Archive for the 'Tips and Tricks' Category

10,000 people like our Facebook App – Wow!

Screenshot from Facebook Insights

Today we were able to welcome the 10,000 fan of our Facebook application. First of all many, many thanks for this encouragement.
Wow, 10,000 Likes -  that is really a nice number, right?

And who would have thought it?

In 2009, when we tested our first Facebook Beta we realized that the Facebook platform was not ready for us, the wall was too static and lacking notifications, both parties would have to add the Facebook app and open it in the central app pane view, essentially blocking all other activities, thus making spontaneous calls quite impossible.

Then at the beginning of the year 2010, the Facebook platform introduced more effective ways of notifications and now allow standard requests via users email address. We use email addresses as User-IDs across platforms, so new notifications and email was all we needed to integrate Facebook with our Web Phone and iPhone apps.

You don’t know our Facebook App, yet?

Simply visit the facebook page of our application and click on the left sidebar on “Go to application“. FriendCaller facebook WebPhone will launch itself after you allow the application to interact with you, and the Java.

The facebook webphone is pretty easy to use, howsoever, if at any point you get stucked, see at the right panel in the app, and there you will find a simple guide which explains how to use the facebook application in 4 simple steps. Of course you can also use your existing WebPhone account from FriendCaller.com, or if you don’t have one yet, you can just create a new one within the application itself.

To always have immediate access to your FriendCaller WebPhone on your facebook page, we recommend you bookmark the application better create a bookmark. On the application page there is the button “add bookmark” for this. With a click on the appropriate button you will have the access to your personal CallMe-Links, and with them you can easily talk to your friends for free or just add your contacts with a click on the “webmail import” button. You can also share your personal CallMe-Links to be posted on your faecbook profile and on your friends’ walls. Of course you can directly call from facebook to regular landlines or mobile phones anywhere in the world, thus saving money with our extremely cheap call rates.

Almost 17,000 users have already installed the application, so get this nice app, too.

A GREAT START: WE’VE SECURED $2 MILLION IN SERIES A FUNDING FROM AN ESTEEMED GROUP OF INVESTORS

C2Call

Well, this makes it official – we’ve raised $2 million in Series A funding from Draper Investment Company, High-Tech Gründerfonds and Mr. Klaus Wecken, co-founder of KHK Software AG.

Raising this sort of money from a group of such respected investors can certainly be seen not only as a vote of confidence, but also as a sign that we’re on the right track.
We’re especially excited that this fresh influx of funds will help accelerate our expansion, as we have already generated more than $2 million in revenues since April 2010 and now have more than 900,000 users, with an additional 15,000 new users a day. And our FriendCaller app is one of the most popular iPhone apps – ranking among the Top 15 free social networking apps.

Much has clearly happened since the idea for C2Call was born back when our CEO Martin Feuerhahn and CTO Michael Knecht traveled the world on projects and found that each region seemed to have its own solution. That made it impossible to communicate with partners and customers on one platform. They came up with C2Call and FriendCaller to solve that issue.

Now, even someone’s grandma can use FriendCaller because we have what we always set out to develop: a free, easy-to-use and straightforward solution. By making calls free over any Internet-ready device, and by enabling social media and other sites with integrated digital voice communication, we are just getting started.

One universal charger for all cell phones

Snows of yesteryear!

Good news for consumers: all strong-selling phone suppliers determined universal chargers for the beginning of 2011. Indeed, this arrangement is only valid in the EU-States, but it is not improbable that it will expend worldwide.

The new charger is equipped with a special USB plug fitting to all marketable cell phones, which will be sold after January 2011. The universal chargers are not just more user friendly. In fact, they will be friendlier to the environment. According to statements of the EU spokesman this change will procure that 1000 tons of electrical waste will be dropped out yearly, since it will be possible in the future to continue using the chargers with a new phone.  In addition to this, households will have chance to share chargers.Nokia, Apple, LG, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson are the participating firms.

In Future, one charger will be sufficient to have enough battery to use the mobile FriendCaller App !

Microsoft does not understand the iPad

Microsoft Tablet PC!

Last week, Microsoft-CEO Steve Ballmer announced new Tablet PCs and explained that he wonders about high iPad , instead of windows tablet sales.

Windows Tablets were not rather successful so far and how it looks they also will not be in the future, due to the fact that Microsoft simply regards tablets as laptops with touchscreens. But actually the iPad offers less features and possibilities than a notebook. Regardless it is more successful, because it shell not be a substitute to a computer.

Apples product is meant for mobile media use, listening to music, regarding pictures, reading news or books and playing mini games. In fact, just for this features.

Actually it must definitely be clear that the iPad is no laptop-substitute, since it has no flash and no USB. Furthermore it is not possible to install software, which is not bought in the app-store. Additionally system configuration cannot be changed in greater depth.

If Steve Ballmer thinks about this, he probably will not wonder anymore why Apple’s iPad is more successful.

No Chance for illegal apps – Google introduces Androids new “licensing service”

Thats how it works!

Google announced that there will be a licensing service for applications in the Android Market Place to shield that Apps can be copied and spread without charges.  That way Google reacts on the sustained criticism of many developers that it is to easy for users to exchange apps illegally.

In the future the licensing service will synchronize the data with the Google server to detect if users are legitimized to use the software. If the opposite is true the app will withdraw the service.

So you can be glad that the FriendCaller App, which enables you free international calls, is for free!

Is it reasonable to use an iPad on the beach?

Apples iPad

IPads have an overheating protection. If owners use their iPads in the sun it will naturally heat over the recommended operating temperature range of 35 degrees. Then a warning notice appears and the computer shuts off to cool down.

One would imagine that this sounds quite usual due to the fact that it deals with a very small CPU cooler in a very slim tablet pc. So far, so good.

Despite, three iPad owners try now to sue Apple in a class action, since they have the opinion that the product cannot be used under normal weather conditions. Moreover they claim that they cannot use it in the daytime as an E-Book-Reader owing to the daylight.

Who will be on right in court remains to be seen. But at least there is an opportunity to cool down the iPad in a timely manner. However users have to stick around a kitchen therefore.

Apple has been collecting iPhone-user locations secretly for 3 years

Apple uses the location services to improve their ads!

Apple agrees that they have collected their users locations since 2008.  It is admittedly possible to disable the location services, but after changing the configurations no application can use the service anymore. The collected data shell be used for the advertising service iAd to tailor ads to single users. More precisely to show the users ads containing shops nearby. This hits all Apple products with location service, even Mac-Computers.

Whether this way of doing  is legal will be decided in court.

Amazon USA sells more E-Books than hardcovers

Amazons own brand E-Book Reader Kindle.

Digital books are on the increase according to the business figures Amazon published. The world largest retailer sells meanwhile more E-Books than hardcovers. In the last month Amazon sold on 100 regular books 180 E-Books.  This led to triple business numbers of E-Books at the turn of the half-year 2010.

Amazon did not mention absolute numbers, but reinforced their own statistics with information of the Association of American Publishers, whereby the sale of E-Books increased by 207 percent in the annual comparison.

Chief executive Jeff Bezos cites the price cutting of the own brand E-Book Reader as ones reason.

Androids Market Place increased tenfold

Googles Android: iPhones greatest competition.

The number of Apps for Googles Smartphone Software Android grows at express speed. The quantity of new added software has been increasing month to month for a year and now the mark of 90.000 Apps is passed. In June 2009 the number of new added applications amounted to about 1700 and in June 2010 it were nearly  already 17000 new software-apps, which means that the market place could decuple in a year.

This trend might continue in the future, since its no more than mid-July and there are already 10.000 new apps in the market place this month.  Based on this expansion rate there might be a million software downloads from android users right now.

Needless to say FriendCaller also offers an application for Android. For this reason Android users also have the chance to benefit from FriendCallers cheap prices for international phone calls.

American product testing company attacks Apple

Consumer Reports

The most important American testing company.

The American consumer magazine “consumer reports” denied giving the iPhone4 a recommendation to buy, since the product testers traced the connection problems to a defect of construction, which means that it deals with a hardware and not as Apple declared a software problem. Moreover the magazine recommended their readers to buy the old iPhone3G S instead of the new version, the iPhone4.

This critic will surely bring sorrow to Apple, since the magazines judgment has great influence on the Americans purchasing behavior. Furthermore “consumer reports” gave the sarcastic advise to bond the regarding part of the iPhone4 with isolating tape, because this could solve the problem.

If you are affected by the problem, keep in mind that you still have chance to use FriendCaller!

Aside from that it is the first time that an Apple iPhone does not get a recommendation to buy from the reputable magazine.