The Download Blog

Fring's Last.fm add-on will play out first on Symbian S60 phones.

(Credit: Fring)

Although Fring has long let you chat with friends over Skype, IM, Facebook, and Twitter, the recent introduction of a Last.fm add-on is the start-up's first foray into streaming content.

Starting this week, Symbian Series 60 users with the latest version of Fring (for Symbian 9.1 | 9.2) can sign on to their Last.fm accounts from the Fring add-on's screen.

From there, you can play custom- and public-streaming stations, with the familiar controls to stop, skip, save, and ban a song. There's album art on the mini player interface, and basic details about the song title, album name, and artist name.

There's a social aspect, too. Pressing the "friends" button takes you a screen that shows you what your friends on Last.fm are listening to, and lets you chat with them using you other IM and social networking add-ons, without leaving the Last.fm module.

Although support for Twitter was not available for the initial release, Fring promises on its Web site that the implementation is coming soon.

Sorry, Windows Mobile and iPhone users. Fring almost always test-runs on Symbian first before the fun stuff (first file transferring, now music streaming) trickles down to other platforms. But it could be worse--Fring doesn't develop for BlackBerrys at all.

Editors' note: Last.fm is owned by CNET's parent company, CBS.

(Credit: Fring)

Windows Mobile may be an ugly stepchild of mobile platforms, but among more ambitious publishers, it hasn't been forgotten.

Months after adding file transferring abilities to its Symbian version, Fring, a free VoIP communication company, is conferring this and other features to an updated versions of Fring for Windows Mobile.

In addition to sending images, audio, and video files to friends on Skype, SIP, Yahoo, Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, and ICQ, the latest version of Fring for Windows Mobile also packs on support for add-ons, an indicator message as contacts type out an IM response, and long-overdue privacy settings.

The interface is also freshened, and owners of recent HTC phones like the Touch Diamond will get to speak to pals on VoIP from their earpieces, particularly useful when driving.

Windows Mobile users are going to like the sudden attention, but those who have switched to BlackBerry are going to wonder where the love is.

The iPhone app Fring--which acts as a VoIP client for Skype and other Internet phone networks, as well as a voice and chat interface into IM networks like AIM and Yahoo--is now available for free to everyone.

Previously, it only ran on "jailbroken" iPhones, severely limiting its audience.

Fring places calls on cellular or VoIP networks.

(Credit: Fring)

On the iPhone, Fring can read both your IM and Skype buddy lists, as well as the contacts in your phone's address book. And when you select a contact, you get the option of calling him or her by SIP call, Skype, or standard cellular. VoIP calls obviously don't count against your cellular minutes, but you do need to have a Wi-Fi connection to make the calls.

The biggest challenge for Fring users is that when the app is not actively running in the foreground on your phone, it can't notify you of incoming calls or chats or indicate your presence to buddies. Apple has yet to provide background notification capability to iPhone developers, although we keep hearing it will be in an upcoming release.

Although all iPhone communication apps remain hobbled until background processing is available, Fring does appear to be the most capable voice and text chat app there is for the device, and it's well worth installing.

Fring is also available for several other mobile platforms.

See also: Palringo.

(Credit: Fring)

After so many announcements for this or that application's Facebook appearance, it's nice to see Facebook play a supporting role in kind.

On Tuesday, Fring, a VoIP and IM application for a range of mobile phones, added the ability to fold Facebook into the communicator, through a new Settings menu option called fringAdd-ons. Gmail Notifier, Orkut, vTap videos, and Yandex.mail are also in there, together representing the first extensions created by third-party developers using Fring's application programming interface.

Exactly how many add-ons join this handful will depend on Fring's popularity with casual developers. Fring is not the only mobile software company opening its API to programmers. In fact, crowd-sourcing software authors is now seen as integral to a mobile software publisher's strategy and success. iPhone is the biggest honcho to have more recently welcomed developers, and the success of Google Android as a mobile platform is tied to the mostly independent developers fighting to win big money for their grand ideas and edgy implementations.

So far, connector programs like the Facebook add-on are a good start. Relatively easy to make, programs like these help Fring close in on bragging rights for being the most far-reaching social networking hub out of all the multinetwork text and VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) communicators without putting forth additional development dollars.

FringAdd-ons are currently available for the latest versions of Nokia Symbian 9, Sony Ericsson UIQ, and Windows Mobile.

Cellity Communicator (download) is an e-mail, SMS, and calling client and service for Java cell phones that's better than it looks. That may not sound terribly heartening, but it's no derisive knock. Designing an app that crams phone calls, conference calls, various tiers of texting, and e-mail into a mobile application and still manages to look simple is quite an achievement.

It is arguably overly so. Compared with other mobile communication applications, like EQO and Fring, Cellity Communicator reveals a rather dressed-down interface that requires a few too many clicks to get contacts added and messages started. To Cellity's credit, the interface can be expanded to include more options with an expert mode. Higher-end Java MIDP2 phones support contact-importing, but BlackBerrys don't, so those folks will labor to enter contacts by hand.

(Credit: Cellity)

When it comes to performance, Cellity Communicator does deliver on promises of sending and receiving e-mail and SMS messages through various approaches, and of providing cheap international calling through purchased credit. At this point, phones calls are placed through a ring-back bridge.

Cellity's selection of text services is wide, but potentially confusing. Besides shooting an e-mail to a contact's address, there's free SMS texting to other registered users using Cellity's integrated FreeSMS product, and a glorified version of FreeSMS that is positioned as an e-mail message one addresses to a cell phone number. Nonregistered users receive teasers from these two message types with a prompt to download the communicator. Sending a regular text message is a workaround, though depending on your plan, Cellity's charge could exceed your carrier's cost.

Since Cellity Communicator begins by giving you a unique Cellity.com e-mail address, the app could function as a person's only e-mail client. However, there's not much in the way of message management, so I'm hesitant to recommend it for those with other options. The program also supports Web mail-forwarding and replying through another e-mail address.

Sounds like a fine app, right? It is, at least on paper. Despite its demonstrable uses for both low-end and high-end devices, Cellity Communicator simply fails to grab me. It doesn't help matters that a couple of obvious bugs have been allowed to slip through and that I'm biased against multiple clicks to accomplish a simple task. All things said and done, it is a quite decent app that has a strong following and could secure a stronger future, but which still feels more unfinished and less engaging than its peers.

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!"

Shiny and glossy just like the iPhone itself is Fring, a relative newcomer to the VoIP-plus-IM communicator scene. Crowning itself the first true mobile VoIP solution for Apple's dream phone, Fring works with Skype, SIP, MSN Messenger (Windows Live Messenger), ICQ, Google Talk, Twitter, and Yahoo, though some of those services are clearly chat-only. CNET Executive Editor Tom Merritt shows you how to get started with Fring on your jailbroken iPhone in this Quick Tip video. If you like the program, you can still recommend Fring to friends who have to make do with merely Symbian, UIQ, and Windows Mobile phones (review).

This morning I've been playing with the prerelease version of Fring's talk software for the iPhone. It enables users to place VoIP calls in place of their plan minutes, giving people a cheap international calling alternative to their carrier's expensive per-minute charges. The one caveat (besides the need for a "jailbroken" handset) is that it requires the thick river of data only available over Wi-Fi, which means you won't be able to make or receive VoIP calls without being in range of a hotspot.

Besides VoIP, the app excels in instant messaging. You can live text chat with buddies on MSN Live Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo, as well as post and read messages to and from Twitter. Fring also lets you do voice chat with MSN, Google Talk, and ICQ.

To instigate a call, you simply have to hit a large green call button after hitting a buddy's name on the Fring contact list (see photo below). There's no minute counter, hold button, or anything else you might be used to with a regular phone--it's just a quick and dirty call that with a good connection sounds downright decent.

If a buddy is on one of the chat networks that includes voice chat, you can skip the finger strokes and use your voice instead.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The one service I ran into problems with was Skype. The app lets you plug in your Skype credentials and hook up your phone to your account--a move that enables the use of SkypeOut minutes to make calls to landlines. Some of my Skype contacts would show up, but not all of them, even when they appeared online in the desktop application. I also was unable to place an outgoing call to a landline using SkypeOut, despite being able to call up someone on my Skype buddy list using the free Skype-to-Skype connection.

What makes Fring particularly unique is that will run in the background, so you can hit the home button and do something else while the IM and telephony continues to send and receive data. It's something that won't be possible from the apps found in Apple's directory later this year since Apple is not letting third-party applications run as a background process--a stipulation of the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines that were released with the first version of the SDK.

Whether or not this application will be included in Apple's hand-picked directory later this year is doubtful. Giving paying AT&T customers an easy way to save some money that comes out of the pocket of the telecom giant is probably not in Apple's best interest, which is why I think the company released this as a direct download instead of trying to go official channels.

[via TechCrunch]

Pedestrians repeatedly thumbing their cell phones could be playing the latest mobile game, but it's just as likely they're microblogging addicts updating their Twitter accounts. Twitter's short-form service makes it ideal for two-sentence contributions from mobile phones, IM services, browsers, and desktop apps. Here are a few ultraconvenient third-party Twitter-updating apps.

From the phone

Twitter's mobile site, m.twitter.com, offers simple cell phone tweeting, and it's easy to set Twitter updates to your phone or IM. But on a BlackBerry, nothing is simpler than updating your feed than TwitterBerry, a bare-bones app that nevertheless keeps you logged into your account and keeps data transfers low. Your friend feed looks good too, with above-average image rendering.

Call, IM, and Twitter from Fring.

Fring is an international dialing and IM service that includes Twitter as one of its network services that users can communicate with via Fring's interface. While the app isn't necessarily convenient for those uninterested in out-of-country calling, it sweetens the deal for those Twitterheads already looking for dialing deals. Fring has versions compatible with most handsets.

iPhone users can always visit Twitter's site directly, but they should also try out Twitter on Thin Cloud, which boasts enlarged buttons, a beatific interface complete with thumbnails, and optimization for EDGE.

From an online app

Track Twitter topics on Gmail.

Flock is a Web socializer's dream browser; so regarded by us CNET editors since it integrates Facebook, Flickr, and, yes, Twitter into an interactive side bar.

Constant Gmail and Gtalk users will want to know about Twitter tracking, which, once you've added Twitter as a contact, lets you track tweets on topics you specify. This is actually an extension of Twitter's service, but one that plays a role on Gmail's site.

From the desktop

Mac Twitterlings should take heed of Twitterrific, a sleek app with a short, scrolling interface for reading and publishing tweets. The free version serves ads hourly (though unobtrusively, it claims,) but for a $15 investment, your desktop twittering can be ad-free.

Flock integrates Twitter into its browser design.

A Windows widget, Twidget, comes courtesy of Yahoo's Widget Engine and provides a snappy way to update Twitter first thing, without waiting for your browser to launch.

If widgets are too limiting, desktop apps like Twitteroo offer more interaction and control. In addition to reading and submitting updates, users can enjoy customizing the app and reducing the browser's CPU usage through the client's only-occasional Web access.

Spaz (for Mac and Windows) and Snitter are two Twitter-enhancement apps built on Adobe's AIR platform (for Windows and Mac). These are desktop apps that Webware.com founder Rafe Needleman has tried and liked for live Twittercasting.

Do you have a favorite Twitter companion? Share your preferences in the comments.