fringsters listen up, your local fring blogger is in the process of releasing the Worlds first mobi guide to Snakes of South Africa. This educational guide will soon be available freely on the Nokia Ovi store.

Due to time limitations the app/Mbook only includes a handful of the many snakes found throughout South Africa. I started with the most dangerous and common snakes and once I have more time and have sourced more development funding I will update the app to include all the snakes found in our country, I will also add support for more handsets and future plans include the addition of multi language support.

The guide has been entered into the Nokia Calling All Innovators Developer Challenge and I look forward to reading what everyone think of this unique South African App.

If like me you love playing with new things, drop me a line via Twitter or email ( simon AT fring DOT com) and I will happily send you the app.

Update: Download the application directly to your mobile handset by clicking here from your mobile browser.

Btw the guide has been tested and works on all Nokia Symbian S60 5th edition handsets . (Including Nokia N97, N97 mini, 5800, 5530 and X6 handsets.)

Back in May, Nokia announced the release of its much- anticipated application store- the Ovi Store. Ovi provides tens of millions of Nokia users worldwide with easy access to a whole lot of downloadable goodies from the Ovi website and WAP site as well as Nokia N97 users, on which Ovi is already pre-installed.

fring’s updated version has just been launched on the Ovi and we are looking forward to test out this new service ourselves. As you recall, the N97 is also already supported by fring’s latest 3.40 version so the lucky one’s who already managed to get your hands on the N97 can start enjoying the very social fring 3.4 and a whole lot of other apps from Ovi right away.

We have just been introduced to the super sexy Nokia N97 handset. Which btw is now officially available in South Africa.

“The Nokia N97 is a S60 5th Edition mobile computer with a large 3,5“ TFT color display with resistive touch screen and tactile feedback. The device provides excellent user experience for internet and entertainment by combining qwerty keyboard with touch UI and Home screen functionality. Use the N97 to connect to mobile broadband using WLAN or HSDPA (3.5G). Find directions and locations with the integrated A-GPS and included maps. Additional features include game titles with N-Gage, a 5 mega pixel camera with dual LED flash and automatic geotagging of images and videos.”

The handset is easy to use and after playing with it for a few miutes can tell you that its a dream machine.

It’s all good news for fringsters today as we already fully support the Nokia N97 so if you are one of the lucky few who already own this device or if you are planning to purchase it in the coming weeks, don’t forget to take your friends mobile by getting downloading fring here.

That right folks, your local fring Blogger has been invited to attend the much anticipated Nokia underground fusion extravaganza, to be held in Johannesburg on the 16th of July. The event, press conference and cocktail party will celebrate the launch of 3 great new Nokia products: The Nokia N97, N86 8MP and Ovi Store.

Attendance is by invitation only which means only a few privileged individuals will get in the door. The good news for fringsters though is that I will be live blogging and tweeting from the event to give you the full benefit, feel free to follow me on twitter for live updates. That said if any of the other invited attendees want to meet up with me at or after the event feel free to drop me a line [simon <AT> fring <DOT> com]

See you guys in Johannesburg.

While iPhone and Nokia have been busy getting their iPhone 3.0 software and Nokia N97 ready for the shelves, we’ve been busy making sure fring supports them as they hit the market so you get the biggest bang for your buck from day one!

fring now supports Apple’s latest iPhone 3.0 software update

Following Apple’s last week release of the iPhone 3.0 software update, we’re happy to announce that fring now supports the brand new iPhone 3.0 firmware , including the new iPhone 3Gs. What does it require of you!? Absolutely nothing! The version is already on your phone, ready for you to enjoy, with Apple’s latest and bestest yet.

For these of you who don’t have fring’s latest iPhone version yet, get yours today!

The brand new Nokia N97 is avaialble in stores now

Originally announced last December, Nokia’s just announced the official retail release of its much- anticipated N97 device, available in their flagship stores; fring is proud to support this cool, new device with its most recent and most social version to date- the 3.40 version.

The Nokia N97 flagship phone boasts a large 640×360 sliding/angling touch screen display, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Symbian S60 5th Edition, 5 megapixel camera, and 32GB of internal memory.

Those of you who are lucky enough to get your hands on this new device are welcome to download fring today!

We are looking forward to hearing your feedback on the fring experience on the slick, new N97.

The fringTEAM