Both Barrels Communications Ltd

Popular mobile instant messaging application Palringo is now available on the Android Market. Using Palringo, Android users can chat to their friends on Google Talk, MSN, Facebook, Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, iChat, QQ and other popular messaging services and social networks.

Key points

1. Palringo also enables Android owners to send photo messages to their friends in just two clicks [see video].
2. Android users can share their location with friends on Palringo: buddies see each others’ location and proximity (distance away) right beside their status in the Palringo contact list. Users may also view a map showing the whereabouts of all of their contacts who have chosen to share their location.
3. Using Palringo’s Group capability, people can chat with all of their friends at the same time. Groups also offer the opportunity to meet new people who share similar interests.
4. The Palringo application is designed specifically for mobile. This means that it takes account of limitations such as smaller screen size, and is considerate of battery life issues.
5. Palringo for Android runs in the background on the phone and notifies the owner when they receive new messages from their buddies. This means they need never miss a chat message.
6. Palringo for Android is built by the same, experienced team that has already made Palringo popular on the iPhone, Windows Mobile, Java, Symbian, as well as Mac, PC and Linux desktop environments.
7. Palringo for Android will be available as a free download through the T-Mobile G1 phone via the Android Market.

Quotes

Martin Rosinski, Palringo’s CTO, said:

• “Android is a 21st century platform and it deserves a 21st century messaging application that’s not confined just to text messaging. Palringo is that application.”
• “If you’re on a bus or in a library, then by all means stick with typing. But if you want them to see something, then it’s one click to take the picture and one to send it – and they’re receiving the photo already.”
• “By integrating the messaging capabilities of popular IM applications and social networks into a single application, Palringo has created a messaging community that runs to hundreds and hundreds of millions of users.”
• “We’ve brought all our experience to bear on Android in order to make it available to people as soon as possible. We’re delighted to be the first to all users to connect to all of their friends no matter what IM or social network they use, as we were for the iPhone last year.”

Video: Palringo for Android

Links and resources

• Video: Palringo for Android (YouTube)
• Other Palringo videos (YouTube)
• Screenshots: Palringo for Android (Flickr)
• Palringo press office (previous news releases)
• Palringo web site

Truphone available in US and UK and at launch in Germany and Austria

Truphone today announced the immediate free availability of its Truphone Anywhere application for Android-enabled mobile handsets, including T-Mobile’s recently released G1 phone. The application is available now as a download from the Android Market in the UK and the US.

To coincide with T-Mobile’s announcement earlier this week of the availability of the G1 mobile phone in March 2009, a German version of Truphone Anywhere for Android is available and will be the first native language multi-communications application in the Android Market in Germany and Austria when it launches at CeBIT 2009.

Truphone Anywhere for Android delivers an all-in-one conversations hub that allows customers to take advantage of Truphone’s low international call rates, in addition to the cost of a local call*.

As well as being able to make low-cost international voice calls, Truphone customers can also easily Instant Message their friends across a variety of networks including MSN, Yahoo!, Google Talk and Twitter from within one Android application. Customers can also call friends anywhere in the world on Google Talk for the price of a local call, and similarly will soon will be able to Instant Message and call their friends on Skype.

“We want to make it as easy as possible for people to have conversations with their communities around the world in whatever form they choose,” said Truphone CEO Geraldine Wilson.

She continued: “We passionately believe in devices like the Android and iPhone which offer easy user access to applications through the Android Market and the App Store in Apple’s iTunes. The G1 and the entire Android platform is an obvious and important distribution channel for us.”

Truphone is now available on Android, the Apple iPhone, the Apple iPod touch, Blackberry and Nokia devices.

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* Operator roaming charges apply if the caller is abroad.

Notes to editors

1. Screenshots: Truphone Anywhere on a T-Mobile G1 handset
2. Truphone Anywhere works in 33 countries around the world, saving Android users from those countries money on international calls made from their home country. The easy-to-use service works alongside domestic service providers, but reduces international call costs to as little as £0.03/$0.06 [UK/RoW] per minute.
3. Unlike a ‘calling card’, Truphone Anywhere doesn’t require a user to remember what to do. Whenever an international number is dialled Truphone Anywhere simply asks whether he/she wants to make a Truphone call. The user simply accepts, and Truphone connects the call.

Apple and iPod are trademarks of Apple Inc, registered in the United States and other countries. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc. Skype is a registered trademark of Skype Limited. In the United States and/or other countries. Wi-Fi is a registered trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. Truphone is a trademark of Software Cellular Network Ltd. Google and Android Market are trademarks of Google Inc. Skype and SkypeIn are trademarks of Skype Limited. All other brands, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners.