutter with the prospect of nabbing the new handset upon its release this Friday. Sure many of us wasted a perfectly good Monday evening couched in front of our computers following the various ‘live bloggers’ from the WWDC in San Francisco. I would particularly like to rewind to that moment when the blog I followed mentioned ‘….and here comes the new iPhones!!!’. Sadly, that was the end of the anticipation, and the unfortunate beginning of reality.

So here we are – the iPhone 3G S. Nothing particularly ground-breaking to report. The speed? Well, we’ll have to wait to perform some trials later this week – but the compass, video capture and even voice control have been done before – uhh, thanks Google Android. And of course the *really* good news for the Apple faithful (who are no doubt locked into somewhere between 10 and 18 months on an existing 3G contract) is the total lack of an affordable upgrade path, meaning the iPhone acolytes (myself included) will be queing at the ‘ol Apple Store this Friday to purchase a Pay-As-You-Go model for around £450 – £550. Sad, I know.

But what about new users? Well, taking a long hard look at the 3G vs 3G S – there are few major differences:

In fact, unless you are simply unable to live without voice control, a compass, and video capture (which the iPhone faithful have dismissed for over a year now), then the reasons for shelling out additional cash for the ‘S’ are not all that compelling. Sure the camera is a bit better – but at just 1 megapixel difference – is it really that much better? I fear Apple may have missed a trick with this latest Developer’s conference and the subsequent anticipation the past month or two has brought the industry.

While the new 3.0 firmware is indeed a solid step forward – specifically for content owners seeking longer-term revenue from the application paradigm (in-app sales/subscriptions) – from a hardware standpoint Apple has probably done just enough to keep Android and the Palm Pre at bay – for now. But is just enough good enough reason to upgrade – especially at these prices? Probably not.

Sadly, I won’t be practicing that advice as I intend to grab a 3G S this Friday – for research purposes of course (!)

Check back this weekend when I’ll be running some speed tests, comparison trials, and putting the new handset through its paces to reveal whether or not this ‘S’ is the real deal.

Till then, enjoy the 3.0 upgrade…

Augmented Reality (AR) as defined by our friends at Wikipedia is the field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time.

As an admitted (late) early-adopter of the trend, I was more than convinced of the viability and assured future of augmented reality in the mobile and digital space following a set of outstanding presentations at Mobile Monday Amsterdam this past week. So impressed in fact, that I’m afraid the Entropy Digital blog will be choked with (AR) posts for some time to come.

So for those of you out there who – like me – came a little late to this party, let’s start gradually. Augmented reality can really be broken down into several categories (kudos to James Pine II) – or more specifically two overall realms – the realms of the real, and the realms of the virtual. Promising not to jump too far into Stargate SG1 lingo, the six categories can defined as follows:

Realms of the Real

• Augmented Reality – Improving or adding to reality
• Alternate Reality – eg – An ‘assisted’ reality – i.e. A Tour using a Digital Guide
• Warped Reality – eg Altering Time or Reality (Renaiisance Festivals, Living History Museums, etc.)

Realms of the Virtual

• Augmented Virtuality – eg Wii, Guitar Hero, Tap Tap Revolution, iPhone apps, etc.
• Physical Virtuality – Making something that WAS virtual, real. Instatiation. Legofactory.com, 3D printing, Architectural and Engineering Digital Testing, etc.
• Mirrored Virtuality – Tied to real-time events; but represented in a totally virtual way. Examples include: HealthMap, FluTracker, Google Maps Mashups, MLB Gameday (every pitch, every batter stats), NASCAR PitCommand, etc.

What does all this mean? Well beyond the fact that a number of the mobile industry’s leading ‘Futurists’ are expecting the application of augmented reality to affect almost all aspects of mobile data interaction and services in coming years, it also means that AR is already here. In fact, it’s been with us for some time.

A leading mobile application example (and a good model of what is to come for those of us with fancy new smartphones – Android handsets, iPhones, etc.) include the Android app Wikitude which allows you to identity and enhance your physical experiences with landmark, restaurant and even Wikipedia information – just by pointing your handset at your surroundings. Have a look:

Wikitude is just the beginning. Imagine social networks enhanced with AR, and even the normal ‘High Street’ re-designed virtually to assist in sales, offers, vouchers – all filtered by your preferences and selections. How many meetings have you been a part of in the last 10 or so years when someone pointed out that Starbucks would LOVE to send you an SMS when you walk by a shop offering you a free Latte. I’ve been in dozens. It was always a ‘great’ idea but much too complicated with LBS or even Assisted GPS. Thanks to mobile application proliferation, Google Maps mashups, and intricate access to a handset’s GPS, these concepts are no longer obtuse – and really, just around the corner.

OK, enough for now. AR is coming. Seriously. More on that soon…

Related articles by Zemanta

• Augmented Reality & The Web: Present and Future Scenarios (readwriteweb.com)

Some of our clients include: