I was chatting to local fring rockstar blogger, Simon, earlier this evening about fring’s movements towards supporting iPhones and he directed me to his latest post:
So for those of you who missed the techcruch article from earlier today, (amazing how news gets out before it even happens) well the news is now officially out, if you happen to be one of the lucky people who owns an Apple iPhone, you just got even luckier.
We’ve just released a special pre-release R&D version of fring for your iPhone – What a mobile VoIP app publicly available for the iPhone?… Is this for real? yip this is no late April fool joke this is the real McCoy and it’s a world-first!
This special pre-release version of fring, developed in conjunction with the Holon Institute of Technology academic research labs is a direct response to iPhone users kicking our butts to get fring for their WAY COOOOOL devices.
Part of the objective here (besides getting you all excited with fring for iPhone) is to get feedback prior to release of the full-feature version and create a truly superb user experience for iPhone users. Guys please note that because this is a pre-release R&D version, there may be a few things that don’t work as great at they should, in other words the more feed back you guys send us the faster we can fix these things and get an even better version out. Also the most important thing to remember guys is that this version will only work on ‘opened iPhones’, so for the moment anyone who doesn’t have an ‘opened iPhone’ will not be able to install this version of fring.
[via: fring blog]
The beauty of this is technically you could make the iPod Touch into a “phone”.
All you need is to make/buy a mic (which if you Google it is pretty easy) and you’re good to go.
Ah yes, that would be interesting. I’ve managed to play around for a few minutes on an iPhone, but would love to play around a little more..
Call me old fashion, but the iPhone is one piece of technology that does not appeal to me. I do not know why. Looks and feel fantastic, but it lacks something. Buttons! ;)
Very happy with my little iPAQ 514 Messenger. Expensive even for Ireland.
SaulK, you do realise that you can get a phone for around R200 new these days..
I’d be happy to get an iPod at that price (that’s not from a Nigerian ;) )
I work for one of the biggest, if not biggest VOIP providers in SA, and let me tell you – it’s unrealiable crap. It is, however, worth it on a large scale if you’re looking at cast saving!!
Honestly, I think that the future of VOIP lies with mobiles and not the business sector. For business, it’s simply a stepping stone until there’s a better, more reliable technology available! For that day, I can’t wait!! :D
Companies like Yeigo are pioneering the VOIP phenomina – big up to em for sticking it out!
Now, who wants to make a mic with me? ;) Coz that I HAVE to try!! (Battle Feild II online’s just not same without one…)
CJC
CJC: I’m not saying use the iTouch as a permanant phone, just have it for VOIP calls.
I also agree that VOIP is touchy at the best of times but it’s definitely the future for the average user. Not only in cost but if they could improve quality/consistency it has the power to connect people like never before.
Also, when I said a Mic I meant one that could plug into the 15 pin connection at the bottom of all iPods/iTouch.
lol… sorry man, I didn’t mean to come across with an aggressive tone.
There are a few local companies that are exploring VOIP on mobiles – kinda like mxit, just with voice.
VOIP can be VERY high quality, but what makes it cost effective, is the low packets (the way it’s coded) it uses. IE uses very little bandwidth / air-data-time. What we really need is for bandwidth to become dirt cheap and then VOIP will fly high in SA!!
I wasn’t taking the piss with that mic comment either, i’m always up for a little hands-on challendge ;)
Ah, nice to see some conversation going here, I love it when I don’t have to fuel these posts and they grow natural threads!
How’s everyone doing? I really need to get my hands on an iPhone in fact, there’s some software I’m wanting to test!
Hmm, are they available in our South Africa? I think that i heard somewhere that they wern’t coming?
Though, they also said that the Opel Corsa OPC wasn’t coming here and it’s hitting our shores shortly!!!
Jail broken iPhones are available in South Africa, which do work, but legitimate applications will not run correctly as far as I know..
Yeah only thing is that most iphones out there are still 3g-less AFAIK, so you need to be in ur house to use fring… which kinda sux…
but new models with 3g will be way better.
re the ipod touch becoming a phone… im not sure the cpu on the iphone can handle it?…but i stand corrected.
That’s lame ya!
I think the iPod Touch would be able to handle it, but I also stand for correction! hehe