Qik Video app unites Android and iOS

Skype-owned video chat outfit Qik has updated its iPhone and Android apps to allow cross-platform video calls.

It's not clear whether the announcement will herald a new era of entente cordiale between fans of the competing mobile operating systems, but we suspect it might just provide another stick with which opposing fans can beat each other.

We expect to see lots of "our Qik app is better then your Qik app" discussions taking place in various Google and Apple forums any day now.

The free-to-download app is available to anyone using Android 2.1 or later, and also works on any Apple iDevice equipped with a camera.

Video calls are made using the Qik Video Connect app on 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi networks and the company says it has also improved video quality and improved battery life over previous versions.

Qik originally stated that it wanted to include support for Apple's FaceTime video chat protocol but the Cupertino company has been dragging its heels on releasing the relevant APIs, forcing Qik to stride out on its own.

Amazon pushing its AppStore

hose USA based users, who are searching for a new Android tablet and choose to buy one through Amazon, are poised to get a pleasant surprise. Amazon will be giving the users $25 credit to buy apps from the Amazon AppStore, which has about 7,500 apps by now. The promotion will run for a week.

This new offer of Amazon Appstore can be linked to its tablet strategy.

The importance attached to Google's Android platform by Amazon is unmistakable. It has some time back came out with advertisement backed subsidised Kindle offer. In addition, Amazon has launched a cloud based music service for Android users as well.

The smaller number of apps in the Amazon AppStore, which was launched on March 22, is not limiting the company from being creative in promoting its AppStore.

Amazon realises that incentives are necessary to get more users for the AppStore as users need to go through several steps to download it unlike other application stores which come pre-installed on the phones.

Amazon very well understands it is slightly behind the game compared to other bigger app stores, which is why it is betting big on promotions such as 'free app of the day' and flexible pricing. The content and the content delivery system are all in place, and the company must be moving quickly towards the next logical step.

The Amazon AppStore has also released a minor update which includes some small bug fixes and improvements. Those who don't know which version they have need to check it in the settings page of their app. To install the update, users just need to go to the AppStore icon in the notification bar, whenever it appears there.

Google To Add Gmail Video Calling To Android ?

The latest online rumours suggest that Google may be adding video calling to Android.

Now you may be thinking that this already exists, which is true because you can currently call other Android mobiles using the Gingerbread operating system. However, this new feature will add video calling to Gmail.

This new feature would enable Android users to have video calls with Desktop PC users running Gmail, as well other mobiles with Gmail installed. Apparently, the new feature will be unveiled at Google I/O which takes place on May 10th in San Francisco.

The information comes via a guy who works for Samsung posting he just made a video call  over Gmail on his Nexus S. Admittedly the information is quite vague and could prove false but we'll give it the benefit of the doubt.