FriendCaller Blog

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!

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.

FriendCaller on Apple iPad SDK

Apple iPad will shine, but will it be able to whisper? Will there be VoIP freedom on the iPad? Several months passed since AT&T, Apple, German Telekom and many other exclusive iPhone partners announced VoIP freedom, but there is still no way to make a VoIP call over mobile data on an iPhone unless you jail break and load some obscure software. There is still no app on the iTunes App Store that supports VoIP over 3G, and it is not that we and other developer are not trying, our FriendCaller software is ready.

When unveiling the iPad, Steve Jobs mentioned that you’ll have to sign up for 3G access directly from the device, so the SIM card will be probably be already installed or even fixed mounted. Apparently the iPad customer will have no choice but stuck with the service provider selected by Apple, at least in the US.

I’m afraid my friends, it seems like iPad may not whisper.

Update: We have now a confirmation via many press releases on the Internet that Apple has finally lifted the VoIP restriction over AT&T 3G network  yesterday in their new SDK version. So, finally we are also going to launch our updated version of FriendCaller soon, that will allow users to make cheap VoIP calls over 3G Networks. Stay Tuned!

FriendCaller 3 Pro is now available for free on iTunes App store for a limited time period only. We had a very good year 2009, received funding, experiencing strong growth and had lot of support from our users for new features and suggestions. Their input has helped a lot to shape www.FriendCaller.com and the the FriendCaller iPhone app available on the iTunes App store. It is not only free calls and cheap calls to phone numbers that our users were looking for but the capabilities to use the call-me link as browser based web-phone on all Java platforms. Looking back on 2009 we did deliver pretty much all but one feature: Multi Language support.

So it is really nice to see that just when Apple iTtunesconnect came back from their Christmas break to have our latest FriendCaller 3 and FriendCaller 3 Pro updates approved featuring multi language support! Our first additional language is German but there will be more coming soon.

Not only the app is free, any FriendCaller iPhone user who confirms his or her registration by opening the confirmation email we sending out to new users receives immediately a call credit to call any phone number for free. We want all users to try and experience the high voice quality for these cheap international calls. If you want to add more credit, FriendCaller 3 Pro has the convenient inApp purchase feature, adding call credit is easy and no credit card has to be provided, all payments are made through the user’s iTunes account.

Please tell your friends, share the news!

FriendCaller 3 Pro

In the past most mobile operators and  some ISPs have been refusing VoIP services executed through their networks worrying revenue losses, blind to the huge potential for new applications, new business models and revenue streams for them.

Now strategies seems to have changed, once operators straight forward denied their customers the right to use VoIP over 3G/Edge attracting regulators attention like FCC investigation in the US and FCC-equivalents in Europe. So under pressure operators announced their opening up their networks for VoIP and public and regulator’s interest vanished.

Some actually did opened up but as we learned from customer feedback some quietly blocked the required VoIP port 5060 that is commonly used by VoIP services including FriendCaller.

So we are glad that Apple Inc. approved our new multi port FriendCaller app versions that automatically find open ports when port 5060 is blocked. All 3 of our FriendCaller apps support now multi port probing.