iPhone Video With Fring, snapvoip.blogspot.com
Had the Apple positioned the camera on iPhone 3GS differently, people may been able to do video conferencing easily. But Apple decided to make the camera unique for taking photos and videos. So it is next to impossible to have a meaningful video conversation in two iphones, unless you are next to each other and pointing the iPhones at each other.
But you always find resourceful developers like Fring who decided to not to be hampered by the camera position on the iPhone. Fring has enabled only incoming video-stream only on new Fring for iPhone / iPod Touch. But you can have two way video conversations on S60 based phones like Nokia N series.
This video feature is embedded within the fring application that enables free voice calls from the iPhone and iPod Touch to other fring users, Skype and GTalk buddies as well as friends on regular phone lines via Skype-Out and hundreds of popular SIP services. fring users can live chat, update profiles, share files and talk with friends from several Instant Messaging services like MSN, AIM, GoogleTalk and Skype, in addition to interacting with popular online social networks like Twitter, all from one integrated fring contact list
“Leveraging excellent video capabilities on the iPhone and iPod touch together with our open internet and social environment, we’re bringing together families and friends these holidays, wherever they are…We were the first to bring mobile voice over internet (VoIP) to mobile devices, the first to bring iPhone/ iPod touch users the choice to make free Internet calls, the first to enable cost-saving mobile twitter over internet, and now we’re proud to continue leading the field of rich mobile-internet communication by bringing users the world’s first fring video calls over internet for the iPhone and iPod touch.”said Avi Shechter, Co-Founder & CEO of fring on the occasion.
The new fring version with video calls support is currently available to users with iPhone/ iPod touch OS 3.0. Fring also supports many devices on multiple platforms including Symbian S60, Android, Windows Mobile, J2ME and Linux devices.
Press Release
Download the new fring version
http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Even though the company is said to be doing well, Fring has about 20%(all 10 of them) go according to TechCrunch. But these layoffs might keep the company afloat throughout 2009 according to company CEO Avi Schecter.
I like the service what fring provides me and recent deals like joint effort with Mobilkom, should have pushed the company in the upward direction on charts that investors and bankers look at. But I have a feeling that Fring has not problem, coming up with solutions, like it did with our mobile problems!
Mobile is on the up.
GigaOm and ever inquisitive Ken Camp has also written on the issue.
http://snapvoip.blogspot.com
Telekom Austria's mobile arm, Mobilkom, who provides A1 over IP service product, has partnered with Fring, to provide what they called first ever mobile VoIP and Social services by tier one network operator. As the news published here and from experience, we know that Fring is going places but this is another good if not strategic move as it proves to mobile network providers, that there are other players than Skype. Skype has already partnered with Three network that is present in the country.
Initially, Mobilkom's A1 Over IP service will be integrated with fring's SIP service. Mobilkom Austria will provide a custom mobile fring client to its customers opening up fring’s entire open-platform, feature-rich suite of internet based mobile communications & community services, enabling users to talk, chat and interact with each other & all of their online communities, and access fun mobile web applications, using the internet connection capability of their mobile device.
"Avi Shechter, fring’s co-founder and CEO commented: “Today’s announcement by fring and its new partner, mobilkom Austria, represents just the beginning of a sea change in the relationship between mobile VoIP and traditional mobile carriers.
Dr. Hannes Ametsreiter, CMO mobilkom austria and CMO Telekom Austria TA said: “Internet services and mobile communications will increasingly grow together in the future. We were very early to adopt the international SIP standard. Through the partnership with fring we can demonstrate today how the two worlds will merge in the future." "
Fring has released fring for iPhone and I think many people are excited like me. Tom Keating is one, who actually pointed me to this news via his blog.
I use fring more than my partners but I am sure the value lies in fring's ability to communicate with many VoIP / IM providers.
The fring for iPhone is available from Apple App Store and once downloaded you can make free calls with other fringsters™ or via fring using Skype, Skype-out or any SIP providers you choose.
Free calls with iPhone
As all of us are currently involved in Olympics in one way or the other (I sleep less in nights and work less during the days as I am spending a lot of time watching Olympics. Two of my good friends are over in China getting ready to bring USA two or more gold medals!). In the meantime, Fring has managed to get some Olympic contenders to Fring on during the 2008 Olympic Games. I am not sure about the idea of fringing the Olympic rings! I just remembered a song from Rob Zombie, Sacrilage!
But once subscribed, you will be able to receive live fringcasts or fringfeeds from;
• Alexander Rusakov – Gold medal contender these games! This Russian trampoline champion is going to be fringing away when not focusing on the gold medal he is tipped to win!
• Oleg Zaporozhchenko Jr. – The Russian Olympics team coach & international category judge!
• Fei Wen – Malaysian Olympic volunteer and coordinating the onsite fring effort – thanks!!!
• Tania Teoh – Malaysian Olympic volunteer and avid fan of lots of sports including swimming, volleyball, badminton and more!
• Udi Moshel – Israeli sports obsessive… I mean, enthusiast… will be keeping us all updated with sports and social updates across the board from the fields and other online circuits!
• Agus Jose – Our Spanish sports and travel devotee will micro-blog about both with the added insight only a professional psychologist can offer!
We have written about Fring for a long time here and it continues to give us information to write about and enhancements to it's users, Fringsters. If you did not know what Fring is an application for your mobile devices, which allows you to communicate with landline, mobile phones and other “fingsters” over mVoIP. Fringsters can communicate with contacts using SkypeOut and other SIP providers, Google Talk, MSN messenger, and Twitter, all via a single integrated contact list.
According to a post on Fring Blog, Fring for Nokia S60 or Fring for Symbian 9.X devices, Fring 3.35 has been released after being de-bugged, enriched, and improved. The version 3.35 has apparently improved stability, significantly less interruption, logouts, better quality voice all round. So if you are a Fring user you should be a happy person. This version also an added speakerphone for Symbian 9.2 if you have it, Like Nokia N95. You also get file transfer enabled on Yahoo! and Skype allowing the swapping of all sort of files like, music, images and video over 3G or Wifi from mobile to PC, mobile to mobile, without need for Bluetooth, MMS, and cable or infrared.
The easiest way to update your fring version is to point your mobile internet WAP browser at www.fring.com and download fring directly to your mobile.
If you find any bugs or other annoyances you can help Fring and other Fring users by sending Fring the information.
DRIVEN by its advocacy to provide Cebuanos with free and cheaper international 
communication services, a local Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service provider has partnered with an international firm, Fring to allow free calls and live chat on one’s cellphone.
Edward Lim, iNTouch chief executive officer and managing director, said the company together with Fring, a European mobile VoIP provider, is now introducing to Cebu one of the world’s latest innovations in the telecommunications industry and one that might be the first in Asia.
“It (Fring) is a software, which you can download to your wireless fidelity (WiFi)-capable cellphones. This makes PC-based communication, like IM (instant messaging), loaded automatically into the cellphone,” Lim told Sun.Star Cebu.
According to its website, Fring utilizes free WiFi or ones mobile Internet data plan to make free mobile Internet calls, live chat or IM to other “fringsters” and PC-based services including Skype, Google Talk, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Twitter, AIM and Yahoo.
The report on fring is by Sun Star News Philippines.
tag: mobile Voip, fring, voip, WiFi, instant messaging, Social networking
LONDON – November 22th 2007 – fringTM has just announced a major step in its evolution with the launch of fringME!TM - a new, free-to use widget which allows fring users (“fringsters”) to stay connected with each other and all their internet communities.
The fringME! widget enables fringsters to take their favourite fring features and apply them to their various social network pages, blogs, online auctions, web sites and even email signatures - in fact pretty much anywhere the user has an internet presence, fringME! enhances communication and connectivity between the fringster and his/her online world.
Once installed on a webpage, the fringME! widget allows internet community members and all other internet users the opportunity to access some of fring’s most popular functions, including the ability to view the fringster’s ‘availability’ (online, offline, or ’in a call’), and instantly begin a fring IM chat session, regardless of the fringster’s location.
In addition to offering familiar fring features, the fringME! widget also includes a number of new innovations, the first of which is a real-time, location-based “find me” presence feature, which instantly opens a GoogleMapsTM window showing the fringster’s real time on the move whereabouts via his/her GPS-equipped handset. Privacy settings inside fring’sTM mobile software enable the service to be switched on or off, depending on the fringster’s desire to be locatable at any one time.
Commenting on the impact of the launch of fringME! Avi Shechter, co-founder & CEO of fring said: “The fringME! widget represents a natural and important step in fring’s evolution. First we introduced our core offering: free fring to fring mobile VoIP, live IM-style chat and presence. Then we made it possible for fring members to communicate with users of different internet services and communities such as Skype, MSN and GoogleTalk. And now with the fringME! widget’s popular fring functionality, its location based services, and other features due to be announced in the near future, fring is truly opening up the web, further breaking down barriers of communication and giving every fringster and every internet user, even more options for making connections with each other.”
“More and more, fring is expanding beyond mobile VoIP. It is becoming a valuable tool that enables users to take both their communications and online lives mobile.”
The fringMe! widget is free to use and available via a quick process. Firstly, download the latest version of fring onto any supported mobile device by visiting www.fring.com. Then, visit the fringME! web page at www.fring.com/fun to choose a preferred widget design and paste a small piece of html code onto the chosen blog or web page destination.
To a get first hand impression of fringME! in action, simply visit the fring blog at http://www.fring.com/blog/ which is already enhanced with the widget, with the real time availability indicator, live chat and real time location based presence.
I wrote about Fring in March wondering how disruptive it will be in the VoIP space. (VOIP IP Telephony: What is Fring! Another disruption in VoIP space! ) It seems it is continuing to be more agile in the mobile VoIP arena.
The creators of Fring, Fringland Ltd. has ported its mobile VoIP software to Windows Mobile 5 and Windows Mobile 6 platforms. Devices that runs these OS systems will be able to install this free VoIP client. Fring allows users to make phone calls and engage in multiple live chat sessions through Skype, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, and many other SIP service providers.
You can download and register in three steps, the image above is, I am just getting ready to download client for my blackjack!
