It first became available on Symbian/Nseries Nokia phones and then made its way to the iPhone and other devices as well thereafter. Now, Fring is widely available on a variety of phones including Windows Mobile devices, but still lacks a proper version for BlackBerry smartphones. It allows you to connect to a plethora of IM services including Skype, MSN Google Talk, Yahoo, ICQ, AIM and even Twitter as well. The best part is Fring is completely free and provides you with a versatile app to make VoIP calls while on the go either through 3G or WiFi. You can learn more about Fring for Android by checking out this post on their blog.

Here’s a short video introduction of Fring for Android:

Those on Android wanting to give Fring a try can find it at the Android Market, or could download it directly by heading on over to m.fring.com using the built-in browser. This maiden version Fring for Android isn’t perfect though. While it does work on the various versions of the Android, SIP and SkypeOut calls aren’t supported on the Motorola Droid and it also can’t display GSM contacts in the Buddy List. This will probably be address in a later release, but it should work properly on other Android phones.

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Simplicity is a key element on this phone as it only comes with two physical buttons on its front face – a power switch and a keypad lock key. It also comes with a 2.8-inch 240×400 touchscreen, 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, 3.5mm jack, hot swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB), EV-DO Rev. 0 connectivity, and a 950 mAh battery. Its not exactly overflowing with high-end features but quite usable in this day and age. You can check out the full press release over here.

Its price wasn’t mentioned, but its specs suggest that Motorola is targeting to the more budget-conscious spectrum of the market with the Crush. US Cellular is confirmed to be coming out with this new touchscreen phone before 2009 comes to a close with no clear indication that other carriers will be following suit.

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Motorola Crush formally Announced, Headed for US Cellular | Add your Comments

Virgin Mobile Canada has confirmed that they will indeed be offering up both the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S in the country. Falling short of naming a specific date as to when they will release it, they did go on to say that will hit both online and local Virgin Mobile retail stores ‘in the coming months.’ A previous post already revealed that the now Bell owned Canadian carrier will be launching the iPhone sometime in February of 2010, and this latest development only serves to further validate that report. You can read the full announcement over here.

As far as pricing goes, the Virgin Mobile iPhone should retail more or less the same as the rest of the pack with the most affordable one priced at just $99 (3G 8GB) and the highest at $299 (3G S 32GB) on a 3-year contract. iPhone monthly plans, however, are a totally different story.

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Unfortunately, confirming its launch in March was as far as he went and didn’t discuss anything else regarding the upcoming iteration of Windows Mobile.

However, they did briefly post the screenshot of its interface above on their Office Mobile 2010 website which bares an uncanny resemblance to what has been previously leaked in the past. Those wishing to view the image from the source are out of luck though as they’ve pulled it off their site already. Anyway, we’ll report more on this once new details become available.

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For online shoppers looking for the best deal on this phone, you might want to check out Amazon as they’re also offering this new Nokia QWERTY-equipped cell phone for just $559.99 courtesy of a $50 mail-in rebate. As a quick refresher, the Nokia N900 boasts of a 3.5-inch 800×480 WVGA touchscreen, 5-megapixel autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual-LED flash, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, 10Mbps HSDPA connectivity, GPS, 3.5mm jack, and runs on the new Maemo 5 platform. No carrier has been reported to have picked this new Nokia phone up as part of their holiday line-up. You can read the full press release here.

In related news, Nokia has also released a statement addressing the confusion regarding their newly released Maemo 5 OS and Symbian platform. Rumors started floating around that the Finnish phone maker will be giving Symbian the axe in favor of Maemo similar to the case involving Samsung and their homegrown Bada OS. Here’s what Nokia had to say about those rumors as posted by The Nokia Blog:

While it is our policy not to disclose details of our product roadmap, we’d like to explicitly communicate that we remain firmly committed to Symbian as our smartphone platform of choice. Any speculation on what our 2012 roadmap, including operating systems and product branding, are completely premature.

As we have stated earlier, Nokia has multiple platforms to serve different purposes and address different markets. Symbian is more successful than ever in bringing smartphones to the masses. Maemo is our software of choice for devices based on technology that you’d typically find inside a desktop computer. It delivers a different user experience and enables us to widen the market we can address.

So again, there’s no truth to the untimely demise of the Symbian platform. We are hoping though that Nokia gets the message through these rumors they really need to do something drastic with their Symbian OS so as to make it more competitive with the likes of Android and the mobile Mac OS on the iPhone. As for the here and now, Symbian will still be in the picture and will co-exist with Maemo.

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This successor to RIM’s first touchscreen phone, the BlackBerry Storm, boasts of an improved piezo-laden touchscreen display, WiFi connectivity, increased 2GB internal memory, and a more sleek over-all design. The BlackBerry Storm 2 is retailing for a very reasonable price of just $199.99 on a 3-yr contract, $499.99 on a 2-yr contract, $549.99 for a single year, and a high of $599.99 sans any contract. Telus is also bundling it with a 16GB microSD card, but don’t expect this baby to work nicely with their HSPA+ network as this version of the Storm 2 is only compatibility with Telus’ CDMA infrastructure.

With RIM’s latest touchscreen phone offering now available in Canada, the question now is will you guys be getting yourself a BlackBerry Storm 2 9550 this holiday season? You can find out more about the Storm 2 over here.

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Above is a snapshot of the rebate form you can find on their website, and shows the qualified Motorola phones included in this promotion. Standouts in the bunch are the Motorola Clutch i465, the only QWERTY device in the pack, and the Motorola i9, the most stylish flip phone in the group. Sure, it would have been nice if the BlackBerry Curve 8350i was included in the promo, but hey, $50 savings is still a significant amount and these Motorola phones aren’t actually that bad.

Just be sure to keep the original receipt though and be sure to fill up the form with a black/blue ink pen and use capital letters only to be eligible for the rebate.

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Based on a leaked internal Bell document acquired by The Mobile Ninjas, the Canadian carrier is scheduled to launch new plans on November 20th that will no longer come with SAF charges. We don’t have a copy of the said document, but here’s a quote from the said leakage highlighting the important parts of it:

Effective November 20th, 2009 Bell Mobility will be launching new pricing for all existing postpaid plans & will no longer be charging the $6.95 system access fee. Review the job aid for more details.

Details about the new pricing scheme are pretty scarce at the moment, but if they are to follow Telus’ Clear Choice approach, Bell subscribers might just need to pay the exact amount of the plan they subscribed to with no additional hidden charges. They could also emulate Rogers and just implement a new fee (in Rogers’ case, the Government Regulatory Recovery Fee) in lieu of the SAF, but this is pure speculation on our part.

It’s still anybody’s guess as to what Bell will actually do, but with November 20th just a stone’s throw away, we’ll find out much sooner than later.

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This entry level phone from Nokia boasts of Bluetooth connectivity, stereo FM radio, MP3 player, a camouflaged external display, GPRS, 10MB dynamic memory and will ship with earbuds included in the standard package. SpeakOut Wireless is reporting that it will also come with a 3-megapixel camera though the official specs list it as only being a 1.3-megapixel sensor. Unless the Finnish mobile phone maker decided to make some last minute changes to this phone, we’re more inclined to believe Nokia as opposed to the Canadian carrier.

An exact release date for the Nokia 2720 wasn’t mentioned, but it is expected to retail for $99 excluding local taxes when it hits store shelves beginning next month. More info can be found here.

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The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is one of the latest and more affordable RIM smartphones in the market today and has been available via Rogers in Canada since early last month. The LG Shine II, meanwhile, comes with a 2.2-inch mirror-finish LCD display, 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, GPS, 3.6Mbps HSDPA connectivity, and supports up to 16GB memory. This latest fashionable slider from LG is slated to become available for retail on November 22nd for $119.99 after a mail-in rebate is applied on 2-year contract. The BlackBerry Curve 8520, on the other hand, is still listed as coming in “the next few weeks” but is confirmed to retail for just $99.99 (after rebate).

The Curve 8520 certainly looks like the better offer between the two thanks to its lower retail price, but for those looking for 3G connectivity while on the go, the LG Shine II is a very interesting alternative albeit lacking the QWERTY keypad goodness that RIM phones are known for.

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