Nokia eco-charger

Take a look at this interesting little eco-charger by Nokia.

“This clever little device works a little bit like one of those power-surge protectors you might use with a lawnmower or a drill. A big green button on the back of the charger turns on the power. When your phone is charged, the button pops out and the power is cut off.” Pocketpicks

It’s going to be interesting to see what other great new eco friendly devices come into the market in the next few months. Great concept from the Nokia team, would love to see other mobile manufacturers come on board with similar products.

fring gets a rocking review on Reuters

Ready steady set - South African version

My good friend Tim over at frings Australian Blog recently posted about a new movement stopping time across the globe. This led me to do some research into just how far this movement has grown and would you believe, a few gutsy South Africans had caught the wave and started doing the exact same thing in South Africa only days after Tim had posted. I was amazed.

As of today the time stopping activity has traveled to more than 34 countries in more than 70 locations, and may I say I think this concept rocks!

fring iPhone demo video

For anyone still thinking yesterdays release of fring for the iPhone was a late April fool joke, see this video.

fringing iPhone freedom- a world first!

OK. So for those of you who missed the techcruch article from earlier today, (amazing how news gets out before it even happens) well the news is now officially out, if you happen to be one of the lucky people who owns an Apple iPhone, you just got even luckier.

We’ve just released a special pre-release R&D version of fring for your iPhone - What a mobile VoIP app publicly available for the iPhone?… Is this for real? yip this is no late April fool joke this is the real McCoy and it’s a world-first!

This special pre-release version of fring, developed in conjunction with the Holon Institute of Technology academic research labs is a direct response to iPhone users kicking our butts to get fring for their WAY COOOOOL devices.

Part of the objective here (besides getting you all excited with fring for iPhone) is to get feedback prior to release of the full-feature version and create a truly superb user experience for iPhone users. Guys please note that because this is a pre-release R&D version, there may be a few things that don’t work as great at they should, in other words the more feed back you guys send us the faster we can fix these things and get an even better version out. Also the most important thing to remember guys is that this version will only work on ‘opened iPhones’, so for the moment anyone who doesn’t have an ‘opened iPhone’ will not be able to install this version of fring.

So feel free to let us know what you think (…and be as honest as you like – we can take it!

More info on what you to get and how to get it is now available in the fringcubator (fring lab).

Bring on the fringing iPhone freedom!

Mobile 3D virtual worlds - A reality?

fringsters get ready for Mobile 3D Virtual Worlds, i-citizen has arrived!

Guy’s after 3 long years of development in the basements of Poland and the UK a small team of developers have done what many big studios have only dreamed of, they have released in beta, the worlds first totally interactive mobile 3D virtual world known simply as i-citizen. From what I have seen i-citizen looks like a combination of Second life and The Sims.

I have been invited by the great guys at Micazook to beta test the application over the next few weeks as they iron out a few handset issues, as usual I will update everyone when I have more details. In the mean time check out the official website. www.micazook.com

fring etiquette says: Go silent or go home

Hey guys, I was lucky enough to be invited to a friends wedding this past weekend (yes i have friends) and man was it a good time. I can’t remember when last I had so much fun. During the ceremony a cellphone rang five different times, luckily the ringtone was my favorite song “Who let the dog’s out”. Needless to say everyone had a good laugh.

If you think that was good wait till you see the wedding cake, it simply rocked. Taking a closer look though made me realize one thing though, there are times when we need to simply switch off!

Ok, ok so maybe thats not exactly what happened,just needed a good illustration to make the point.

fringsters this is an urgent call to remember your fring etiquette.

fring etiquette say: There are times to either switch it off or go to silent!

1. While at the movies.
2. When you are at school.
3. During religious ceremonies.
4. During your wedding and during your honeymoon.
5. Whenever you are requested to do so by people in authority.

Garmin nüvifone - Next BIG thing?

Garmin recently announced that their all new nüvifone will be launching in the 3Q of 2008. Sadly though there is still no word as to what the retail price will be or whether we will even see the nüvifone in South Africa before 2010. The only thing I know for sure is that if this handset is built in a similar style and quality to my nüvi 350, then this phone is set to be the handset of handsets! Not only does it come with a touch screen it also includes some great new features.

• Full 3G / HSDPA access
• Camera, video camera, MP3 and MPEG4/AAC
• Full web browsing functionality, Email, text & IM functions
• Regular and mini USB Slot

Specs like these leave me wondering, nüvifone how long is it before you join the growing fring family?

Emirates makes worlds first inflight mobile calls

Dubai-based Emirates airlines recently became the worlds first airline to allow inflight mobile calling. Using a unique Aero-mobile system, passengers on board Emirates A340-300 aircraft can now make calls while being assured that their mobile phones are not interfering with aircraft controls.

The first commercial call was made between Dubai to Casablanca at an altitude of 30,000 feet.

With air travel growing at a very rapid rate it is good to see that some airlines are entering new territories when it comes to technology and not just staying in the dark ages.

It’s also good to see is that Emirates has already implemented some house rules which aim to keep annoying problems at bay. The rules include terms like, No passenger is allowed to make calls during a night flight, Handsets should be set to silent for the duration of the flight and passengers may each only make 5 to 6 calls per flight.

Emirates is currently the largest airline in the Middle East it currently serves “99 cities in 62 countries“.

I look forward to the day when I will be able to make a fring call from 30,000 feet.

Panasonic Clocks 100 Million Handsets

Panasonic recently announced the sale of it’s 100 Millionth handset in Japan. Growth has been good for Panasonic in the last few years and previous sales records show, that things are definitely not slowing down, according to techshout.com Panasonic sold its 10 millionth unit in June 1997 and 50 millionth unit in March 2001.

Guys this is a great achievement keep up the good work.