Technology is turning us all into miniature media moguls. For those that want to share moments of their lives as they happen, recording video and uploading it later is simply too slow of a process. They need streaming video and they need it know. Luckily iPhone can finally help them out. While Ustream has had a broadcast streaming video application for Nokia and Android phones for months, the iPhone version just came out earlier in December. With Ustream Live Broadcaster, users can upload and record live video to the web, alert their social networks (via Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube), and archive their work for later. Best yet, Ustream offers the application for free.
There are other live video phone applications. Qik is available on many phone platforms, and can be used on the iPhone, but only if you hack it. Knocking Live Video will share streaming video, but only between one mobile and another. Ustream is the first one to many broadcasting iPhone App approved by Apple, which means it’s the first that is likely to dominate the market. That market is set to increase in the years to come. Already we’ve seen how life recording and other extreme sharing concepts are gaining ground, it’s probably only a matter of time before broadcasting events is as popular as texting about them on Facebook and Twitter. I wonder how the next generation’s concepts about privacy will change with this new technology. A new sense of what is private is bound to shape everything from job hunting to airport screening. It’s going to get harder to tell governments, and employers, they can’t hunt for information when we’re all sharing it freely online.
[photo credit: Ustream]
