Fring has just stolen a big march on Skype, releasing an iPad optimized version that can do 4-way video calling. That's right, a 4-way video call can now be made on an iPad 2 and you can see all the participants at once; as the screen is quartered to accommodate the four separate streams.

You can make the video calls over 3G as well as WiFi and as an added bonus, it is a multi platform app. You can use it to talk and video chat with your friends even if they have an Android or Nokia device.

Take a look at the video of Fring in action after the break. Let us know if you currently use Fring at the moment or plan to after seeing this update?

[Free – iTunes link]

TomTom International has updated their family of navigation apps with the availability of TomTom HD Traffic Service. This service chooses your route based on the current traffic reports and is available as an in-app purchase for $19.99.

• TomTom HD Traffic: Experience the most-accurate, real-time traffic coverage available with revolutionary TomTom HD Traffic service. TomTom HD Traffic is more accurate, provides more road coverage, and delivers updates every 2 minutes to get you around traffic more effectively than ever before. Available via in-App purchase.

• Updated TomTom maps: Because roads are constantly changing, on average 15% of roads change every year, your TomTom App update comes with the latest and most up-to-date map.

• Multi-stop routes: Make your journeys simpler. With up to five stops on your journey, you can pick up friends and visit places of interest more easily – and you only need to plan your route once.

The good folks at TomTom International have given us a promo code for TomTom U.S. & Canada to give away to one of you, our awesome readers! For a chance to win, let us know approximately how many miles you drive per week. (Note that the traffic subscription will still be an additional $19.99).

If you pick this one up, let us know what you think!

[$59.99 for U.S. & Canada - iTunes link] [other prices vary - TomTom developer iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

TiPb’s developer spotlights are like DVD/iTunes Extras for the App Store — a weekly look behind the scenes at the programers and designers that bring you the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games you love. This week Rene talks with Igor Zhadanov from Readdle.

What’s your name? My name is Igor Zhadanov, I am the CEO and co-founder of Readdle.

What’s your company’s name? Readdle.

Why Readdle? Once the very first iPhone was released, we were thinking about the way to read books on it. There was no API nor AppStore, so we built a web service to store books online and access them via Mobile Safari. Back in the 2007 the term “cloud” wasn’t a buzz word, and we were looking for something related to web 2.0 and reading. So we settled on “Readdle” as the name of the service. Later this turned into the company name.

Where are you located? We are based in Odessa, Ukraine.

What’s your website address? http://readdle.com

What’s your Twitter name? @readdle, most tweets are done by @denzhadanov

What apps do you make? PDF Expert for iPad, the ultimate solution for all PDF needs: fill forms, annotate PDFs and sign documents on the go. Scanner Pro, which transforms the iPhone into portable scanner. It lets you scan multipage documents, email them and even upload to Dropbox, MobileMe iDisk or any other WebDAV enabled server. Evernote integration is there too. Calendars, the most elegant and easy to use Google Calendar client available on the App Store. Printer Pro, which prints attachments, documents, web pages and more right from the iPad. And ReaddleDocs, a revolutionary document viewer, file manager and attachment saver for iPhone and iPod Touch

What apps, other than your own, are currently among your favorites? Reeder, Skype, 1Password, and Things for iPhone and Things for iPad

How long have you been a developer? I personally was a developer 7 years ago, but that didn’t last long. Thankfully, two of my partners has 10+ years of development experience, so our team always have someone to rely on.

How long have you been an iOS developer? Since the day one of the App Store, ReaddleDocs was available. We were also present on the launch of the iPad App Store. Therefore, we are in iOS development for almost 4 years so far.

Do you develop for any other platform in addition to iOS? If so, which one(s)? Not now. We had two Android projects in the past, but those did not succeed and we sold them.

What primary computer setup do you use for your iOS development? Most of the development team use Macbook Pros or the latest Mac Mini with two displays connected to each. Dual monitor setup turned to make the development faster and everybody loves working this way.

What iOS device(s) do you personally use most often? iPhone 4, definitely. Even though I spend most of the day at the computer, 50 phone calls or 20+ new todo items per day are typical to be handled on the iPhone.

What mobile devices, other than iOS, do you currently use? None. We do monitor Android and WP7 phones and there are some great features from both of them, but overall, they lack the integrity of the iOS.

What’s your favorite thing about developing for iOS? You never know what is the next step. The iOS is growing so fast, that new discoveries are available daily. For instance, we had some concerns about our products running in the aviation industry, as technically it is close to impossible to ensure 100% stability of the app. But the aviation industry said “We are using laptops now and they are crashing all the time. So the iPads are much better, as they weigh less and you don’t have to reboot it”.

What’s your least favorite thing about developing for iOS? There is no way to know whether Apple approves your app based on a new concept or not. Once you make something really different, there is a chance it won’t go live due to some unclear Apple’s concerns.

What feature would you most like Apple to add to the iOS SDK? More control for the system-wide aspects available to the application. For example, once I am on the call on Skype, I do not want to be interrupted by incoming cell call. Now it is not possible for developers to do something about that.

What feature would you most like Apple to add to the App Store? The ability to reply to user comments. Some users do not understand that their App Store comments can not be answered by developers. Eventually it leads to cases when irrelevant comments hurt the application sales and reputation, even when the issue can be solved in a single email.

What do you do when you’re not coding iOS apps? Everything else related to the business: new business models, application design, marketing, legal deals, payrolls etc. I make things happen and ensure that business runs properly, and each of the 25 people at Readdle does their job.

What should we look for from you next? One productivity product for iPad and one for iPhone. Both are coming in July.

Our new business card scanner for iPhone will be best in class app with the most advanced OCR engine. As for iPad, we are launching a PDF Converter app, which will convert everything (web pages, office files, docs) into PDFs. Moreover, it will have print option, which will make it very handy productivity app.

We’ll keep TiPb posted very soon!

Thanks Igor!

If anyone has any follow up questions, leave them in the comments or head on over to Readdle’s Facebook page and ask away!

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Georgia and Rene talk about nutrition. And phasers. Okay, mostly nutrition. Why it’s important, how you can get the fuel you need even while living a fast-paced, tech-filled life, and some tips, tricks, and picks on how to eat and feel better.

Read on for the show notes!

Bad nutritional habits

• Skipping breakfast
• Eating everything on your plate.
• Eating on the run or while you work
• Gulping down your food and eating too much
• Not enough veggies
• Forgetting to eat because you’re working or playing too much on your gadgets!
• Too much Caffine, Salt, Preservatives, Simple Sugars, Unhealthy Fats

Tricks for better nutrition

• Buy convenient, pre-cut fruit and vegetables and put them in front of you so you snack on them
• Stop eating when you’re full and put leftovers in the fridge or freezer for later
• Don’t buy junk food, that way you can’t eat it
• Don’t deny yourself treats, just focus on good ones and have them in moderation

Homework

• Get out your favorite note taking app or your pen and journal and write down what you eat every day, and how you feel after eating it. Do you feel sleepy, lethargic, bloated, grumpy… or do you feel light, energized, happy?
• Keep doing your breathing
• Keep up your good sleeping habits
• Keep up your 10min a day, 5 days a week cardio

Giveaway

One week left to enter! To coincide with ZENandTECH 4: Exercism, we’re giving away a barely used, mint-condition Nintendo Wii (we review a lot of stuff we never have a chance to use later). One lucky listener will get to work out, and have fun, with Wii Sports and a bunch of other active, exciting games.

All you have to do to enter is head on over to iTunes and give ZENandTECH a review. (We’d love 5 stars, but that’s not a requirement!)

Because iTunes doesn’t provide contact info, once you’ve posted your review, just shoot us an email at podcast@zenandtech.tv and let us know which one is yours. We won’t make your email public, but we will use it to contact you if you win!

And hey, if you already have a Wii, enter anyway. You can give it to a loved on or friend, a child or grandparent, anyone who would benefit from staying healthy and having fun!

That’s it! Go enter!

Sponsor

This episode of ZEN and TECH is brought to you by the TiPb.com Store, your one stop shop for everything iPhone and iPad. Check out all the latest cases, cables, chargers, headsets and more at store.tipb.com. Go get ‘em.

Hosts

• @GeorgiaTiPb (Georgia)
• @reneritchie (Rene)

Contact

You can reach all of us @ZENandTECH, via email at podcast@zenandtech.tv, or leave a comment below!

Thanks everyone, you’re the best community on the web and we love having you with us!

Please subscribe on iTunes and leave a rating, it means a lot to us!

Disclaimer

While Georgia is a therapist, she’s not YOUR therapist. Everything said or implied on this show is for informational and entertainment purposes only. And shouldn’t be taken in any way as a replacement for proper, professional care.

Given the increasing legal contention between Apple and Samsung, perhaps it should come as no surprise that Apple is considering moving production of their next generation Apple A6 system-on-a-chip (SoC) to from the Korean conglomerate to Taiwan’s TSMC.

Dan Heyler, a semiconductor analyst with Merrill Lynch in Taipei, told the China-based Commercial Times newspaper on Friday that TSMC will most likely be producing “A6″ processors for Apple, a next-generation ARM-based design, in 2012. That jibes with what Ars has heard from a plugged-in source—that the chatter on the foundry grapevine about an impending Apple/TSMC deal is growing deafening.

If Samsung doesn’t get to see iPhone 5 early, why should they get the designs to the Apple A6, right? Of course, the nature of huge mega-corporations means Apple could be viciously suing one part of Samsung and still be on productive business terms with a completely separate division. Could being the operative word. Apple may simply not like the idea of Samsung having access to the SoC (and other specs) for competitive reasons. Or TSMC could be providing something else even more compelling to Apple for the A6, and moving away from Samsung is just a bonus for headline writers and Apple execs alike.

The current generation Apple A5 SoC debuted last spring with iPad 2 and is expected to hit iPhone 5, iPod touch 5, and perhaps an upgraded Apple TV this fall. That would put the timeline for an Apple A6 at spring 2012 if Apple holds to pattern.

[Digitimes via Ars]

Electro Chuck, an adventure/skill game for iPhone, is now available. The goal of the game is to tilt your iPhone to steer Chuck through all the levels without touching the electric line. The more centered and precise you are, the more points you get!

• Using the accelerometer, tilt your phone to steer Chuck and avoid the electric line. You'll need all the skills and cold blood you can get.
• Tap the screen behind Chuck to stretch and jump over enemies and/or collect bonuses.
• Collect 3 stars per level. By collecting all 30 stars in a world, unlock the current world's arcade mode.
• Stay precisely centered on the line to gain more points.
• Collect bonus multipliers to increase your scores and remain at the top of the leaderboard.
• Full game center integration.
• Tons of crazy achievements to unlock. And don't be thinking they're all so easy!
• Show off to your friends by sharing your scores on Facebook and Twitter.
• Easy to learn but difficult to master. Will your skills take you to the next level or will your friends leave you in the shadows?!
• New levels on the way in the next update.

If you pick this one up, let us know what you think! Check out the screenshots after the break.

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

AT&T transitioned to data caps and tiered plans just over a year ago and come this summer, Verizon will follow suit. Are you concerned? International iPhone users have had to deal with data caps and tiered plans for years, but in the US “unlimited data” was pretty much expected. It framed users’ habits. Streaming internet radio, watching internet video, tethering on the down-low… You could do all of that without the slightest thought.

Many users are already and will remain “grandfathered” into “unlimited data”, but if you want official tethering, you’ll have to switch, or like we’re seen with AT&T, be forcibly switched, to the new, capped and tiered plans. And then you have to start planning for limited data.

Netflix, in response to broadband caps, has started offering smaller sized streams to users worried about their data consumption.

Starting today, watching movies & TV shows in Canada will use 2/3 less data on average with minimal impact to video quality. For example, watching 30 hours of Netflix movies & TV shows will only use 9 GB of data, well below most Canadian ISP data caps. Previously, 30 hours from Netflix typically used 31 GB.

Skyfire has long made a web browser that proxies and compresses data.

A recently released Nielson poll showed that the average smartphone user watched 3.25 hours of mobile video each month in 2010. In a video data consumption test, Skyfire allowed the average user to watch 4.5 hours of video per month, while staying below the baseline 200 MB data cap. For this reason, the one-time purchase of a Skyfire mobile browser ($2.99) can save an average iOS or Android user from $120 to $240 annually in data charges. (This comparison is based on current AT&T and T-Mobile data plan pricing. Specific pricing for other carriers around the world will vary.)

Various audio apps will also let you download over Wi-Fi and store or cache podcasts, songs, audio books, etc. so you don’t use data on the road.

How dependent have you become on “unlimited” data? Have you routinely hit 5GB, 10GB, or even more a month? What do you think about the new caps and tiers? Will they cause you to rethink or reduce your usage, or just shake your fists and keep streaming in data defiance?

Or have you never gotten near a data tier, only use a few hundred MBs a month, and don’t see what all the fuss is about?

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

• Army of Darkness Defense (Sale): In this tug-of-war, casual defense game based on the MGM classic movie. You play Ash, the time-traveling, evil-fighting, S-Mart sales clerk as you defend Lord Arthur’s castle and the Necronomicon from the oncoming hordes of evil undead. Free for a limited time! [Free for iPhone, with in-app purchases - iTunes link] [Free for iPad, with in-app purchases - iTunes link]

• AppZapp HD (Sale): There are hundreds of price drops every day and more than 450.000 apps on the App Store. AppZapp will find all changes very fast and show them in well sorted lists to you. On Sale for a limite time! [$0.99 - iTunes link]

• Ranatree: Make your own unique fractal trees: a few basic branches are repeated over and over and create complex, colorful designs. [$0.99 for iPhone and iPad - iTunes link]

• Balancer: Become a master of balance. You have to be fast, accurate and predictive in order to keep all the blocks on the moving platform. [$0.99 for iPhone and iPad - iTunes link]

• Apollo:Browser+Facebook chat: The first and only app that lets you browse web and Facebook chat at the same time. Never miss a friend’s message while browsing again! [Free - iTunes link]

Any other big apps or game releases or updates today? If you pick any of these up, let us know what you think!

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty has issued a note to her clients stating that the iPhone 5 will begin production in mid to late August for a September release. This after Huberty had spent a few days in Taiwan, presumably meeting with Apple's supply chain companies.

Huberty predicts a late third quarter release for the next-generation iPhone. As a result of the later than usual launch, Huberty shifted 2 million iPhone units from the firm’s third quarter estimates to its fourth quarter estimates, though the firm’s full year estimate of 72 million units remain unchanged. However, the analyst notes that if the next iPhone were to come out in early September, it would “drive upside” to Morgan Stanley’s lowered estimates.

A lower priced iPhone may also be in the works, according to Huberty. Apple is forecasting a large iPhone sales increase in 2012; which she is putting down to new products with potentially a lower price point. This would enable Apple to make gains in emerging and prepaid markets. TiPb’s been hearing about that

Okay, Morgan Stanley, your entry is hereby added to our iPhone 5 release pool; no doubt it will soon be joined by a ton of others. Now, when iPhone 5 launches (likely this fall, but who knows?) we'll see who the last analyst standing is, won't we?

[Appleinsider]

• Mobile Nations 1: Where the magic happens