Live video broadcasting for unlocked iPhones

Flixwagon, which makes live video streaming software for mobile smart phones, said Monday that it has released an application for people using so-called jail-broken Apple iPhones so that they can broadcast video online.

With the launch, the Flixwagon application will be among the first video broadcasting tools for the iPhone, albeit for phones on which people have unlocked the Apple software.

"As of today, the Flixwagon iPhone public alpha application is available to all users with the original iPhone running 'opened' firmware 1.1.4," said Flixwagon founder Sarig Reichert.

Tel Aviv, Israel-based Flixwagon is still working on an application for the iPhone 3G and original phones running the 2.0 firmware, Reichert said. He did not specify when those applications would be available.

In January, Flixwagon launched a free downloadable application for video broadcasting for the Symbian mobile operating system, used largely by Nokia smartphones such as the N95. In June, the company said it was working on an application for Windows Mobile and iPhone software. Its better-known rival Qik recently unveiled a public beta of its software with new features.

People with open iPhones can find the software by typing in "m.flixwagon.com/iphone" into their mobile browser. (Demo here.)

With Flixwagon, users can record a video with the click of a button and have it broadcast to the Web within seconds, depending on the mobile phone connection. That's why Flixwagon recommends that iPhone users choose to broadcast over local Wi-Fi rather than the Edge network.

People can choose to upload their clips to a public or private page on Flixwagon, cross-post the clip to YouTube, or send an announcement to a Twitter account. Flixwagon followers can also chat with people who are posting videos.