Fring takes iPhone video calling cellular
Apple set itself a real challenge with the iPhone 4, by making video calling – the great white elephant of 3G – one of the device’s main advertising points. And if FaceTime, as Apple rebranded it, isn’t crippled by history, it is certainly challenged by the fact that it only works over wifi. Until now that is, but it’s not Apple that has brought video calling to the cellular networks.
Voice over IP player Fring said Friday that its latest app brings two way video calling to the iPhone 4 over the cellular 3G network as well as wifi.
Because Fring also allows its uses to talk among themselves regardless of device, the updated app effectively enables video calling between users of iPhone 4, Android and Symbian S60 devices.
Fring has also enabled multitasking on the iPhone app, so it can run in the background, and has improved its integration with social networking tools and the address book.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUaFaKApPX4[/youtube]
Is it really “news” that you can now do something on the iPhone that you could do almost from the launch of UMTS?
I seem to remember front facing cameras and video calling from around 2002/3.
So is everything that is new for the iPhone automatically “news”?
I don’t think so.
@Adam – here here! I agree totally.
Well no, it’s not news in that sense. But in terms of actual functionality the iPhone hasn’t introduced anything new, yet it’s still revolutionised multiple sectors of the mobile industry in the way it addresses functions and services that have been available for years.
I thought this was interesting because, as you point out, 3G was all about video calling back in 2003. Despite all the hype and promise, video calling never took off. So why is Apple pushing it so heavily now? Really, if the iPhone can make video calling successful that would be an impressive feat and defintely newsworthy.
You guy are correct.. Check out PDF spec for this product.
http://www.motorola.com/mot/doc/1/1053_MotDoc.pdf