So to answer my question regarding whether there were actual apps for the iPhone that weren’t entirely useless, iPhone Gary reminded me of an app I had largely forgotten about because I used it when it was in its early stages and had not seen the revisions made recently. Fring is a client for all kinds of communications apps you may use on your computer already, including MSN, ICQ, AIM, etc. If it only did this, it would probably already be a winner as it does this better than any other program I’ve seen for the iPhone. For one thing, it uses Apple’s intuitive and simple interface for IMing and does it quickly and efficiently.
However, the great draw for Fring is that it allows for Skype on the iPhone. When John Chow and I were testing it when we first got our iPhones, we noted that Skype use was restricted to Wi-Fi only. While that’s also quite useful, it would be nice to take advantage of the 3G speeds the iPhone is capable of and Skype without having to search for an open Wi-Fi network. I tried this out last night and it worked great. Perhaps when you’re travelling and want to call home or vice versa, this could be a viable alternative to paying long distance charges.
However, be warned. While Skype doesn’t take a huge amount of bandwidth, use could result in you eating through your monthly allotment of traffic and having to pay an exorbitant amount when your bill comes. I honestly doubt I could eat my monthly 6GBs that easily but still, it is always a good idea to keep track of your data usage on your iPhone, especially if you’re using apps like this, PDAnet, and YouTubing all those viral video you receive in your e-mail each day. But hey, you must see that cat fight an army of puppies!
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If your iPhone is jailbroken, download VoIPover3G via Cydia as this will “trick” Fring into thinking it’s on WiFi all the time. That way you can use Skype over 3G! You can edit the .plist file over SSH and trick other apps too, such as UStream so it will work over 3G as well. Very handy!