Last week Fring added a new feature to its mobile communications apps for Android and iOS called Playgrounds. Basically Playgrounds are video chatrooms that build on Fring’s existing support for 4-way video chat. But instead of talking face to face with three people you know, Playgrounds lets you enter chatrooms with strangers by searching for interesting categories.

While the idea is interesting, apparently a fair number of Fring users found the inclusion of Playgrounds rather annoying, so Fring has decided to create a new Playgrounds-only app. You can download it now from the Android Market. Meanwhile, the Fring “classic” app no longer includes Playgrounds at all. Both apps are free.

The news has been greeted with cheers by Android Market commenters that are happy to be rid of a feature they didn’t use — and which couldn’t easily be hidden.

The two existing Fring users that really like Playgrounds will now have to install both apps. For everyone else, just download the app you want.

Fring is continuing to push the boundaries of mobile communications. The company has long offered smartphone apps for making free voice and video calls over the internet. Earlier this year the company added support for 4-way video chat, letting you make video calls to up to three other people.

Today Fring launched a new feature called Fring Playgrounds which lets you chat with up to three other people you don’t know.

The idea is that you can search for chatrooms (or Playgrounds) by topic and jump in to start talking to other people interested in the same topic. It sounds like great idea for people with no friends… or something.

Maybe I’m just getting old and crotchety, but back in my day when I wanted to talk to random people that shared my interests I jumped into an IRC channel and typed out words with my own two hands. I’m not convinced that I would have been brave enough to do the same thing if I had to look at the people I was communicating with face to face.

On the other hand, the tech world was obsessed with the random conversations started by chatroullette not too long ago. Maybe this is the logical extension.

The latest version of Fring with support for Playgrounds is available as a free download from the iTunes App Store and the Android Market.

A few months ago Fring launched an update to its voice and video chat app that allows up to 4 people to talk to one another in the same video call. The 4-way video chat was initially designed for iPhone, iPod touch, or Android. Now the company has launched an update that’s optimized fro the iPad.

The new app features an iPad view which makes better use of the large screen on Apple’s tablet. There’s also now support for Bluetooth headsets when using Fring on an iPhone.

Fring is available as a free download from the App Store, and calls to other Fring users are free. If you want to make calls from Fring to a telephone line you’ll have to pay for fringOut credit.

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The folks behind the mobile communications app Fring have launched a new version which improves voice quality and adds support for additional devices including:

• HTC Flyer 7 inch Android tablet
• Samsung Droid Charge
• Google Nexus S with Android 2.3.4
• Samsung Galaxy S2
• LG G2X

Fring lets you make free voice or video calls over the internet. Like Skype, you can also use Fring to make cheap calls to regular telephone lines. The company rolled out support for group video calls recently. It allows up to four people to participate in a video chat simultaneously.

Fring is available as a free download from the Android Market.

Voice and video chat app Fring has been working on a new group video feature, and now it’s available for the company’s iPhone and Android apps. You should be able to download the latest version of Fring from the Android Market or the iTunes App Store to start using group video chat later today. As of noon today, neither app store had the updated version.

Fring’s group video calling supports up to 4-way video chat, meaning you can call up to three people on your iPhone or Android device. The app lets you place calls over 3G, 4G, or WiFi networks, although video quality will obviously vary depending on your connection speed.

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Fring lets you make free voice or video calls from your mobile phone to other Fring users. The app also lets you purchase fringOut credits to make cheap calls to international phone numbers. But there are other mobile apps that do all of those things. Now Fring is getting ready to launch a new feature that will really make it stand out in the mobile space: group video calling.

Users will be able to make free group calls to other fring users, with support for up to 4 people per call.

The company is looking for beta testers at the moment. There’s no word on a final release date, but you can check out a video of group video chat in action after the break. Video quality looks reasonably good, although each contact shows up in a small picture window.

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Just a day after launching an update to its voice and video chat app for iPhone, Fring has announced that it will no longer offer its apps for Windows Mobile, UIQ, or J2ME users.

The move shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. The number of phones and other devices shipping with Windows Mobile has slowed to a crawl, as Microsoft pushes its new Windows Phone 7 operating system and Android, iOS, BlackBerry, and Symbian continue to dominate the smartphone market. But it’s always a bit sad to see companies cease development of software designed to run on older phones.

Fring will continue to support existing users of its Windows Mobile, Java, and UIQ clients, but moving forward the company will only be offering downloads of its apps for iOS, Android, and Symbian.

Internet voice and video app fring has received an update which lets you use either camera when making video calls using the latest iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad models. That way you can start a call using the front-facing camera for face-to-face communication, but you can switch to the higher quality rear camera if you want to show the person you’re talking to what you’re looking at.

Fring is hardly the first app to offer this feature. Apple’s FaceTime video chat app also lets you flip between cameras, as does Skype. But it’s a nice addition to the latest version of fring.

The update also improves power consumption and lets you purchase fringOut credit for making VoIP calls to telephone lines over a WiFi or mobile broadband connection.

You can download fring 4.1.2 for free from the App Store.