Terrified of Qik
@ 2010-06-29 22:00:18.554564
Filed under: Personal Tech
For those who don't know what qik is, it's a mobile application for taking videos and uploading them to the net as well as a "live" stream service from your phone for people to watch. I put live in quotes as, since one would expect, there is a delay depending on bandwidth, processing and other factors (it seems to be between 10-20 seconds usually). It's quite an interesting idea and seems to work decently well. For many phones this is a downloadable app but for us Evo users it is preloaded an, without hackery, can not be removed. Of course, this is par for course when it comes to bundled apps, but it's still no excuse as to why the practice is still done.
Anyway, I've noticed quite a few odd videos showing up online through qik. Now, a lot of these videos show up in the recent videso section and then disappear off the site 15-60 minutes later. Some you really can't tell WTF is going on (like in this). While others seem like accidental recordings. Take this video for instance. A few seconds of a steering wheel while you drive? Kind of odd. Or this and this ... odd as one usually tries to record something when they record. This is a guy telling someone else how to use it as he reads the instructions on his phone. How about this one which is in someones bag or purse. Then, just for fun, take Monk's sarcastic didn't mean to record video.
While some of the videos are just odd I tend to think a number of them were accidental. Why would you record 15 seconds of your phone moving around in your bag? Why record nothing but a few random words and no image? Why else would the videos have default names such as "A qik snippet of my life"? Have I convinced you at least some portion of these were accidental recordings? Good. We can move to the next step ...
Where do people use their smart phones? At the airport? Yes. Walking down a hall? Of course. At a restaurant? Sure ... but let's think of where else many people use their phones ... the bathroom. Now before you start running off stating that no one does that or you don't do that just think about it. Not much else to do but read or get that phone out and be productive! If you go into (almost) any decently sized company and hang out in the stalls you will end up hearing the beeping, keyboard/feedback clicks and alerts from smart phones (assuming you don't get kicked out for being creepy).
One more thing before we bring this all together. Having a forward facing and a rear facing camera is common on this new generation of phones. Both cameras tend to be at least webcam quality if not much better. For instance, the rear facing camera on my EVO is amazing while the forward facing one is in the better than average similar to iPhone range.
So here it is, why I'm terrified of Qik: With Qik and the ease of accidental recordings it is quite possible that one could record themselves in the bathroom and have it uploaded to the net for everyone to watch without the user realizing it for 15-60 minutes (which is my very unscientific estimate for how long it takes someone to tell someone else they posted a recording they don't think was meant to be posted). This is very close to the dream many people have when younger: going to school naked. Sure, in this case you are not naked, but everyone gets to see you in a bit of a compromising position. To make it worse, there is an automatic "good job" post that happens on some videos as if to encourage you to make more ... if you accidentally posted yourself in the bathroom and were told good job .... yeah.
So I leave you with the closest video to what I've described. No, this person is not in the bathroom but it kind of seems like how the video would end up looking:
EDIT
I lied ... this one is closer (but done on purpose) and kind of creepy:
digg it
seed it
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ma.gnolia
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Filed under: Personal Tech
For those who don't know what qik is, it's a mobile application for taking videos and uploading them to the net as well as a "live" stream service from your phone for people to watch. I put live in quotes as, since one would expect, there is a delay depending on bandwidth, processing and other factors (it seems to be between 10-20 seconds usually). It's quite an interesting idea and seems to work decently well. For many phones this is a downloadable app but for us Evo users it is preloaded an, without hackery, can not be removed. Of course, this is par for course when it comes to bundled apps, but it's still no excuse as to why the practice is still done.
Anyway, I've noticed quite a few odd videos showing up online through qik. Now, a lot of these videos show up in the recent videso section and then disappear off the site 15-60 minutes later. Some you really can't tell WTF is going on (like in this). While others seem like accidental recordings. Take this video for instance. A few seconds of a steering wheel while you drive? Kind of odd. Or this and this ... odd as one usually tries to record something when they record. This is a guy telling someone else how to use it as he reads the instructions on his phone. How about this one which is in someones bag or purse. Then, just for fun, take Monk's sarcastic didn't mean to record video.
While some of the videos are just odd I tend to think a number of them were accidental. Why would you record 15 seconds of your phone moving around in your bag? Why record nothing but a few random words and no image? Why else would the videos have default names such as "A qik snippet of my life"? Have I convinced you at least some portion of these were accidental recordings? Good. We can move to the next step ...
Where do people use their smart phones? At the airport? Yes. Walking down a hall? Of course. At a restaurant? Sure ... but let's think of where else many people use their phones ... the bathroom. Now before you start running off stating that no one does that or you don't do that just think about it. Not much else to do but read or get that phone out and be productive! If you go into (almost) any decently sized company and hang out in the stalls you will end up hearing the beeping, keyboard/feedback clicks and alerts from smart phones (assuming you don't get kicked out for being creepy).
One more thing before we bring this all together. Having a forward facing and a rear facing camera is common on this new generation of phones. Both cameras tend to be at least webcam quality if not much better. For instance, the rear facing camera on my EVO is amazing while the forward facing one is in the better than average similar to iPhone range.
So here it is, why I'm terrified of Qik: With Qik and the ease of accidental recordings it is quite possible that one could record themselves in the bathroom and have it uploaded to the net for everyone to watch without the user realizing it for 15-60 minutes (which is my very unscientific estimate for how long it takes someone to tell someone else they posted a recording they don't think was meant to be posted). This is very close to the dream many people have when younger: going to school naked. Sure, in this case you are not naked, but everyone gets to see you in a bit of a compromising position. To make it worse, there is an automatic "good job" post that happens on some videos as if to encourage you to make more ... if you accidentally posted yourself in the bathroom and were told good job .... yeah.
So I leave you with the closest video to what I've described. No, this person is not in the bathroom but it kind of seems like how the video would end up looking:
EDIT
I lied ... this one is closer (but done on purpose) and kind of creepy:
digg it
seed it
del.icio.us
ma.gnolia
Log in to post comments.
