fring claims that since they opened their API last Monday that hundreds of apps were submitted "proving that there's an insatiable appetite in the U.S. for new mobile widgets and add-ons." In the past week, fring has approved four of these submitted apps/widgets which will be announced tomorrow.
Today, fring announces new fringAdd-on applications for social networking, video streaming and email notification specifically for Facebook, Google's social networking site Orkut, VTap and Gmail. Essentially any web developer can develop a fringAdd-on just by heading on over to developers.fring.com. Only basic knowledge of PHP & XML is required. With these add-ons, fringsters with with Facebook or Google's social network Orkut, can have continuous, real-time updates within your Facebook and Orkut accounts.
fring claims they are growing by 200k new users every month, and that users are spending up to three to four hours a day on the network. In the U.S., fring is known for having a beta VoIP solution for 'jailbroken' iPhones.
fring is one of the most powerful mobile VoIP apps out there, supporting Google Talk, MSN, Twitter, and even Skype. fring even has a built-in SIP client that works with any SIP service or IP-PBX. It even works with trixbox and Asterisk! fring takes standards such as SIP and even proprietary services such as Skype and translates their protocols via their centralized servers. You might even call fring "the swiss army knife of mobile VoIP".
check out the full news after the jump...
First new fringAdd-on™ applications add new internet dimension to fring & spread fringing freedom even further!
Social networking, video streaming and email notification now available to fringsters™ through new fringAdd-on applications
LONDON, July 1st 2008, fring™ today released the very first fringAdd-ons™, new applications designed to enrich the experience of fring's awarded-winning mobile internet service & community which allows its users to talk, chat & interact with other fringsters™ and their popular online services from their mobile phones.
The first fringAdd-ons released today include a handy mobile version of social networks, video streaming and email notification applications directly from within fring. First examples provide fringsters with connectivity to Facebook and to Google's social network Orkut, enabling continuous, real-time updates of all the key developments in your Facebook and Orkut accounts, Google Gmail notifier, alerting you to all your incoming Gmail messages and VTap™ the great new mobile video search and streaming service. The release of these early fringAdd-ons give fringsters a taste of new, fun way to enjoy & experience the internet on-the-go from any supported mobile device, simply with the latest version of fring and a data plan.
fring-Add-ons are completely free of charge to activate and are integrated into fring, complementing the existing communication features and utilizing its always-connected mobile internet capability to provide instant, hassle-free interactive access to pre-selected internet services. And because fring is, always-connected, fringAdd-ons provide real-time, two-way experiences, enabling fringsters to remain more connected than ever before and get even more out of taking their online world mobile with fring.
To activate the new fringAdd-ons, fringsters simply need to subscribe to their selected fringAdd-ons from the new "Manage Add-ons" menu (Options>Settings>Manage Add-ons). Once selected, the fringAdd-on applications appear as familiar icons in the fringster's Contact List. The "Manage Add-ons" menu will be continually updated and new fringAdd-ons will automatically appear in the Menu as they become available.
fringAdd-ons can be created under the recently released fringAPI by any web developer with a basic knowledge of XML/PHP , by visiting the developer zone at developers.fring.com. Third party developers will be able to publish their completed Add-ons to the new fring catalogue within a few weeks.
Avi Shechter, Co-founder and CEO of fring comments: "The release of fringAdd-ons represents a natural and exciting step in the evolution of fring, designed to bring the richest user experience possible and put all of the fringster's communication and mobile internet needs into one place with functionality and useful features that are fun, enjoyable and easy to use. We look forward to rolling out new fringAdd-ons developed by third parties and independent developers to enrich the experience even further as soon as they become available."
Supported devices: Initially, all Symbian S60, Windows Mobile and Sony Ericsson UIQ devices. More fring-supported mobile phones to follow shortly.
The Beta version of fring was made publicly available in January 2007. fring operates on all Symbian Series 60 devices, Sony Ericsson UIQ Smartphones, Windows Mobile and iPhone devices, which currently represent more than 600 mobile handset devices (the full list is available at http://fring.com website) and its community includes users across more than 200 countries.
