fring

The Mobile World Congress, the mobile industry’s biggest event of the year if fast approaching and will be taking place next week, in Barcelona. As most of you know by now, fring had its official launch at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona three years ago, so this year we’re back, celebrating our 3rd anniversary in Barcelona, Spain.

You will be able to find the team at the fring booth at The Mobile Innovation Zone, Hall 7, Stand IZ20 from 15-18 February 2010. In addition, will be presenting at the Symbian and Intel booths, so feel free to come by and meet us!

Hello fringsters,

We have some great news for all the users out there who’ve been waiting for a video supported version for the E71.

Since fring is all about sharing, we have a limited number of invitations for you to try out the new video supported version for the E71 and other Symbian 9.2 handsets.

The new pre-release version supports Skype and fring video calls over both 3G and WiFi.

If you’d like to be a part of the early access group all you need to do is fill out this form: http://bit.ly/fringE71

I’d like to emphasize the fact that this is a pre-release Alpha version. If you do not feel like being a part of the testing group you can wait a couple of weeks for the official version.

I’ll update the post once we run out of invitations.

Thanks,

Omri.

Hi There,

We’ve just released an updated version of fring for Android.

The version (1.2.0.26) should fix the crash users from Brazil and Argentina reported on Motorola Milestone.

The version is now available through the market and from our website.

I’d like to thank our community for helping us identify this bug and issue this fix so quickly.

You wanted it, immediately after Apple allowed it, fring launches its 3G-friendly VoIP app.

With fring on 3G, users get unrestricted, mobile communication. Now iPhone fring users can call, video call, chat and more for FREE over 3G and wifi!

fring from anywhere from your iPhone. Take fring to beach, the ski slopes, or on the bus and enjoy the same always-on freedom millions of other fringsters on other platforms have enjoyed for years.

How do I get this update?

You don’t need to do anything to get this update. Just open fring on your iPhone and you are good to go!

If you still get the message that “voip calls are not allowed…” – Just click on “More” –> “Go offline” and open fring again.

Don’t yet have fring on your phone? Download it today and get on fun!

The fringTEAM

Note: Please check your cellular operator’s terms of agreement to make sure they allow voip calls on their network before using fring.

Listen up Symbian & Android fringsters!

As you know, at fring we keep listening to your requests and aside from bringing you the latest and brightest your mobile can offer- we work hard to improve what’s already out there.

Symbian users- pay attention…

• Changing your status is now as easy as 1,2,3. Let your friends know if you are online, offline, busy, or you can just stay invisible if you don’t want to be disturbed; all in the click of a button!

• And yes- you’ve been asking for it and it’s finally here- DTMF. Now dialing “#” (“pound”) and “*” sign (“star”) is possible to use within a call through the new fring dialer.

*Bonuses for our Nokia touch users…

• Twitter 2.0 just got a brand-new look, making it easier for you to post your tweets, re-tweet and follow friend’s, from wherever you are. See full tweets and links on one screen & easily navigate between them.

• Like your chats to be even livelier? You’ll love live links inside your fring chat.

Also as you may recall, we previously launched our in-chat advertising a few months ago. Now we are expanding our ads campaign into additional Symbian devices.

Android users- worry not, we are not leaving you out. A new and improved version is now out for you too. The new version includes voice, connectivity and stability improvements in addition to the following requested settings:

1. Hide/Show offline buddies
2. Hide/Show address book
3. Privacy settings for IM signature and mood message
4. A fix for the audio issues on Motorola DROID and Milestone
5. Better support for Google’s Nexus One
6. Bug fixes (thank you all for your feedback!)

See full list of new Symbian version 4.1 & Android version 1.2.0.25 features here.

Download the new versions today!

**Video update:

We know that some of you are still waiting for more devices to be supported with video calls (yes yes, E71 users… we know you’re out there), so the news is that we’re working on it. We’ll be supporting more devices soon so stay tuned.

We are kicking in the New Year with more customer satisfaction improvements that you’ve been asking for…so keep following our news for lots of surprises coming up in 2010.

Enjoy,

The fringTEAM

At the recent International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) hosted in Las Vegas, Intel’s President and CEO Paul Otellini unveiled a beta version of Intel’s software application (app) store.

“The Intel AppUp Center offers netbook users quick and easy access to applications specifically tailored to their mobile lifestyle,” said Renee James, corporate vice president and general manager, Intel Software and Services Group. “Our store does the work of aggregating, categorizing and validating applications so consumers can shop, collect and install from one easy source. With today’s kickoff of our beta store, both developers and consumers will be able to take advantage of the rapid expansion of this new category of computing as the stores continually add apps.”  The first apps are now available for immediate free download or purchase. These apps cover education, entertainment, games, health, social networking and other categories.”

A few of the sample apps mentioned during CES were Arnold Palmer Golf, Boxee, Wikihow and fring.

When introducing fring on Intel’s netbook James said: “fring is the kind of application that we’re thinking about when we think about what we want to do in netbooks.”

“The beta store will host applications for both the Microsoft Windows and the open source Moblin™-based operating systems, the first operating systems to target the popular netbook computer category powered by the Intel® Atom™ processor.”

So what are you waiting for why not download the Intel AppUpSM client today and take fring for a spin

As the IP world is becoming more and more complicated and branches out into new realms, TMC’s IP- dedicated event, ITEXPO, comes to put some things in order.

“Since 1999, ITEXPO has been the single event helping professionals make purchasing decisions in the world of IP communications. At ITEXPO, the top-notch conference sessions and panel discussions, in-depth training courses, outstanding keynotes, unsurpassed networking, and variety of exhibitors make for an unmatched experience. Professionals from 115 countries attended ITEXPO events last year, exceeding attendance expectations despite the economic climate.”

Given how IP communications applications have branched into specialties, new sub-events have been added to delve into them- The Smart, Grid Summit, M2M Evolution, Cloud Communications Conference and the Virtualization Summit accompany 4G Wireless Evolution.

fring’s own Boaz Zilberman, will be in attendance speaking of application development and video for mobile on both the ITEXPO (Friday, January 22, 2010, 9:30-10:15) and The 4G Wireless Revolution (Friday, January 22, 2010, 10:30-11:45) .

Please contact us if you’d like to meet up at the ITEXPO, January 20-22, 2010 Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami, FL.

Hello fringsters,

We’ve just released a new version to the App Store (3.0.0.7). This is a small maintenance release for a better fring experience on your iPhone & iPod touch.

Main features:

- Video quality improvements
- Bug fixes
- New video test call

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your great feedback and kind words about the recently released video feature. We’ll keep on working to improve it and bring more features, coming early next year.

Enjoy,

The fring Team

fringsters, voting is now open for the first-annual Nokia Ovi Daily App “Must-Have App of the Year” Awards!

This is your opportunity to help select the mobile apps in Ovi Store that are truly “must-have” content for your Nokia devices. As you will see, Nokia has selected apps in nine different categories that need your vote. Select one app per category, and make your votes count; fring is nominated for the “social networking” category.

Voting for the “Must-Have App of the Year” Awards will remain open until next Monday (December 22). The winners will be announced – live! – on the Ovi Daily App website on 6 January 2010.

Vote Now for fring on Nokia’s “Must-Have App of the Year Awards”

fring is very excited to announce that our South African blogger, Simon Botes, has taken a top spot in this year’s Nokia Calling All Innovators Africa challenge.

Nokia received over 125 submissions from Africa for the developer challenge and after much deliberation the top 10 winners have been announced at a Mobile Monday event in Johannesburg.

fring’s local South African blogger submitted an application into the challenge and took 4th place with his application- the world’s first free mobi guide to snakes of South Africa.

fring would like to congratulate the other 9 finalists who also took top honours at the event.

A big word of thanks to Nokia Ovi and Mobile Monday for continuing to push mobile development and innovation worldwide, you guys rock!

The fringTEAM