Why Jailbreak: Ustream
by Adam Blair
May 31, 2009
Have you ever been at a concert and wanted to show your sick friend who was performing? Or have you ever wanted to video chat with someone in the middle of a long road trip? To do these things, you'd need a ton of equipment (a laptop, a charging cable, a webcam. . .) right? Wrong. All you need is an iPhone. One that's jailbroken, of course.
The application is called Ustream, and it couldn't be easier. All you need to do is install it through cydia, set up an account (it sounds worse than it is; setting up an account in Ustream is really easy), and start streaming live video from your iPhone straight to your customized Ustream webpage!
After signing up for an account, you will be assigned a page: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/USERNAME. When the application is open, and the broadcast button has been hit, anybody can visit that page to view whatever it is you are pointing your phone at. There is only about a 3 second lag, and the video isn't perfect quality, but at least the audio and video are always synced up. And, best of all, it actually works!
Many have created successful web shows using this iPhone app, therefore, the folks of Ustream have added a new feature. While broadcasting, you can hit a button which polls your viewers. Right now, the polls only have "Yes" and "No" buttons. So, for instance, you can ask your viewers if they like the color blue, then hit the "Ask your Viewers Yes/No" button, and see the results immediatley! A very nice feature.
And, as if all of these broadcasting abilities weren't enough, there is even more. Ustream allows you to record video, and then, with no extra button-pushing or trickery, simply log-on to your account on your computer and watch your recorded video! This has unlimited possibilities, and may even be an improvement on Cycorder since you don't need to take up all of your phone's space with videos; let Ustream's servers hold all of your videos for you.
This is a very, very nice application which provides a very useful and fun function for all daring iPhone users. This application's immense usefulness and effectiveness makes me wonder, however, why Apple won't give the functionality to everybody. It's there, it's possible, and it won't hurt anybody...
Get Ustream by adding the BigBoss source in Cydia. Happy Broadcasting!
