If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Despite the ability to install almost any kind of application (yes, any!), something which makes the iPhone a powerful portable computer, it’s pretty clear that Apple’s most famous gadget is mainly a communication device, both for telephony and internet.

The main goal is to provide users with a good substitute to their laptop while on the go and I can say the iPhone does this job very well. In this perspective, there are some applications that are not mainstream yet but can offer iPhone owners some very useful services at their fingertips. Here are three (actually five) must-have applications which make your iPhone experience even better.

1) Calliflower

Iotum’s Calliflower is currently one of the most comprehensive and powerful services to manage conference calls straight from the Web. They started with a Facebook app which has now evolved and has been brought out of FB to become a stand alone communication platform for online collaboration.

One of the latest killer-features they added is the ability to manage everything from your iPhone with a clean and effective user interface.

The iPhone application will be free until Jan 1, 2009, then it will cost $9.99 (that it’s like free, to me). They also just launched a premium service which adds new collaboration tools to the standard free service. Check out Calliflower website for more details.

2) Palringo

I already reviewed this service over two months ago and it seems they are growing more and more and adding new cool features.

Palringo is a rich Text & Voice Instant Messaging service which lets you get in touch with your contacts over multiple IM services, share pictures, join chat groups and share voice messages with your friends.

In particular, one of the latest features they introduced is the ability to get the position of your friends in your buddy list, making it easier to create new opportunities to meet / interact.

3) Let’s VoIP!

While Palringo is a great IM (and more), it lacks the ability to make phone calls. Ok, you have a phone, you can make phone calls of course. The point is that there are a few popular VoIP applications which can be easily found at the App Store, all worth noting, and the choice it’s up to you, depending on what are you looking for.

Truphone

Truphone is one of the first mobile VoIP apps, ever, released in 2004. This, alone, should be enough to make you understand that the keyword here is: realiability.

Pros:

• very robust, the first one available for the iPhone since its launch by Apple
• usability (open the app and dial)

Cons:

• no VoIP over 3G, WiFi only (but it’s more an Apple problem… take a look here for a viable solution)

Nimbuzz

Nimbuzz for the iPhone has just been announced and it’s really promising. Unlike Truphone, it offers the ability to get all your IM contacts in a single interface, making it easy to get in touch with them without having to install another application to be used for instant messaging. Definitely one of the most complete and the number of social networks supported is impressive.

Pros:

• all major IM and social networks are available

Cons:

• no VoIP over 3G, WiFi only (but it’s more an Apple problem… take a look here for a viable solution)

Fring

Similar to Nimbuzz, the features made available by this service are very similar to those found in the previous one. The choice is up to you.

Pros:

• all major IM and social networks are available
• twitter integration and SIP calls

Cons:

• no VoIP over 3G, WiFi only (but it’s more an Apple problem… take a look here for a viable solution)

What do you like better? Leave your comments here and tell me what your favorite communication applications are.

Related articles by Zemanta

• iPhone 2.2 Update Review: Go Get It Now [Apple]

Technorati Tags: App Store, Apple, calliflower, facebook, fring, Instant messaging, iphone, luca filigheddu, nimbuzz, palringo, truphone, Wi-Fi

Image by thomcochrane via Flickr

The popular Israeli Mobile IM/VoIP service Fring is slowly introducing banner Ads inside their mobile clients. It seems not all the users are affected, but only a selected group. 

I don’t really know if it will work, anyway praises to Fring to be one of the first players to introduce this approach in the mobile VoIP space. However Fring is not alone since Talkster is another player which announced a similar strategy at the beginning of this year, despite the approach is different (ads into the call stream).

I think 2009 will be a “show me the money” year so I bet many players in this space will launch similar or alternative initiatives pretty soon.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Fring Trials Ads On Free Mobile Chat/VoIP Application
• Fring: Ads Are Coming!
• Report on Low Cost & Mobile VoIP

Technorati Tags: Advertising, fring, luca filigheddu, mobile voip, talkster

Image via CrunchBase

I read today about an interesting iPhone application which basically changes the natural behavior of the iPhone and lets VoIP applications use the 3G network instead of the default Wifi.

This application, Voipover3G, works with the alternative installer Cydia, specifically designed for jailbroken iPhones 3G.

After installing this app, VoIP apps which used to use the Wifi connection, like Fring and Truphone, will be forced to use the 3G data channel. Not having an iPhone 3G I couldn’t test it out, anyway I find it useful in certain contexts even if limited to jailbroken iphones only.

Related articles by Zemanta

• iPhone Pwnage Tool 2.0.2 Available Now (Jailbreak and Unlock) [Iphone Jailbreak]

Technorati Tags: 3G, Apple, Cydia, fring, Installer, iphone, jailbreak, luca filigheddu, truphone, VoIP

Image via CrunchBase

I just received a note from Fring informing me that the popular mobile IM/VoIP service has been selected by Mobikom’s brand A1 to be distributed to their customers in Austria.

Here is an excerpt from the official press release:

Under the agreement, mobilkom austria will give its customers access to a dedicated version of the fring mobile client, containing fring’s entire open-platform, feature-rich suite of internet based mobile communications & community services, allowing A1 over IP users to talk, chat and interact with each other & all of their online communities, and access fun mobile web applications, using the internet connection capability of their mobile device.

In Phase 1 of the project, the A1 over IP service will be integrated into fring’s SIP service, offering fring users the opportunity of using A1 over IP accounts and also the ability to configure their A1 over IP accounts to work within fring.

Phase 2 will see a fring application being built into mobilkom austria’s mobile offering and pre installed onto a large number of mobile devices. This will comprise fring’s entire feature set of voice over IP, instant messaging, real-time presence / availability indication, file transfer and access to fring’s new always-on mobile internet applications (fring Add-ons)

This is definitely a major news for the Israeli-based service, which is continuosly bringing innovation to the mobile market and making the mobile IM/VoIP experience much better than what you can get by other competitors.

Skype, Twitter, all major IM networks, SIP calling and much more are the key ingredients for this growing success. Moreover, they recently announced that Fring is finally available on the Apple iPhone’s App Store but if you don’t own an iPhone and you are a Symbian user, you can get the latest version of Fring released yesterday.

Congrats to all Fring’s team for these continuous important announcements, keep up the good work!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Fring brings VoIP to iPhone
• Making Skype Calls from Fring for iPhone
• Fring brings Skype and other VoIP services to iPhone
• Fring Delivers the Most Impressive VoIP and IM Client for iPhone so Far

Technorati Tags: App Store, deal, fring, Instant messaging & messengers, iphone, luca filigheddu, mobile voip

I wrote many blog posts about mobile VoIP and I tried most of the mobile VoIP services available for my handsets (Nokia N-series). That being said, I have to say that all of them are definitely bringing innovation to the mobile market, while mobile operators start watching them carefully as a potential threat.

One of the trends I’m observing is how those services are leveraging their existing infrastructure, investments and developments by offering a white label solution to big companies which want to up-sell new innovative services to their huge potential user base. It’s nothing more than what some mobile carriers are already doing worldwide with the so called MVNOs, but with “VoIP” and “new services” in the middle.

Look at Rebtel with EasyMobile (but I know for sure there is more coming out soon) or FreshTel with Tesco. FreshTel, for example, is a new player operating in the Australian market that I knew during the VoIP World 2008 in Dubai since I was sitting at the same rountable with Rhonda O’Donnell, their CEO. They signed a big deal with Tesco, a Wal-Mart competitor, to provide their customers with a mobile VoIP solution. How long will it take for WalMart or similar groups to look for similar solutions to be sold to their huge audience?

I’m pretty sure there is more coming out from players like, for example, the no-boundaries mobile operator Cubic Telecom and I expect to see something similar coming from other players like Truphone or Fring. The point here is to bring user experience at its best. Customers of big shopping groups like Wal-Mart are mostly “normal” people who look for something cheap and easy to use, without having to struggle with software installation or handset’s configuration.

In this perspective a solution by MaxRoam, Rebtel or Sim4Travel (by Truphone) would fit better with that audience and are more likely to succeed than other services which are more complex for an average user. Most people are not early adopters of new technologies so all the mobile VoIP companies that want to jump into that business through those channels must keep this aspect well in mind.

Besides, I stated many times and I firmly believe that the #1 concern for any mobile VoIP player must be the usability and the overall user experience delivered by their services. They can offer the cheapest rate ever, but It becomes useless if a “normal” person needs to attend a software engineering class to install their software or needs to buy a $500 phone to use it (mmm… how many “normal” people have a Wifi access at home?).

Related articles by Zemanta

• Tesco Gets Into The Mobile VoIP Game
• Mobile VoIP Services — The Ergonomics of Making a Call Counts…
• Get Your Nokia VoIP on with Fring
• Mobile VoIP cuts free from Wi-Fi
• Report on Low Cost & Mobile VoIP

Technorati Tags: Cubic Telecom, freshtel, fring, luca filigheddu, maxroam, mobile voip, rebtel, Tesco, truphone

It was not a rumor, the world’s first native mobile IM/VoIP application for the iPhone has just been released today.

From the press release:

This pre-release version of fring, is being made available as a work-in-progress in response to iPhone owners urging us to let have fring for their devices.  It offers all of fring’s most popular features giving iPhone users the ability to take all of their fring, Skype, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, Twitter, Yahoo! & AIM buddies mobile. iPhone fringsters can also make low cost mobile calls made over WiFi & rich, IM-style chat.

If you want to download it, you just need an opened iPhone and a Wifi Connection. Detailed instructions here.

Cool!

Technorati Tags: fring, iphone, VoIP

According to the usually well-informed guys at TecCrunch, Fring is launching a native iPhone version of their popular mobile IM/VoIP application in the next 24 hours.

I love Fring and it’s definitely the move I was waiting for. It seems it will be provided through the installer application on jailbroken iPhones and will offer native VoIP capability through the Wifi connectivity (cool, but it will be also its limit, the same limit I always highlighted about the Truphone solution).

Fring is doing something that others claimed in the past. Truphone developed the first working VoIP application for iPhone, even if still a demo version, while Jajah announced they are working on it. Fring never claimed something neither showed a demo version, but it seems they are releasing it for the general public. 

I’m curious to see what the next move by the other players will be.  

Technorati Tags: Apple, fring, iphone, jajah, luca filigheddu, truphone, VoIP