Fring’s iPad app – phonetastic or flop?

Ever since the concept of an Apple tablet emerged, it has been pegged as just a “big iPhone.” After all, the iPad does run the same OS and include almost all the same features as the iPhone, simply in a larger form factor.
Adding VoIP to the iPad really does turn the tablet into an oversized phone, and Israeli firm Fring is doing just that to turn the iPad into a great communication tool as well as a convenient media player and internet device.
Fring is best known as a VOIP and chat client, and has as part of its strategy decided to get its offerings onto as many platforms as it possibly can: hence its iPad version.
Fring claims that with its iPad app users can chat with friends textually, talk to them over VoIP and even make video calls – although the lack of camera on the iPad means they won’t be able to see you, and if you’re both iPad users, well, it will be a case of the blind leading the blind.
Even if your contact does have a webcam hooked up on their end, we’re not entirely sure how successful a video call would be over 3G, but it’s the novelty that counts.
Come to think of it, why would someone want to call someone from something as large as an iPad if they could simply use the VoIP app on their phone? We’re not entirely sure. Nor are we entirely convinced the platform is ideal for the task.
So that leaves us with the ability to chat with friends using text – probably the iPad Fring app’s most useful feature.  That is if you don’t have trouble typing on the virtual keyboard.
Still, very thick fingers aside, it does appear that the iPad is much better for writing quick e-mails or doing some basic friend-to-friend chatting than the iPhone is, so while Fring’s app may not revolutionize your iPad usage, at least it does give you some options for using the device as something other than just a “big iPhone.”