Fring is a new free iPhone application released on Friday that seems to have generated as much buzz in discussion forums about its Skype VOIP capabilities as it has confusion. The application web page describes Fring as:

fring™ is a mobile internet service & community that enables ou to access & interact with your social networks on-the-go, make free calls and live chat with all your fring, Skype®, MSN® Messenger, Google Talk™, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo!™ and AIM®* friends using your handset’s internet connection.

How well does this all work? Unfortunately in my limited testing and usage I was deeply disappointed. My initial reaction was disdain for yet another social networking application that I’d have to load (and unload) with some frequency on my iPhone (caused mostly by the rule that iPhone apps can’t run in the background). Let me tell you where this application fails.

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Internet land is Ga-Ga over Fring which is a just-released-but-not-yet publicly-showing-in-the-store iPhone app. The buzz seems primarily to center around the fact that this is one of the first to allow you to connect to Skype to make free phone calls. The catch to this feature is that you must be on a Wi-Fi data connection (and due to lack of push services by Apple - you must have the iPhone running the Fring application - which is a deal killer for me). So far in my testing I’ve connected up to my Twitter feed (it’s ok but I prefer a native Twitter app like Twittelator or Twitterific or Twinkle) and it is pushing through updates from those I follow. I’m sure you’ll be hearing more gushing about this application by heavy Skype users over the next several days. If you’re a Skype user with Wi-Fi and and iPhone - you should check this out. My ID on Fring is MAS90GURU and Skype schulz.consulting if you find the need to test.

Fring (app store link) via Justanotheriphoneblog and Whatsoniphone