Fring's iPhone and iPod chat app nets two for the price of one

Good things happen to software publishers that listen to their users.

Fring, an aggressively growing company that builds a chat and cheap calling application for Symbian, iPhone, and Windows Mobile platforms, heeded a swell of feedback from iPod Touch users who had been using the pre-release iPhone version for jailbroken iPhones on the voiceless iPod Touch (review). On Friday, Fring announced a new pre-release version for the iPhone that also fixes a bug found when using the application on the iPod Touch.

Both sides were pleased that the initial experiment had worked, Fring reports, but not quite satisfied with the results.

(Credit: Fring)

It turns out that when applied to the iPod Touch, whose specifications were never considered when designing the iPhone version, Fring IM was a little rocky. Users who had tried it out couldn't see the text they'd punched in until after the message was already sent. The update, available through the application called Installer, should rectify the surprise oversight.

In a video tutorial on the Fring blog, iPod Touch users are reminded that the iPhone cousin is a silent device. Since there is no built-in microphone, Fring's international VoIP service is suspended on iPod Touches, leaving Fring for iPod Touch as a cross-platform IM service. There has been forum chatter about forging a workaround with the Touchmods microphone application, but forum contributors have attempted it with no luck.

As one contributor, blueridgebruce puts it, if Fring were to succeed to give the iPod Touch a voice, "iPhone users will love you...BUT...Touch users will worship you!"