FriendCaller Blog

On May 31, 2010, Apple announced that iPad sales have topped two million in less than 60 days since its launch on April 3. A million iPads were sold out till 1st May, which was after the 28 days of its launch, and hence beating iPhone, which hit the 1m count in 74 days after its release date.

“Customers around the world are experiencing the magic of iPad, and seem to be loving it as much as we do,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We appreciate their patience, and are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone.”

iPad users have already downloaded over 12 million apps from the App store. Developers have created over 5,000 exciting new apps just for the iPad alone. The iPad also supports the 200,000 apps already available on App Store.

And yes, FriendCaller has been one of the new exciting 5,000 iPad apps, and is still running for free, marking its top 10 position among the top gross selling apps in app stores of United States, Germany, France, Australia, United Kingdom, and Italy.

Skype’s anouncement of charging for calls over 3G soon arises the question: Who is figthting VoIP freedom now? We at FriendCaller have long lobbied for VoIP over 3G and Apple Inc. finally made it possible. No doupt that this required some arm twisting since the operators have been notoriously stubborn to give their customer anything for free but instead likes to tie them with a million or so additional chargable options.

So, for a long time Skype was with us and other iPhone developers lobbying for VoIP freedom. Therefore, this announcement comes at a surprise and is a seriuos set-back for VoIP freedom, considering the size and market position of Skype.

Apple Inc. opened up for 3G VoIP a couple of months back, and the feature was well received with iPhone app developers and many end users.

FriendCaller facilitates free VoIP calls over WiFi and 3G and the FriendCaller apps allow as well to call out to phone and mobile phone numbers around the globe at prices far below the operators are charging.

So well, here we stand out. We are proud to offer VoIP over 3G and WiFi calls on the mobile datat network for free, since a long time now. No subscriptions, no deadlines, and no other confusing strings attached.

Who is fighting for VoIP freedon now? One less but many other stay strong. Does it matter? Yes, we can see that ever since Skype has announced that it will charge, we have seen more users signing up with FriendCaller than ever, pushing us into the TOP10 social networing app list in Germany and even more of our users are willingly paying to use the FriendCaller to call out phone numbers making us 2nd amoung Top Grossing social networking app in the US. So free and freedom are the way to go for iPhone developers and their customers.

Despite being FREE, FriendCaller ranks No.2 in Social Networking category

Great news! FriendCaller 3 Pro now ranks No. 2 on the Top Grossing Apps in the US Social Networking app store category, and just climbed into the Top 10 Charts in Germany. Not to miss mentioning, we landed in the Top 5 in France, and Top 100 in United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, and Australia too.

Social networking on Apple’s products like iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch has become remarkably noticeable in the last few months. More and more users are downloading apps to stay connected with their family and friends while on the go. Since with the recent integration of FriendCaller on facebook and the launch of free FriendCaller app for the new iPad, we have experienced a remarkable increase in the number of users. We are trying our level best to keep the current users happy and would like to see more social networking people to try our free FriendCaller VoIP app.

Normally, a top grossing app is paid. We thank our users to bring our free app among top 10 grossing apps which are in fact all paid. Apple’s way of supporting their honest developers is whats bringing more and more developers to offer quality apps for free on the app store.

Free GPS app, Navigon, ranks No. 1 in Germany app store

Like for example, recently we blogged about how one can save a lot of money when looking for a GPS navigation solution while abroad for a longer stay. Things have now changed. When in Germany, instead of buying a reasonably priced navigation system, one can get a free app  from the app store, named Navigon Select. You will be surprised to know that this app also ranks like us on top 10 grossing apps (in Germany’s Apple app store), since Navigon sells additional maps and features to complement the free version and users love it.

Not long ago we blogged about the Android’s lack of updating apps, like sometimes skipping updates and the missing feature of updating all apps in one go. Our support team faced several complaints from Android users like why FriendCaller’s features are claimed but not provided. Each time we have to convince our Android users to manually update the app, as we all knew that Android’s capability of updating apps is not so friendly. Sometimes the OS looks for updates on a regular basis but most of the times even after several updates by the developers, the OS fails to look for an available update from developers.

Android's 2.2 Update All apps feature

Looks like the problem have been solved now. We are happy to welcome the latest release of Android 2.2 which solved our app updating issue. Android 2.2 users can now navigate to their downloads and select the option Allow Automatic Updating check-box for any particular app they want to update automatically. This new feature is far more better than what the previous version of Android OS offered, where a user had to navigate to the Downloads and then check whether there was any update available for a particular app or not.

The best part is that the new 2.2 version of Android OS allows the user to update all the apps in one go by simply clicking the Update All button in Downloads. iPhone users have been a bit proud uptil now because of the iPhone having the Update all button since the beginning, and Android not. But, now it seems that Android users can enjoy more freedom in updating apps and can prevent the tedious task of updating each app manually and separately.

Now is the time when Google should start focusing to pimp its Android Marketplace which lacks a lot what Apple’s App Store has to offer currently.

To learn more about the new features of Android 2.2, watch the video below:

Demo View of Cisco XD Virtual Office

An engineering group at Cisco around Renat Zakirov designed a magnificent 3D virtual office environment delivering a fine example of how employers and employees can experience working virtually just as they are working in reality. The Cisco XD is a new trend of human network which introduces a technological breakthrough between rendering engines and Cisco products and services to create a stunning graphical interface in 3D.

At Cisco XD one can setup a complete 3D virtual office in a matter of minutes by using the superb drag and drop feature of furniture, fixtures and also Cisco equipment. The interface is so stunning and easy to use, that anyone can setup an office without referring any manual or help guide.

SIP Phone menu in Cisco XD

Currently on Cisco XD there is a Demo office setup for realtime experience. Cisco XD supports SIP compatible phones that can instantly place calls to phone and mobile networks. Also for a LIVE experience one can navigate to the Cisco XD website at www.ciscoxd.com and can setup a virtual SIP phone now. The best part is that Cisco XD is using the unmatched VoIP breakthrough technology from C2Call, FriendCaller Java based Instant VoIP telephone that works on a web browser as a webphone without any software installation, and can also be used on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android, facebook and  as a desktop version.

FriendCaller VoIP iPhone app integrated with Cisco SIP Phone

Calling the Virtual Office SIP Phone via FriendCaller browser phone

Following is a video released by Cisco showing a LIVE demonstration about how the Cisco XD has utilized the FriendCaller VoIP technology to call the phones installed in the virtual office for free.

Images: CiscoXD