Fring this week announced the beta launch of its mobile VoIP app for the iPhone, allowing users to access Skype, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, Twitter, Yahoo! & AIM on their iPhones.

"Fring creates a single, integrated contact list when a user logs on to the service," writes InformationWeek's Terry Sweeney. "And as an always-on, always-connected application, Fring offers PC-style 'presence' indicators to display contacts' status - online, away, offline, in a meeting, on their mobiles, for example. Fring's VoIP app for iPhones is free to download and use. Consumers pay for any data they consume under existing service plans with their network provider; there are no hardware or location limitations to Fring's VoIP service."

There are some serious limitations, though, as I4U News' Shane McGlaun notes. "To use the service, you need to download it from Fring on what it calls an 'open' iPhone," he writes. "We could assume 'open' to mean unlocked or jailbroke. Perhaps the final version will be built using the Apple SDK for the iPhone, so any user can try the application..."

More here from Telappliant ... more here from TG Daily ... more here from dBTechno ... more here from IntoMobile ... more here from AfterDawn ... more here from ZDNet ... more here from eNews 2.0 ... more here from ChannelWeb ... more here from ENN ... more here from the Motley Fool ... more here from The Register ... more here from Wired ... and the press release is here.