fringsters, did you know you can now learn the South African Sign Language Alphabet using your mobile phone?

South Africa has more than 1.5 million deaf citizens, in the USA the number is closer to 9 million and in the UK it’s around 8.9 million. Thats almost 20 million people in only 3 countries.

With such a high number of deaf people globaly surely there should be an easy way to learn Sign Language to help narrow the gap in communication between the hearing and the deaf.

The newly launched range of HandSign mobi guides aims to close the gap by helping hearing folks learn the most basic of alphabet signs so that they can then communicate with the Deaf.

The first 3 guides in the range are:

1. South African Sign Language (Live in Ovi)
2. American Sign Language (Coming soon)
3. Canadian Sign Language (Coming soon) (Live in Ovi)

You can download these premium guides and more via the Nokia Ovi Store. Why not take a few minutes every day to learn the sign language alphabet in your country so you can spread the love and communicate with a deaf friend in your area.

Android users - you’ve got great devices – now you can share great experiences!

With free video calls over your phone’s internet connection, now you can kiss your girlfriend good night from abroad and share those face-to-face experiences live, wherever you are!

So whether you’re on HTC’s new Evo, Nexus 1 or many other Android devices, you’ll almost be together wherever you are with the first ever video calls on Android devices – and it’s free over your internet connection.

Get the latest fring here.

Note: We support 2-way video calls on all capable devices with 2 -side cameras, and one-directional video for Android devices with only 1 camera so depending on where the camera is on your device, you may need to flip it around to show your face. Enjoy and Smile – you’re always on the air

Also note, that video calls require fast –CPU. fring automatically tests your device strength to gauge your phone’s video calling capabilities.

The fringTEAM

Nokia Symbian users- pay attention, your fring has just become even easier to use!

Finding your friends is made lot easier now, thanks to fring’s automatic friend-finder. fring can now add all your phone book friends, who are already fringsters, into your fring buddy list so you can video-call, call and chat for free with more friends around the globe from your mobile phone. Cool eh?

From now on, you can also create your full profile right at the registration process, so your real-time status and avatar will show the 1st time you log into fring.

This new version also contains many bug fixes, quite a few resolved thanks to our users’ ongoing feedback and support, keep it coming guys

Symbian users- Go get your new fring version (4.3) today!

The fringTEAM

Break News:

Twitter just went wild with news that MTN is going to launch “uncapped 3G broadband” come 1 June 2010, so I decided to digg deaper and bring you the facts.

MTN South Africa has just announced that they will be introducing “uncapped 3G broadband” from 1 June 2010. This may sound like brilliant news but lets look a little closer before getting excited. The “uncapped” 3G will come with strict fair-usage restrictions and at the end of the day is this new “uncapped 3G” service really as “uncapped” as it sounds?

MTN will launch two packages come 1 June 2010:

1. R 749.00/ month - You get 3GB of 3G data, throttled down to 128kbit/s after using 3GB.
2. R1999.00/month - You get 10GB of 3G data, throttled down to 128kbit/s after using 10GB.

Clearly real “uncapped” data at an affordable rate is still along way off in South Africa.

You can already purchase mobile 3G data from 0.19c/MB when purchasing a 2GB bundle, so 3GB of data is already R583.68 at the standard rate and you are then paying R165.32 for the remaining 128kb uncapped connection after you reach the 3GB cap. So looks like they should be announcing ‘uncapped 128kb connections’ with the purchase of our over priced bundles. You can btw already get 128kb wireless internet connections in South Africa for R299.00 per month which means the MTN offering is R133.68 cheaper per month so lets give them credit where it’s due, the new rate is cheaper than current market prices but they are forcing you to purchase and expensive 3GB bundle, which makes the deal less appealing to the poorer mass market.

The 10GB account also looks much better, however why would you want to pay for 10GB of expensive data. Why don’t they just launch a 128kb connection to market and drop the whole 3GB and 10GB bundle idea. On the 10GB account you are in theory only paying R53.40/month for the 128kb uncapped connection.

I sure hope MTN looks at bringing a ‘uncapped 128kb connection’ to market for under R60.00/month without the end user needing to purchase a 3GB or 10Gb bundle, now that would be revolutionary

It’s going to be interesting to see how Vodacom responds to the new MTN rates. Lets hope Vodacom reads this blog and takes the hint and brings a lower speed cheap connection for the mass market.

fringsters listen up, fring now supports the ever popular Apple iPad. What you waiting for get it now!

Did you know: Aki Anastasiou of 702 Talk radio in South Africa was the very first person on earth to take fring for the iPad for a test run. Yes even before Steve Jobs or our own fringing technicians had tested this on a real device Aki was fringing away on his iPad. He also took the very first screenshots shortly before jetting off to the USA and sent them to us to share with the world.

Thanks for testing Aki, you fringing rock dude!

Guys why not download fring for the iPad today and let us know what you think of it.

The fring Team

Great news for fringsters on the Cell C network:

Earlier this year Cell C announced that it “has signed a R2.9bn deal with the Chinese telecom equipment provider ZTE Corporation” this came shortly after announcing that the firm would be spending R5bn to upgrade it’s network to 4G in 2010.

Cell C has now also revealed that the “Nokia Siemens Networks was appointed as the second vendor in its network expansion and upgrade plans.” The network rollout has started, and will be launch as soon as Cell C feels it has enough high quality coverage nationwide.

With the recent MTN, Vodacom and now Cell C network upgrade in South Africa, the bandwidth war is heating up nicely and Mobile internet is slowly starting to become cheaper. Things are shaping up nicely for internet users and fringsters in this land and I can’t wait for the day when mobile broadband rates can compare with landline rates.