Fring Makes Its Debut on The iPhone

Fring has now became the world’s first mobile VoIP application to be made publicly available for the Apple’s iPhone, enabling users to talk, chat and interact with other fring users (“fringsters”) and all of their online communities, using their iPhone’s Wi-Fi connection.

A light, sneak preview R&D version of the mobile VoIP application, developed in conjunction with the Holon Institute of Technology academic research labs in Israel, is now available for use on the iPhone. The pre-release version is designed to both answer demand from iPhone-owning, would-be fringsters and at the same time enable fring to learn about user experience, benefit from early feedback and influence the R&D process of the full release version, due for launch later this year.

The special pre-release version will enable iPhone users to get an early taste of application. They will also have the ability to make free and low cost mobile calls over Wi-Fi and use IM-style live chat with their online contacts, regardless of whether they are on their mobiles, PCs or other internet devices.

During login, fring automatically creates a single, integrated contact list, combining contacts from all of the users’ selected internet communities. And because fring is an always-on, always-connected application, it offers features like real-time, PC-style “presence” indicators, which continually display whether contacts are online, away, offline, in a call, on their mobiles or in front of their PCs, providing new levels of freedom to interact and truly take the internet mobile.

For instructions on how to install fring on the iPhone click here.

New iPhone SDK Launched, 3G iPhone Pics Leaked

The iPhone with 3G capabilities is slowly but surely becoming a reality as more and more sites seem to be finding leaked images of the handset. With all the hullabaloo of Vodafone bringing the iPhone to India, things could be looking up for Apple fans. It seems like it would probably have a more glossy finish and it also seems like the Dock/Speaker connectors might also be altered slightly.

Apart from that the next-gen iPhone could also be sleeker. Not that it isn’t already, but there’s always room for improvement.

Image Source – Appleinsider

The 3G version aside, Apple has launched the Beta 5 version of the iPhone SDK. This newer version will supposedly make things a lot easier for developers by making the existing tools a lot better and it should also be able to fix a few more bugs. The new SDK includes a set of tools like Xcode IDE and Instruments analysis tools as well as compilers, frameworks, and documentation for creating iPhone OS applications. It also has a test simulator to test the created applications.

The Beta 5 SDK can be downloaded here.

Via IntoMobile.

iPhone to Get VLC Player

The iPhone will soon have an alternate video player that, with any luck, will offer a solution to always having to use iTunes to convert and transfer videos. Zodttd has developed an iPhone VLC player that will also work on the iPod Touch. Of course the player is still being tested and comes with only a few decoders as of now but that will change over time as the developers will no doubt increase that list. It will provide playback for MPEG/ MPG, AVI, MP3 file formats as well as other media formats.

Hopefully after the research has been conducted and tests complete, the media application should also include decoders for formats like, DivX, WMA and WMV, with support for FLAC and OGG.

GTalk Hits The iPhone Via Safari

There’re more and more applications being developed for the iPhone and personally I’m not cribbing. Google has already firmly planted itself in the iPhone team with on-board Google Maps, but they’ve now decided that that’s not enough. Google fans will be pleased to know that they have released a version of Google Talk that will reportedly work perfectly in tandem with Safari on both the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

The only issue is that it’s a web-based feature so using it while you’re surfing the net might be a bit of a chore switching between screens. Even though the reports say that this version is going have a similar if not the same feel as your PC version with the capability to handle multiple conversations and alike, the window that has the GTalk version running will show the users as unavailable till they return to that page. Hey, it may not be perfect but it’s there.

To use the service go to www.google.com/talk on your iPhone or iPod Touch’s Safari Browser.

Crash Bandicoot Zips to The iPhone

Nokia had earlier tied up with Vivendi Games to bring Crash Bandicoot to the N-Gage platform and that would be something to contend with. Apparently they’ve met their match with the iPhone as Crash bandicoot has made his way onto Apples’ platform as well.

With iPhone gaming becoming increasingly popular, titles like Crash Bandicoot were bound to find their way there. Apple, though their AppStore, will be bringing Crash Bandicoot Nirto Kart to the iPhone and the game will employ the iPhone’s superb accelerometer and tilt sensors to make this game more interesting for mobile gamers.

Check out the video.