Unboxing the ‘Emergency Mobile Phone Charger’

My ever growing wish list of mobile techno gadgets got a much needed boost last week, after my parents returned from a trip to Thailand. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for taking the time to fring me from Thailand and for getting me some cool new gadgets.Todays gadget on review is my all new mobile telephone charge or ‘Emergency Mobile Phone Charger‘. The device which is no bigger than a tube of lipstick acts as an emergency power source for a wide array of mobile devices and after testing I can say this device could come in very handy one day. The unit is powered by a single AA batter.

Now although it cannot give you hours of extra talk time, it guarantees to give you enough extra battery life to make a few emergency calls.
I’d say, this relatively low cost device is a must have for all fringsters and will make a great gift.

Via fring main blog

Samsung SGH-i550W joins the fring party

Omri over at fring’s main blog has just released some great news, owners of the cool Samsung SGH-i550W will now be able to join the fring family and enjoy their own fringing freedom, along with millions of fringsters worldwide.

This is the first Symbian Samsung device to be supported by fring.

What are you waiting for guys, go supercharge your Samsung SGH-i550W, and start talking, chatting, and interacting with all of your online buddies now.

As always, we’d love to hear what you think!

Unboxing the Universal Travel Charger

At fring we love all things mobile, we especially love gadgets that are designed to make mobile use even better. Every now and then we are lucky enough to unbox a new gadget that we thing rocks. Today I will be unboxing just such a gadget.

Before unboxing the gadget, I thought it good to say thank you to my parents for thinking of me while they were on holiday in Thailand and for bring me home a few gadgets for my ever growing wish list. Thanks you guys rock!

I have always wanted a universal cellphone battery charger and now thanks to some loving parents I have one. Yippi

Today I am unboxing the “Universal Travel Charger”

At first glance this gadget looked like something out of a James Bond movie, and as there were no English instruction on the box, I wondered if it would actually work. They say the proof of the pudding is in the tasting and this time it was in the using, so I quickly dug through my drawer and puller out an old batter, one that I hardly use (just in case something went wrong and the battery exploded) After trying a few different methods to plug the battery into the unit I finally figured out how the batter was meant to be connected and within 2min I was happily charging my battery.

Don’t you just love our Chinese friends, for years I have been looking for a universal cellphone battery charger and they have already been having it all this time. The good news is that a quick Google search on availability pointed me to a well known online Chinese retailer which means that you don’t need to travel to Thailand or China to get your own universal charger. All you need do is point your web browser here, order your universal charger and they will have it shipped directly to your door within a few days.

Now although my universal charger was originally manufactured by these guys (who don’t have an online store), I am sure the version available online will be of the same quality.

Taking a closer look at minifring

Below is a look at what minifringsters get when they log into fring.

At fring we believe everyone deserves only the best fringing experience, with this in mind we have been working around the clock to make sure that even fringsters using low end handsets will have a great fringing experience!

Enter minifring the Rolls Royse of fring for J2ME fringsters. Free your handset get minifring now.

fring bloggers clock 1 year

Hey guys

frings localized blogs recently celebrated 1 year of blogging for you our loyal fringsters.

Sebastian - Germany: 24 June
Frazier - India: 25 June
Mariano - Spain: 11 June
Herug - Russia: 17 June
Marc - France: 29 May
Tim - Australia: 11 June
Gil - UK: 11 June
Simon - South Africa - 18 July

The South African fring blogger (oops thats me) is excited to be among the group that has now been on the air for just over a year.

This is a milestone for most of us and it’s great to be part of this ever growing fring blogging team.

This past year was fun, and all in all it was a great experience. For the curious out there, during the past year the South African fring blog posted 200 posts, received 174 comments and were protected from more than 3438 spam comments thanks to Akismet.com

During the upcoming year, I look forward to bringing you many more great updates from fring and also some nice techno reviews and initiatives to go green.

Za number of fringsters in South Africa is growing at an unbelievable rate and it’s great to be at the hub of this growth, for this reason I would love to hear more from you guys, be it via comments on the blog or via a live chat using my fringME widget, guys please keep the feedback coming, let me know what you want me to blog about and what changes you wanna see in the fring app.

I look forward to hearing from you guys soon.

Regards

SimonB

fringing South African Blogger

Roy welcomes both fringmini and Linux users

In this video, Roy welcomes 2 new fring members, fringmini and fring linux for Nokia N810. fringsters lets spread the word so that many, many more fringsters can join the fring party! As always fring is free to download here.

fringing freedom for Linux and Java J2ME handsets

At last… Something millions of users have been waiting for!

Today fring launches support for both Linux and J2ME handsets! This version of fring has just gone live and I must say it has the whole fring team bubbling over with excitement, now so many more handsets will be supported. In total fring now supports nearly 1000 different handsets.

Our special new Java version has been named “minifring”, it will work on both (Sony Ericsson and Nokia s40 2nd, 3rd & 4th edition) although these handsets do not support voice calling, being able to chat to all your Skype, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, Twitter, Yahoo and AIM buddies will open many new doors for these older handsets.

The fringAPI we released last month will also apply to Java ME devices soon, so all the great apps developers around the world are working on will be available in the fringAdd-ons catalog for the hundreds of supported Java ME devices too!

We also today welcome Linux users (currently only the Nokia N810) to the world of full fringing features including internet calls, chat, presence, file transfer and more + some unique features.

There seems to be something in the water our R&D guys have been drinking. They are cracking out these new versions at an amazing rate. Well done guys, keep up the good work, I am sure millions of new Africans fringsters will benefit from this new J2ME version.

As usual we ask that any feedback both good and bad, be sent to us so that we can strive to keep our products top quality.

Guys spread the word to all your Linux and J2ME buddies, fring is now fringing everywhere!

See you soon

The fringTEAM

P.S.
* See full list of fring supported devices here.
* fring now has lots of capabilities and features that slightly differ depending on device platform capabilities so check out what your phone can do here.

fring fring, fring fring hello Rex we hear you

The latest thing to crash land all over the South African Blogosphere is “Rex the talking lion“, and boy oh boy does he have the local bloggers on their toes. Rex seems to have already become a household name among the local bloggers and in only a few short days he already has a fan base similar to that of Vernon Koekemoer. The only difference is that Rex will eat you if you say something wrong about him.. oops!! Maybe Rex and Vern hang out on the weekends, who knows?

I am not sure how to compare Rex to give you and idea of what he is like, I think the best way is to think of Achmed the dead terrorist then add a little African style and cut out the ventriloquist, Rex ate him some time back. But it’s basically the same. Rex can like to “kill you”.

During the lastest Rexcast your local fring blogger (oops thats happens to be me) got a thrashing from Rex for hinting that he (Rex) might not be real, the long and the short of it is that I now keep wasabi on hand every time I go out just incase I get to meet Rex the lion upclose. I thought it best to share the video with everyone, so we all get the picture.

So without further ado, sit back, pull out the popcorn and enjoy this short clip.

Taking fring to new hights

Have you ever wished you could make or receive low cost VoIP calls to friends and family while flying high about the ground in your hang glider or para glider? Or while mountain biking along your favorite biking route, while at the same time not spoiling your outdoor experience.

The good news is that now thanks to fring and a sexy little gadget from the guys over at mobile.brando.com.hk you can now easily call any of your Skype, Googletalk, MSN, ICQ, and SIP buddies while doing any outdoor sport that requires you to communicate hand free. If you have a GPS enabled handset like the Nokia 6110 Navigator your friends can also track your movement using the fringME! Widget.

Mobile brando now stocks this device and the great news is that they also ship worldwide for only $3.

Go Green: Plant a tree

Came across this interesting global warming video today on Youtube and even though this type of global problem may only happen sometime in the future, for some reason I got the uncontrollable urge to plant many trees.

fringsters if we all take action today by planting just one tree we can make a difference to the carbon footprint on this lovely planet we call home