The folks over at Qik were kind enough to outfit me with a Nokia N95, so I could test out their service. I’ve been quasi-resistant to lifecasting of any kind, for a few reasons:

1. My days are typically very boring.
2. I feel bad shoving a camera into people’s faces and streaming them.
3. You wouldn’t like me anymore if you knew just how frequently I speak to my cats.

Jason and Scoble seem to find no end to the things they want to share with the Qik (and by proxy, Twitter communities), but I find myself hesitant to turn on the camera. After some brainstorming, here are some applications that I could see Qik being useful for:

1. Clothes shopping — If I’m out shopping, and I can’t decide which shirt or shoes to pick, why not let the live audience help? I mean, they’re the ones that have to look at the outfit on camera later anyway, right?
2. Company on public transportation — As if there aren’t enough crazies on SF Muni, let’s add one more (me) talking AT my phone (instead of on it) during my commute.
3. Instant support group — If one of my girlfriends is having man trouble, it would be nice to have another hundred or so people to back me up at any given moment to say “Dump the loser!”

I’m only half kidding on some of those. What value do you guys get out of lifecasting? Why is it so popular? Maybe because it’s like reality TV, but without all the convinient editing? I’ve tried a few other services, and none of them have been compelling enough for me to continue to use them. The mobility factor with Qik is a definite plus, so maybe that will help.

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Most of you guessed that one of my new projects was over at Revision3 as the new co-host of Tekzilla with Patrick Norton. And yes, you are correct! In fact, I was over there yesterday shooting for Friday’s episode. As I’ve said before, I love working with everyone over there, and I think it’s going to be a blast.

However, there’s still another project that I can’t say anything about just yet! A girl’s gotta have her secrets, right?

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For some reason I ended up on a plethora of podcasts this week! Here’s the rundown for your listening and viewing enjoyment:

Sunday: This Week in Tech with Leo Laporte, Steve Gillmore, John C. Dvorak and Patrick Norton. We talked about all sorts of news, including SXSW (and Twitter, natch) as well as some unfounded rumors involving Revision3. Which leads us to…

Tuesday: Tekzilla! I love guest hosting this show, mostly because it means I get to hang out with Patrick and Roger all afternoon.

Thursday: The Instance Episode #100! I was honored and delighted to be on the 100th episode of my favorite podcast. Scott and Randy had folks on air that have made appearances or recorded special pieces for the show over the last 100 episodes, so it was like a big homecoming.

Friday: I went down to CNET for an in-studio recording of Buzz Out Loud. It was nice to be back in the BOL chair, even if I let Tom run the production side of things (it’s been a while, I’d probably break it). They live stream on ustream.tv now too, so I was able to record it. Not too exciting to watch us talk, I bet, but you get to see me chug some coffee.

And on Monday and Wednesday I recorded upcoming episodes of Mahalo Daily, so it was quite a full week.

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I referenced that I flew a plane a few weeks ago, and here’s the final product: “How to Get Your Private Pilot’s Certificate.” I was absolutely terrified to do this shoot, because I do have a history of having a fear of heights (which I guess is better now, considering I did this and go rock climbing with some regularity). Flying a plane is something I’d never even thought to try, but now I would love to do it again sometime. We flew the Cessna over Santa Monica and Venice, and it was absolutely beautiful. I did have a moment of “Oh crap” when he wanted me to start some major turns, but we got through them eventually!

See? Now if I’m ever on your flight and the pilot goes unconscious, I can probably rescue everyone! Uhh… maybe not.

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