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!

And Congrats buddy Simon

The fringTEAM

…and Nokia Ovi blog just named fring App of the Day!

Two great nods to fring today from two very respectful sources; Roy Furchgott of the New York Times has just picked fring as the paper’s App of the Week. According to Roy, fring’s recently released video is nothing less than “science fiction” coming into life, with fring’s 2-way mobile video over internet.

Nokia’s Ovi blog also just named fring App of the Day calling fring’s accomplishment in bringing video calls to Nokia devices “truly unique…truly awesome” and oh yea… a “big deal” !

If you one of the few who are yet to download fring’s recent video version for (selected) Nokia devices or for the iPhone & iPod touch, make sure you get fring video today- start seeing who you’re talking to, while on the go, like never before!

The fringTEAM

A few weeks ago fring and Nokia Ovi announced a joint competition celebrating fring’s launch on the Ovi Store.

The response has been amazing- close to a thousand fringsters around the world have sent in their pictures with their old phones and a reason why THEY deserve to win Nokia’s slick new touch-screened N97 mini. Some stories were touching, some were purely amusing and at the end of the process- 3 winners were chosen!

And the winners areeeee… (drum roll)

Thank you all for taking part and congratulations to the winners. Runners up have been published on the competition’s wall of fame so check out if you’re there!

Keep following our blogs, Twitter, Facebook page and Newsletters for new product updates, details of future fring competitions and other interesting surprises coming very soon.

Happy holidays,
The fringTEAM

And what a new year’s gift this is… the world’s first video calls over internet on the iPhone and iPod Touch!
fringsters with iPhones and iPod Touch (and selected Nokia devices as announced last week) can now see all their family and friends on fring and Skype this Holiday Season!

Right now iPhone and iPod touch users can receive and make fring and Skype video calls entirely over Internet connection (for free!) and see the person on the other end. When a front camera is placed on these, we’ll have two-way video calls available here too just as we do on all the supported Nokia devices.

Just download the new fring version now and see your family and friends on fring and Skype these holidays!

Your feedback and comments are welcome, as always.

The fringTEAM

Don’t know about the Chrome OS that Google is developing. Here is a short informative video that won’t take much of your time and will give you the jist of what the Chrome OS is all about.

Hello fringsters,

We’ve just released an updated version for Android devices. This is a maintenance release based on your feedback and bug reports.

Main issues fixed:

• Motorola Droid – missing GSM contacts – fixed
• Motorola Droid – unable to make SIP/SkypeOut calls – fixed
• Special characters in SIP credentials – fixed
• Chinese/Russian/Hebrew issues in chat – Fixed
• Login issues with several scenarios – Fixed

We’ll be adding more features in the next versions so keep that valuable feedback coming.

The new version is available through the market, the android page here or by simply scanning the barcode below

Enjoy,

The fringTEAM

Only a week after releasing our Android version, we’re very excited to announce the healthy arrival of….the world’s first mobile video calls over internet! (with fring and Skype video calls )

Now for the first time ever fringsters can make and receive internet video calls from mobile devices (for free!), picking up your fring and Skype video calls from the road, and seeing the person you’re talking to from your mobile phone.

fring video is currently supported on Nokia touch (such as X6, N97 mini,N97, 5800), N95, N95 8G and N82 devices.

Coming soon on other popular platforms so stay tuned!

WARNING: When NOT to fring video:

• When picking up a call from the toilet
• While cheating on your boyfriend
• While at the beach after you called in sick this morning

Download the new fring version with video here and…ready – set – action!

The fringTEAM

After weeks of speculation, rumors and alpha testing with our much-appreciated early access group, we are finally out with the 1st  ever fring for Android!

Android device users can now get onto fring (we know you’re been missing us since some of you recently switched to Android devices ) with (the first) free VoIP calls over Skype, MSN and GoogleTalk and via hundreds of SIP providers. As always you can see real-time presence and live chat with your ICQ, Yahoo! And AIM buddies too. You can also use Twitter there, as part of  your integrated contact list.

fring on android works over 3G, GPRS or Wi-Fi internet connection.

What do you need to do to get your hands on this brand-new version?

You have 2 simple options for getting fring onto your Android device:

1.    Get it directly from the Android Market:

•    Start the Market application on your phone

•    Search for fring and install

2.    Get it from fring’s WAP site:

•    On your Android phone, go to Settings > Applications and check the box to allow ’unknown sources’

•    Point your phone browser to m.fring.com and download

A big thank you to our early access group for your invaluable feedback over the past few weeks!

Welcome to the big, happy, free fring family fringdroid-ers!

Known Issues (Will be fixed in the next version):

- GSM contacts do not appear in fring’s buddy list on the Motorola DROID device
- Call disconnection tone may be heard a few times when terminating a call
- SIP and SkypeOut calls are not yet available on the Motorola DROID device

The fringTEAM

[Update]: Here’s a direct link to the .apk [Link] and here’s a barcode.

fringsters join Guy Etgar our VP of Strategic Alliances as he speaks on the subject of “Rich Communications – Services for the Next Generation Network” on Wednesday, November 18 at one of Asia’s most pristigious mobile events, Mobile Asia, in Hong Kong.

“The GSMA Mobile Asia Congress provides mobile industry executives worldwide an important opportunity to meet, to discuss and to debate industry trends and issues, and to network with peers, partners and prospects.”

For more information or to register, click here.

We look forward to meeting industry/media experts at Mobile Asia in Hong Kong 18,19 November 2009.
For any press-related issues please contact us here.